Trouble on the Titanic

“It’s like rearranging the deck furniture on the Titanic.”

That is a common lament, heard often in Augusta during the winter of 1993.

The ship of state is foundering, taking on water after smashing into hard numbers, a deficit of $200 million to $1 billion over the next two years. The official responses have been inadequate, even pathetic.

The spread on the projected red ink is indicative of another problem, deep below the water line.

The captain, Gov. John McKernan; the crew, his Cabinet and department heads; and the passengers, Maine’s legislators, who for the moment act like they’re along for the ride, cannot agree even on the extent of the damage.

There is no sense of urgency and purpose. There is no plan to focus on repairs. The ship is going down. The question is, how quickly.

The administration describes the hole as close to $1 billion. Legislative Democrats, led by their outspoken Senate president, Dennis Dutremble of Biddeford, say that figure is an exploded view, the result of bureaucrats adding on to last year’s budget.

Last week, Dutremble told a gathering of more than 400 businessmen, legislators and municipal officials in the capital that the truth on the deficit is far more manageable, closer to a couple of hundred million dollars.

The critics who compare state government to a sinking liner are right. What makes matters worse in Augusta is that the crew — the Cabinet and department heads — are falling out with the governor over principle.

Most of the cost-saving measures are a sham. It is clear that the budget package is ineffective because it does not address the need to reduce spending by eliminating or shrinking programs. Department heads are responding as if they know this. The proposal to combine natural resource-based agencies, including Fish and Wildlife, into a single mega-department is not supported, even within the Cabinet. The Department of Education, to its credit, won’t back up the governor on his assertion that school systems are overloaded with teachers and administrators. Mental health is a travesty. Corrections is under siege.

Gov. John McKernan and this Cabinet are squandering an opportunity to conclude his, and their last term with an enduring achievement, making very difficult decisions about restructuring and downsizing departments and agencies, leaving the people of Maine with the legacy of a government that conforms to the societal demands of the 1990s and reflects the resources that will be available in the last half of this century.

What is puzzling to Maine citizens is that this administration, which is history in 1994, has absolutely nothing to lose by doing the right thing in 1993, yet, it is immobile when left alone, divided when provoked.

State government is too big. It is sinking fast because it is overloaded, but no one has the will to jettison anything, even the deck furniture.

That must change while there’s still time to save the ship.