This is the season when the sap begins to run, the back roads turn to mud, and here in Augusta we struggle to pass a budget. The budget equation is always the same: too many spending bills chasing too few dollars. When the economy is strong, it is difficult. In years like this one it is worse, and lawmakers often yield to temptation. To avoid confronting spending priorities, they look for ways to fudge and borrow from the future. All these schemes cost us in the long run and the most costly is Governor King’s plan to push back meeting our obligation to fully fund the Maine State Retirement Plan.

Maine’s retirement system has had a serious unfunded liability since the 1950s. From time to time we have managed a few years of fiscal discipline and gotten the projected payment period down below 25 years, only to lose ground when some lawmaker wanted to spend money elsewhere.

In recent years, while I served on the Appropriations Committee, we insisted that the State get serious about meeting this obligation. As a result, last year we developed a schedule to eliminate the debt in eighteen years. Now Governor King has proposed to the legislature that we retreat from this commitment. Every Maine taxpayer has already paid well over $1,000 in interest payments as a result of past breakdowns in fiscal discipline. The current budget as presented by the Governor would more than double that, adding more than another $1,000 to every taxpayer’s burden. Taxpayers deserve better, and the people who give the State its credit rating expect more.

These monies are the retirement benefits earned by teachers, state workers, and municipal employees. Their future depends upon a solvent retirement system. Federal law requires that private sector plans must be fully funded. Eighteen years is already too long before Maine meets that standard. This fiscal gamesmanship must stop. So I’ve put a sign on my desk. It reads “Funny Money Stops Here” to make it absolutely clear that I will not support a budget that includes this budget scheme.

I have been gratified by the response of my fellow legislators, Republicans and Democrats. But this fight will not be over until the last spending bill has passed. Every day someone looking for money suggests we reach into the retirement fund. As the choices get more difficult, this temptation will increase. So I am calling on all Maine taxpayers, state retirees, teachers, state workers, and people who don’t think it is fair for our children to pay for our spending. I am asking you to get in touch with your legislator. Tell them to leave the retirement account alone. Tell them that a billion dollars in interest payments and 50 years of procrastination is enough.

Michael Michaud of East Millinocket is president of the Maine Senate.