Lawmakers who toured University of Maine science labs the week before last said they were impressed by the quality, scope and promise of the research going on there. Gov. King took the same field trip a few days ago. He also was impressed.

Impressed is good. Writing a check is better.

Maine, as every schoolchild knows by now, ranks dead last among the states (and Puerto Rico, too) in its financial support of university research. While the university had made the most of what what little it gets, tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions in federal and industry grants are lost each year for want of local matching shares. The state’s traditional, high-wage manufacturing jobs in forest products, clothing and shoes are being downsized or eliminated entirely, replaced by lower wage service jobs, if at all. Increasingly, Maine’s best and brightest young students are going away to college and not coming back.

But Maine, as every taxpayer knows by now, is swimming in cash. The unanticipated revenue surplus is $230 million with a bullet. If the state has backed itself into a corner with stinginess, its dumb luck of being part of robust national economy offers a way out.

It’s encouraging that a growing number of legislators recognize that if Maine is to catch up with other states that have invested in their own economies, now is the time. The Joint Select Committee on Research and Development recommends a $10 million increase in each of the next five years to help the university system catch up on its long-neglected lab and equipment needs, plus a $20 million bond issue to fund research at the university and other public and private scientific institutions.

Gov. King recommends a bond issue of $13.5 million for research, but no increase in the university system’s allocation. That’s not enough, but his low-ball approach is understandable. These numbers are nowhere near what has been spent by states, particularly in the Southeast, to make their universities competitive, but it’s a start.

With so much extra money sloshing around and with so many demands for a piece of the action, the governor has an obligation to be a bit conservative, to let those who want more prove they deserve it. If the Legislature wants to do more to reshape Maine’s economy for the next century, it must lead the way. The governor’s proposal must be seen as a base to build upon, not as a ceiling to be lowered.

Fortunately, there appears to be growing realization within the Appropriations Committee that Maine is at a crossroads and that the joint committee’s proposal will steer the state in the right direction. Sen. Rick Bennett, Republican of Norway and a member of both panels, says he initially was a skeptic but now sees investment in research as the way Maine can transform its economy into one that combines its natural resources with technology, into new jobs for rural Maine and into new career opportunities for Maine kids. It’s a chance especially for Maine’s newly college-educated young adults to have a career to come home to.

The notion that a state investment spurs economic growth is not a daydream. A study just released by the Association of University Technology Managers reports that universities in the United States and Canada last year raked in $592 million in royalties and licenses from their research, an increase of nearly $100 million from the year before. And it’s not just the latest in high tech — it’s a soap that protects against infection from tick bites, a high-yield cotton, a new orthdonture wire, a grass that needs less mowing, water and fertilizer. Developing and marketing these products is a $25 billion business that supports more than 200,000 jobs.

Appropriations will take up this issue within a week or two. While support for the joint committee’s plan seems strong, support for taking the state in a new direction, for having Maine invest in itself, can wither easily at the inevitable “spendthrift” criticism. For forward-looking legislators to stand up to such criticism would be a first. And it would be impressive.