At a time when one of the nation’s leading growth industries seems to be the publication of report cards, rankings and ratings by public-policy groups, “Measures of Growth,” the annual report by the Maine Economic Growth Council, remains one of the most helpful and insightful. If report cards got grades, the thorough, well-researched work by this 19-member group of business people, educators, labor leaders, state legislators, and community and environmental interests would be at the top of the class.

But, of course, the real value of this research is in the application, the extent to which to which lawmakers go beyond the gold stars, the red flags and the executive summary to the get to the details of this exhaustive study and to craft the appropriate legislation. In that regard, there is definite room for improvement.

Case in point: the report notes that Mainers have a higher tax burden than their neighbors, paying about $130 in taxes per $1,000 in income, compared with about $115 for the rest of New England, but the report clearly states that the high burden is much more a result of Maine’s low wages than of excessive taxation. Yet the release of the report Wednesday was greeted by a chorus of legislators singing the old refrain that everything will be peachy as soon as we cut taxes. Certainly, complaining about taxes is a lot easier than figuring out how to get Maine people better jobs.

Or is it? “Measuring Growth” (and just about every other study on the matter) draws a direct line between a state’s economic growth and its willingness to invest in itself — capacity to innovate, commitment to research and development, investment in higher education, increasing access to higher education. While the report notes that Maine of late has progressed in these areas, the fact remains that most of Maine’s immediate competition — 49 other states — are doing more and doing it faster. Eventually, Maine must realize that being in the high-30s to mid-40s in these categories is a place it simply cannot afford to be.

Which brings up one of the most disturbing findings in the report — Maine citizens have an increasingly high regard for the efficiency and responsiveness of their government and a growing confidence in their institutions of higher education, but the Maine business community does not. After all the efforts this state has made, all the sacrifices by taxpayers, to improve Maine’s business climate, this is distressing. Either Maine policy makers do not fully grasp the needs of the business community or the business community is not sufficiently appreciative of the efforts that have been made. It’s time to find out which.

“Measures of Growth 2000” can be found on the Web at www.mdf.org/megc/growth00/ and anyone interested in Maine economy will find it both a revealing snapshot of where the state is and a valuable road map to where it should be going. And if lawmakers are like students and the new legislative session like a new semester, it’s a report card that suggests there’s still a lot to be learned.