To understand the powerful need for a legislative office to oversee the activities and results of Maine government, look at the current debate in Augusta over health care cuts to a number of programs. Lawmakers ask questions they hope will reveal the effect of the cuts and instead get lengthy replies from administration officials who are trying to explain in a way that causes lawmakers to agree with the administration’s view while being careful not to offend the lawmakers. Citizens groups, at odds with the administration, jump in with their own narratives of the sick and needy, leaving legislators to make literally life-and-death decisions about programs but without having a single neutral expert offer research results and advice.

Three legislators want to solve this problem, which occurs in many areas of governing, and provide more government accountability by creating what amounts to a state-level General Accounting Office for Maine. The GAO is an invaluable part of federal government that provides members of Congress and the public clear, in-depth reports on programs, agencies, spending habits, investments and the thousands of other components of the government. Maine currently has nothing like it and the lack of expertise shows as lawmakers grope to understand and steer complex state policy.

Forty-four states have one version or another of an oversight agency that reviews department performances, explains how well or poorly specific laws or legislative or department policies are working and makes suggestions for improvement. The oversight agency doesn’t have the authority to make the changes itself; it reports to the state Legislature, which then goes through the standard process of hearings, work sessions and votes. As Sen. Ed Youngblood of Brewer, Rep. David Trahan of Waldoboro and Matthew Dunlap of Old Town explained in an op-ed column Tuesday, “Each year legislators submit thousands of pieces of new legislation, many creating new programs costing hundreds of millions in new revenue. Without a program to continually review the efficiency of programs and eliminate waste thus freeing up existing revenue, there is only one option – raise taxes and fees.”

Florida is often pointed to as the state with the most active oversight agency. Its Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA, unfortunately) was created in 1994 to conduct policy reviews, analyze the performances under performance-based budgeting and provide an agency accountability report to the public. Through its analysis and advice, Florida government has saved $255 million to date. And at least as valuable as the money are the understanding among state agencies that someone is checking up on them and the confidence among

voters that policy experts looking at how tax dollars are spent.

Neither the GAO nor any state’s program can work, however, if it produces even the slightest sense of partisanship. The GAO has several safeguards against this and Maine would do well to take steps that protect any agency it creates from the politics of the party in charge. To that end, the sponsors of the idea in Augusta should demonstrate that a large number of lawmakers from the widest possible political spectrum support the creation of this agency. Expect any administration to be lukewarm at best because it diminishes its authority.

The often awkward, divisive, underinformed legislative debates over agency reform are a product of a lack of credible neutral information. Much of the debate could be avoided and better decisions made if an oversight authority like the one proposed were supported by the full Legislature. The models for such an agency can be found nationwide; legislators of all political outlooks just need to agree long enough to pick one.