When bad government happens to good people

Maine people are good people. This has long been suspected; now there’s proof. It’s in a booklet just out called “Measures of Growth 2002.” Before you roll your eyes at the prospect of one more report by some know-it-all outfit in Washington or Portland or some such far-off place, take comfort knowing that this is the work of 18 of the previously mentioned good Maine people, representing about every walk of life this rather sheltered state has to offer. They serve on the Maine

Economic Growth Council, which went into the business of measuring Maine in 1993.

They measure 60 things, things like personal income, child well-being, air quality. Twenty things are new this year, some of the remaining 40 have been around since the first Measures of Growth was published back in ’95. The things fall into three general categories – Economy, Environment, Community. Picture one of those Venn diagrams you drew in math class when studying sets. The three categories are overlapping circles.

That rounded triangular region common to all three is labeled “Quality of Life.” The idea is to make it as big as possible. Things that meet or exceed goals set by the council get gold stars. Things that improve but not as much as they should get an upward arrow. Decline that is discouraging but not catastrophic gets a downward arrow. Catastrophic gets a red flag.

Which brings us to the proof that Maine people are good people. Of the entire 60 things, only eight get gold stars, six of those are in the Community category and they’re all things that result from folks behaving like decent human beings, or at least well above the median of human behavior. Crime rate. Voter turnout. Child well-being. Citizen participation in community activities. Employment of the disabled (employers can be good people, too).

And poverty. One might think that having a poverty rate about half the national average indicates a healthy economy. That ignores the gumption factor. A whole lot of Mainers avoid poverty by cobbling together several, sometimes many, low-paying, part-time, seasonal jobs. Personal income and jobs that pay a livable wage – things in the Economy category – are a different, and not happy, story.

Not everything’s peachy in Community, though. Parents – only half of you read to your children. Your kids do well in the lower grades but start to fizzle by late high school.

Let’s have a little more parenting out there. Young adults 18 to 34 – fewer teens are taking up smoking. Why are you taking it up? You get cancer, emphysema, bad breath and a red flag. Domestic violence remains a disgrace.

The other two gold stars are in Environment. The acreage of forestland certified as being well managed has increased handsomely. (Since this is voluntary, it seems woodlot owners can be good people, too.) The quality of marine waters is much improved, thanks largely to federal law that prohibits people from flushing their toilets directly into the ocean and federal money that helped them stop.

Economy. Poor, pitiful Economy. There are 13 red flags altogether and you’ll find 10 of them here: personal income; research and development investment; new products and services; local and state tax burden; associate degree attainment; bachelor degree attainment; graduate degree attainment; lifelong learning; employer-sponsored training; and population of service centers.

Here’s where the bad government part comes in. Look back over the paragraph above and try to remember a time when those 10 things weren’t tops on state government’s to-do list. Toss in the downward arrows for gross state product, international exports, new business starts, cost of doing business, freight transported by means other than truck and business satisfaction with state government, plus the utter lack of improvement in Maine’s terribly high electricity costs relative to the rest of the nation and you’ve pretty much got the legislative agenda for the last several decades.

This is not to say that the people in state government are bad. They’re pretty good people, mostly, but something bad happens when they get together.

Actually, what happens when they get together is nothing and that’s just as bad. If we could count making to-do lists in the gross state product, we’d get rid of that red flag pronto.

An argument can be made that part of Maine’s red flag problem is that Maine people are too good. We have, for example, one of the most generous Medicaid packages in the county because we care about the less fortunate but it’s gotten hugely expensive and added a lot of tonnage to the tax burden. State government did little about this until now, during a recession and with a $250 billion revenue gap to fill. So what could have been a rational debate among thoughtful legislators in better times becomes an ugly fight about balancing the budget on the backs of the poor. Even the United States Congress, not known for looking past the next election, was smart enough to tackle welfare reform during a boom.

You may have noticed that the Maine economy as described by the Maine Economic Growth Council bears little resemblance to the one described by Gov. King during his recent State of the State. His was the one that was all about Maine being on the move, outpacing the pack, forging ahead; there was even some nonsense about Maine having the most competitive electric rates in the country. It’s as if he took that Venn diagram, erased all the red flags and downward arrows from the Economy circle and drew in a smiley face. Good people deserve better.

Bruce Kyle is the assistant editorial page editor for the Bangor Daily News.