Editors Note: This week Gov. Angus King starts his last year in office. Last week, reporter Mal Leary interviewed King at length on his goals over the last seven years and what the governor sees as his unfinished agenda. In this second of two parts, King describes the biggest surprise of his tenure in office, at least so far.

AUGUSTA – Nowhere in his book “Making a Difference” will a reader find any hint that candidate Angus King would become the most “bricks-and-mortar” governor in Maine history. In fact, in a campaign interview during the summer of 1994, King told this reporter, “I am not a bricks-and-mortar guy. Don’t expect me to propose a lot of new building projects.”

King remembers that interview.

“Boy, was I wrong,” he said last week. “But at the time, I never thought I would be the governor on whose watch a lot of what I call overdue bills came due.”

King said it was late in his first term while on a visit to the bond rating firms in New York that he first realized the state was deferring major expenses to future generations.

“One of the analysts told me, after I had told them how well we were doing holding down debt, that we had a lot of debt we were not talking about,” King said. “I asked him what he meant, and he said lack of maintenance of state buildings is as much a debt as any unpaid bill and we were building up a lot of bills in that area.”

Not only were such high-profile buildings as the State House and the adjacent State Office Building in need of major renovations or replacement, so were major state correctional facilities. The Maine State Prison was first built in 1824 and the Augusta Mental Health Institute was built mostly in the late 1800s.

“If anyone had told me I would be governor during such a building boom, I would have said they were crazy, but the bills came due on my watch,” King said.

The bills include more than $33 million for State House renovations and a new Augusta Mental Health Institute that will cost a little more than that. Renovating the State Office Building cost more than $20 million, and several million dollars were spent to overhaul old buildings on the AMHI campus for use by several state agencies.

The biggest single package of renovations and new construction has been in the Department of Corrections, with an expansion of the Warren facility to replace the Maine State Prison as well as major renovations at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham. The Maine Youth Center in South Portland has been renovated and a new youth facility built adjacent to the correctional facility in Charleston. That totals about $160 million.

“I hope I am remembered for more than new prisons,” King said.

While bonds sold by the Government Facilities Authority funded most of the construction and renovation projects, some were paid for with extra cash generated by a booming economy that marked much of King’s tenure. But the first year King was in office was dominated by budget problems, as will be his last year.

“There is some irony there,” King said. “I came into office in terrible economic times and we had to cut spending and eliminated a thousand state positions. And in my last year, I again will be dealing with revenue shortfalls and budget cuts.”

But, he said, it will not be as bad as that first year because of changes in the state’s economy as well as changes in budget policy.

“When I came into office, the Rainy Day Fund was about $5 million,” he said. “Right now, it is about $110 million.”

King’s book is full of commentary on the status of Maine’s economy circa 1993, and things were not good. Maine was still in recession and state government was reeling from a revenue shortfall of a billion dollars, which led to tax and fee increases and some program cuts. A whole range of fiscal tactics King branded as “gimmicks” were in place to balance the state budget.

“I believe that if we had faced up to the economic realities in 1991 and 1992, if we had taken a hard look at all state programs and their delivery, we would not still be playing budgetary games,” King wrote in his book.

King said he greatly underestimated the scope of the budget gimmicks and how long it would take to eliminate them from the budget equation. It took all of his first term and part of his second term to eliminate all of them, from payroll pushes – where paychecks were moved from one fiscal year to another – to delaying school subsidy payments.

“At times, it seemed like we would never get rid of all of them, but we did,” he said.

King in his book also wrote at some length about the tax burden in the state and the need to lower that burden to help spur economic development. He looks upon the legislation phasing out the property tax on business equipment and machinery as a major accomplishment that has done what he hoped.

“There has been a significant increase in capital investment, and that has been, to a large extent, influenced by the BETR [Business Equipment Tax Rebate] program – at least that’s what the people that have made the investments have told me,” he said.

King also praised lawmakers for supporting the reduction in the sales tax rate from 6 percent to 5 percent. He said it was the first time a major tax had been reduced in modern Maine history. He said his overall goal was to reduce taxes, but he admitted he was not as successful as he had hoped because Maine still has one of the highest tax burdens in the country.

“I think the economy is more diverse and we have more jobs than we did when I wrote the book,” he said. “I think I made a difference, but most of what happened in the economy is not something I can take credit for, anymore than I should get the blame, or any governor should get the blame, when the economy takes a downturn.”

There are more Mainers working than when King was writing his book in November 1993. In that month, 44,600 were unemployed while 618,000 were working. Last month, the number of Mainers working was 665,000 and 27,800 were unemployed.

There are other areas where King believes he has accomplished what he set out to do in his book. For example, welfare reform was adopted in 1996. Other human service areas, however, have proved vexing.

“The problem of health insurance and providing health care has proven very, very difficult,” he said. “We have had some success, but so much needs to be done and I am not sure how much we can do as a state.”

King said Maine has expanded health care coverage for children and for some parents, but he said too many Mainers do not have health insurance. He said the increasing cost of prescription drugs is hurting many Mainers, even though the state has adopted innovative programs aimed at reducing the cost of drugs.

“We have done a lot,” he said, “but there is so much that needs to be done and Maine as a state can’t afford to do it alone.”

King said his administration has tackled the difficult problems of providing mental health services and has made “tremendous progress” in taking care of its mentally ill citizens. He said there was no community-based mental health system when he took office and there is one today.

“Have we solved all the problems? No, we haven’t, but I think everyone can be proud of what we have accomplished,” he said.

King believes he also has accomplished most of the goals set in his book for changing the way Maine handles environmental issues. He said environmental groups and business representatives work with the Department of Environmental Protection to solve problems, not hurl charges and countercharges.

“We have come a long way,” he said. “But we still have pollution problems and hopefully people will continue to work together to solve them.”

King said his seven years in office have been “a tremendous learning experience,” and he is still learning. He said being an independent has had both its advantages and disadvantages, but he would not go back and run as a party candidate even if he could turn back time.

“You know, I have got to believe that all we have done has made a difference, that all this aggravation and work have made a difference,” he said. “People tell me it has, and I have to believe them.”