Maine faces a challenge: a $250 million shortfall in budgeted revenues, a slowing economy and unanticipated costs for security following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. How we legislators deal with this challenge will reveal much about our priorities and vision.

We love Maine, and are proud to be legislators in a state where education is a top priority; where we are willing to innovatively reduce prescription drug costs and to provide health care to all Maine children; and where economic opportunity for all and a healthy, safe environment is a matter of pride. While we have much to learn from other states and are always on the lookout for innovative policies that will improve our quality of life in the most cost-effective way, we were amazed to learn that Republican legislators plan to solve our budget shortfall by emulating New Hampshire (BDN, Jan. 12-13).

While no one can question that Mount Washington looms over our own Katahdin and that New Hampshire citizens are recognized worldwide as skinflints of the first order, it doesn’t follow that we love our own lofty peak any less or that our own Yankee thriftiness and thoughtful approach to public policy should be abandoned for the model set out in our neighboring state. Indeed, all states have successes, but there are consequences to mimicking New Hampshire that we doubt Mainers would support:

. New Hampshire has an education system at risk. New Hampshire has been under court orders since 1997 to fix an unconstitutional education funding system based entirely on the property tax. This isn’t just a theoretical legal issue. The practical consequence is inequitable education funding, high property taxes, and insufficient funds to provide statewide public kindergarten.

In contrast, Maine returns almost a billion dollars back to communities for K-12 education and we have paid for public kindergarten since the 1950s. Our investment in education has paid off, giving Maine students some of the highest scores in the nation on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

. New Hampshire has a shaky budget process. The National Association of State Budget Officers and the National Conference of State Legislatures recently ranked Maine 6th in the nation for the soundness of our budget process. New Hampshire placed dead last for its inability to balance the budget, constrain spending, hold reserves, and deliver an understandable budget. New Hampshire also relies more heavily on debt service than we do.

. Cutting services to fit New Hampshire’s model ignores Maine’s geography. With all due respect to our friends and neighbors to the west, Maine is a distinct state. Although our population is similar, we have more than three times the land area, nearly twice the roads, thousands of miles of coast, and more than twice as many municipalities. Indeed, the entire state of New Hampshire would fit into Aroostook and Penobscot counties with room to spare.

Given its size, it is not surprising that New Hampshire has fewer state workers than Maine. While we use technology to provide services, and have reduced the state work force by nearly 10 percent since 1994, cutting our work force to the size of New Hampshire’s would disrupt regional services with the absurd result of requiring the residents and businesses of Maine’s other 14 counties to drive to Aroostook or Penobscot counties to get all state services. Certainly, no sensible strategy to insure economic development in all Maine counties and to diminish the disparities of the “two Maines” would include such an outcome.

The state of Maine has done much to improve services and reduce the tax burden in recent years. Over the last few years, a Democratically controlled Legislature cut taxes, returning more than $400 million dollars annually to Maine taxpayers, and has returned more money to municipalities.

Maine will not win in a tax-by-tax comparison with New Hampshire. However, they have fees, business taxes, and a statewide education property tax of $6.60 per $1,000 in addition to local property taxes that we do not have. Tax analyses cited by Republican colleagues that compare Maine tax rates to New Hampshire fail to include the local property tax burden or recognize more than $125 million in annual taxes returned to Maine businesses and individual taxpayers through programs such as the BETR business tax rebate and the Homestead Exemption.

Our policy and budget choices have resulted in a superior quality of life recognized nationally. For example, the Children’s Rights Council rated Maine in 1999 as the number one state in the nation in which to raise children. Unlike New Hampshire, we have acted to reduce mercury contamination, prevent the spread of milfoil in our lakes, recycle bottles and cans, and remove unsightly billboards from our roadways. These policies represent an environmental and community ethic that is unique to Maine.

Despite the naysayers, MBNA, Irving, Wal-Mart, and other companies are developing thousands of jobs with the rules and taxes that we have. Jackson Lab, IDEXX, L.L. Bean, Hannaford, Bath Iron Works and many other exemplary businesses still choose to operate from Maine. We continue to support access to capital and technical assistance for small businesses, and we are hard at work right now to develop a public-private partnership to help them provide affordable health insurance. Despite our mill closures over the past several years, we should remember that Maine still has 17 paper mills while New Hampshire has lost its last two. Let’s hope that negative preaching about Maine does not become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

We choose to emphasize the many positive qualities of Maine and engage in constructive dialogue to resolve the budget shortfall. If Maine’s detractors want to talk down Maine and spin an image of our state as an undesirable place to live or do business, that is their choice. The proof is in the pudding, and we have all chosen to live in Maine. So, let’s cut back on the rhetoric, roll up our sleeves and get to work.

Beverly Daggett is Maine Senate Democratic Leader and Sharon Treat is Assistant Senate Democratic Leader.