The most surprising result from a series of public meetings last fall on a gubernatorial panel’s sweeping plan to reduce waste and redundancy in county and municipal government was the emergence of a strong constituency for waste and redundancy.

So today, the Task Force on Intergovernmental Cooperation goes before the Legislature’s Committee on State and Local Government with a scaled-down version, a trial balloon instead of a full-blown reform proposal. It’s modest, it’s doable, it deserves the committee’s support.

The original plan called for the return of as much as $38 million in state sales and income tax revenue to the counties as reimbursement for the functions they carry out on the state’s behalf, such as running jails and registering deeds, thus reducing by nearly two-thirds the county taxes paid by towns. In return, participating counties and towns would agree to get serious about consolidating services and running a more cost-effective home front. But the attempt to deliver $38 million in property tax relief and to cleanse the poisoned county-town atmosphere never stood a chance against the fully mobilized forces of local control and jurisdictional jealousies.

Instead, the new plan asks for just $500,000 to mount a handful of pilot projects in the efficient delivery of services, such as the aggregate purchase of electric power, regional emergency dispatching, shared personnel and the joint administration of general assistance and other paperwork-intensive functions of local government. This small amount of funding gives counties and towns interested in provided better services at lower cost a chance to show it can be done.

The new plan eliminates the most controversial element of the original, the filling of most county jobs through appointment by the commissioners instead of election by the public. While there is no apparent reason elected commissioners cannot be trusted to hire the best trained and most professional treasurers, clerks, deed registrars and probate judges available, opposition to this provision was substantial and it’s a battle not worth fighting just now.

The bill also increases the share of real estate transfer taxes retained by the counties from 10 percent to 25 percent, phased in between 1999 and 2003. Hard to complain about that.

LD 2244, An Act to Encourage Intergovernmental Cooperation, has the support of the Maine Municipal Association, the County Commissioners Association, the Maine Sheriff’s Association and the governor’s office. County and municipal governments have a long way to go to prove they truly are more interested in thrift than turf and this bill is a first baby step that must be taken.