Yes on Question 1

Do you favor a $20,000,000 bond issue to improve the Maine economy by supporting innovative research and development by businesses and nonprofit and educational institutions in the fields of biotechnology, computers and other information technology, aquaculture and marine technology, forestry and agriculture and advanced materials?

The reasons are clear: Maine ranks 49th nationally in investment in research and development, investments that in other states pay a 4-to-1 rate of return in federal and private-sector grants; Maine’s traditionally high-paying manufacturing industries are in decline, its population stagnant, its wages falling behind; the “brain drain” of Maine’s best and brightest young minds to other states starts with college selection and accelerates with the job search.

The bond is modest — the $20 million will boost Maine to perhaps 47th — but at least it’s a move in the right direction. The Legislature has been tragically timid about appropriating any significant amount for R&D; strong voter support Tuesday will give it the courage to make this a regular part of the state budget, as it is in other, thriving states. And the money is divvied up to deliver a wide range of benefits: $13.5 million to the University of Maine System; $4.5 million to the Maine Science and Technology Foundation for grants to private-sector innovators; and $2 million to help create a much-needed marine research lab.

Maine’s science and technology community already has proven its ability to put state dollars to good, actually spectacular, use. For example, state investments of $1.25 million in marine science at UMaine between 1990 and 1996 yielded $39.5 million in federal research contracts, much of it good, solid, practical research for aquaculture and the recreational and commercial fisheries. Other Maine scientists have used the meager resources available to do remarkable things in foresty, biotechnology, semiconductors, software, composite materials and food processing.

But this isn’t just about labs and grants; it’s mostly about people and the wondrous things they can do if given a chance. Many of them have written to us.

Like Joshua Caron, who grew up in Aroostook County, got his engineering degree at UMaine and got really lucky. Thanks to experience he gained as an undergraduate technician at the university’s Laboratory for Surface Science and Technology, he was one of the first hires at Orono’s Sensor Research and Development Corp. SRD started five years ago with three people and $20,000 in capital. Today, 25 work there and revenues exceed $2.5 million. Caron writes: “I’ve been fortunate … but I want to ensure my children don’t have to hope for another miracle to stay within the state.”

Things didn’t go so smoothly for Dean Smith, a native of Monson. He got a master’s degree in electronic engineering at UMaine, but had to move to Rhode Island to put it use, finding himself among other Mainers whose home state had no work for electrical engineers. He caught a break, he’s back home now, employed by a new research company. Smith writes: “I hope I am part of what will be a new trend in Maine. The R&D bond issue could make my scenario commonplace and keep Maine’s best resource, its people, here where they belong.” Couldn’t have said it better ourselves.