Back to work

Congratulations to all elected Tuesday to the 120th Maine Legislature. Now get to work.

Sounds brusque, but the reality of every election year is that there is precious little time between the counting of ballots and the commencement of legislative business. Leaders must be chosen soon and the filing deadline for bills to be considered during the session that convenes in January is less than a month away.

To say the upcoming session should be interesting is understatement of the highest order. Democrats increased their already sizable majority in the House, Republicans, pending a couple of recounts, either pulled into a tie in the Senate or they may enjoy a one-vote majority. Gov. King, who worked effectively with a split Legislature his first two years in office, now must do the same in his last two. Whether lawmakers see the popular governor as an independent, nonpartisan consensus builder or as a meddling lame duck will depend not only upon his diplomatic skills, but also upon the commitment lawmakers have to reach consensus. With the governor’s office up for grabs in 2002, legislative leaders must not allow the next two years to be nothing more than jockeying for position.

But the real test of the new class of legislative leadership is more immediate. The last few sessions have been marred by a lack of focus and bogged down by hundreds of irrelevant, narrowly targeted bills. Although individual legislators are constitutionally entitled to introduce as many bills as they can write on whatever subjects they wish, now is the time for leadership of both parties to lay a kindly hand upon the shoulder of prolific rank and filer and say, “Not this time.”

The fundamental reason legislative restraint is urgently needed this session is the structural gap, the difference between budgeted state commitments and projected revenues. Legislatures the last few sessions have had the luxury of leaving Augusta in the spring with a structural gap on the books and coming back in the fall to find it erased by unexpected revenue surpluses. No such magic this summer – the $200 million-plus structural gap the 119th left behind is still there for the 120th to deal with.

Tax increases to fill the gap are, of course, out of the question; Maine taxpayers simply cannot bear a greater burden. Drastic cuts in spending sound easy only to those who have never given the state budget a close read; there is little that resembles fat, There is always room for greater efficiency, but Maine is overall a pretty frugal place.

Maine’s greatest problem, and the root cause of the structural gap, is not that its government too big but that its economy is too small. Although state policy must not be set by Washington think tanks, lawmakers must take seriously the most recent report by the Corporation for Enterprise Development that dropped Maine’s ranking in per capita income from 38th to 39th and that scolded the state for not improving its grade of D for capacity to foster economic development.

These poor marks make clear the fundamental principles that must guide the Legislature. Assistance to business must move beyond vague assertions about improving the business climate to assistance that provides real and measurable benefits, including higher pay to Maine workers. Development capacity is a short way of saying investment in education, including higher education, and expanding the state’s fledgling commitment to research and development, a vital element of economic growth in which Maine still ranks near the very bottom.

Staying focused upon these fundamentals should not be difficult, even for a group as disparate as the 186 lawmakers about to assemble. After all, not a one of them ran for office promising minute changes in boating laws or a certain commemorative license plate.

And if you gathered in one place all the winning candidates who promised better jobs, better education and a better future, you’d have – the 120th Maine Legislature. Now it just has to get to work.