Three proven companies, two worthy bids, one lucrative state subsidy — even the arithmetically challenged can see a flaw in the Department of Transportation’s plan for a cargo terminal at Mack Point. Tilting the playing field, creating winners and losers, on the taxpayers’ dime is a tricky business.

Sen. Michael Michaud has a better idea: Rebuild, for a modest increase in bonding outlay, both the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad and Sprague Energy piers at the Searsport site; let the competition take place in the arena of customer service and efficiency, not on paper. Give everyone a chance to win.

BAR has a solid proposal. The railroad says it can renovate its aging pier for $9.8 million and repay the state in 15 years. It says opening up the actual port operation to competitive bids will get Maine the most bang for its buck.

Sprague also has a solid proposal. The energy company says it can rebuild its aging pier, build a warehouse and equip the facility for the entire $13 million the state is prepared to advance and repay in 30 years. It says bringing in Merrill Marine Terminals of Portland as a partner/operator will get the port off to a running start.

The problem with picking one over the other, as the DOT is prepared to do, is that somebody gets hurt. Hurt not just now, but for years to come. Hurt with public funds.

If Sprague/Merrill wins, BAR stands to lose the cargo it now ships to a modernized, subsidized competitor. If BAR wins, Sprague/Merrill will be in the same boat.

Michaud, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, sees the problem and has a solution. Rebuild both piers for $18 million, thus taking advantage of the economy of carrying out two neighboring construction projects at once. The taxpayers still get their money back. Maine gets a two-pier, four-berth midcoast facility that will meet its needs for decades to come. Maine businesses get the benefit of having two operations trying to outhustle each other in price, efficiency and service.

And, perhaps best and most crucial of all, Maine voters in June will not be faced with a bond question asking them to boost one company as it buries another.

Michaud pitched his plan to Gov. King’s staff Tuesday and reports a good reception. “We’re trying to get away from a win-lose situation to win-win-win,” he says. “The whole point of this is to help Maine businesses reduce the cost of getting their products to market, not to damage existing businesses.”

Competition is good. But the current scenario is not so much not one of fostering competition as it is of using public funds to give one company a leg up on a competitor paying its own way. Michaud’s proposal takes the competition out of the stacks of bid paperwork and puts it where it belongs — on the dock.