2ND DISTRICT HOUSE REPAIR

With the elections in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District past the primaries, voters can focus attention on just two candidates, Democrat Mike Michaud and, barring a surprising recount, Republican Kevin Raye. Both are to be congratulated for their hard work to get this far, and both have an opportunity between now and the fall to talk more specifically about their goals in Congress.

The long primary and the 2000 Census helped define the needs of the district more clearly than it has been in many years. Falling population, lower-than-average incomes, lack of economic opportunity, high medical costs, a drug problem, deteriorating infrastructure. If the 2nd District were a house for sale, it would be listed as a handyman’s special.

. The repairs begin at the foundation, where inadequate or crumbling transportation makes the district seem much farther from the rest of the country than it is. Most primary candidates talked blithely about changing the federal highway funding formula to favor Maine, as if this job consisted of filling out a form and waiting for the money to flow north. T-21, the current six-year highway plan, expires in 2003, so whoever wins in November will be in Congress at a particularly important time. When the current plan was written in the mid-’90s, it shifted money to the South and Southwest, where states were receiving only 60 or 70 percent of the gas-tax dollars they were contributing while states like Maine were receiving considerably more than they were sending in. Maine now receives between 90 and 95 percent of what it sends, and any representative would be hard-pressed now to get significantly more than 100 percent of the state’s contribution.

To accomplish anything, it would be very helpful to be a member of the Transportation Committee, which has some 77 members, including Rep. John Baldacci. Because he served on the committee largely between reauthorizations, Rep. Baldacci concentrated on helping Maine through getting funds for special projects. There will, however, be less money for these projects starting next year because overall gas-tax revenue is down. The question for the candidates is, what source of funding would they tap to compensate for the expected decline in overall highway revenue and how can the state take better advantage of federal opportunities for rail, airport and shipping dollars?

. Health care comes up at just about every candidates forum, but the chance of comprehensive reform in Congress is vanishingly small. The best a new representative could accomplish is leadership on steady, incremental expansions of coverage as well as detail work that govern issues such as patent rules for pharmaceuticals and purchase standards for medical equipment.

Like transportation, reforming Medicare so that Maine hospitals receive more per procedure and could avoid some of the cost-shifting that occurs requires formula changes or as-yet unused revenue sources. Maine currently ranks 46th in Medicare reimbursements, up from 50th a few years ago based on diligent work in a half dozen areas by Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. Congressional candidates have been unanimous in pledging to improve the rate further, perhaps, they suggest, by working with other rural delegations. They need to tell voters how, in a body with districts based on population that results in power being concentrated in the many urban districts, they intend to do this.

. Everybody loves R&D funding, largely because a little state money leverages a lot of federal money creating construction and long-term jobs, new industries and a healthier tax base in addition to the benefits produced by the research. R&D, however, is loved not just in Maine but everywhere, making the race for this money highly competitive. Some promising fields, such as biomedical, grew in Maine even before politicians here paid attention to the issue. The question for Maine and its political leaders, is in what industries should the state concentrate its efforts? To say, as some candidates have, that they will encourage all industries and wait to see what succeeds ensures that Maine will once again rely more on luck than leadership.

. State government cannot solve Maine’s growing problem with both illegal drugs and abuse of prescription drugs without more help from the federal government. This has literally become a problem of life and death, as evidenced in recent months in Southern Maine, and a devastating burden to entire communities, as can be seen in Washington County. Drug abuse absolutely is not a problem of just a few misguided kids – its tears apart families, wrecks neighborhoods, weakens towns and, according to Development Commissioner Steve Levesque, is hurting Maine’s reputation nationwide as a place to do business. Candidates need to say what new ideas they would bring to solve this problem.

. All 12 of the congressional primary candidates pledged to support full federal funding for special education, an unfunded mandate that costs Maine tens of millions of dollars annually. But none offered any insight on why current members of Congress, who overwhelmingly say they too support the funding, nevertheless have been unable to pass a bill that would require it. Just supporting an idea is useless without a means to see it enacted. A discharge petition, similar to the one used on campaign-finance reform, might embarrass House leadership sufficiently to get a straight vote on the issue. Candidates might be asked whether they have given any thought to such a move or what strategy they have considered.

There are a dozen more major issues that the next representative will encounter in his first year, in addition to fulfilling the vaguest promise of all: to create jobs. Putting the 2nd District’s house in order will require extensive, specific and inventive help from Congress. To know who the better candidate is in November, voters need to ask a lot of questions this summer.