Not only did Question 2, the $5 million bond for biomedical and marine technology, go from being considerably behind in the polls just a month ago to winning (barely) Tuesday, a stipend raise for the Bangor City Council passed after being soundly defeated six years ago. Voters, perhaps buoyed by a renewed trust in government, were in the mood to spend on Election Day. And with cases of clear need in the bond requests, uncertain General Fund revenues in Augusta and a brand-new recession facing them, Maine voters – those who showed up, anyway – made good choices.

Highway funding, as it usually does, led the polls, with approximately 75 percent of voters supporting a $61 million bond that will leverage another $120 million in federal money. The only remaining question for highway funding is why the Legislature has such trouble understanding that Mainers know they have to spend to keep their roads and bridges in shape and are willing to do it. Lawmakers, which had the chance two years ago to pay for some of the state’s share of new projects with a gas tax – paid partly by tourists – instead cut the tax from 5 cents to 3 cents and gave Mainers the pleasure of covering the difference entirely on their own. Perhaps this year’s bond will alert them that there is support for a better way.

Similarly, the school-construction and water-quality bonds passed easily, signs that voters recognize improved infrastructure will be crucial to future growth in Maine. Or, at least, that’s one generous view. It is notable that while all the bonds passed, the two that passed by the smallest margins were the biomedical and higher-education proposals. They represent infrastructure of a different type that will be at least as important as any road or sewage-treatment plant to Maine.

Unfortunately, turnout was, as predicted, low throughout the state, a sign that many voters could live with the ballot outcome no matter which way it went. In a state with stagnant growth, low incomes, a departing younger generation and too little in the way economic development, that’s an attitude far more costly than the total of Tuesday’s bonds.