Legislative leaders have reason to work quickly to close the current budget gap – public employees and the people they serve need to know how much funding will be available for services and where the money will be spent. But the shortest path between the governor’s proposal for closing the gap and legislative agreement is not through a lawmaker free-for-all in which House and Senate members debate each tiny budget point from the floor.

Instead, the chairmen of the Appropriations Committee, Sen. Jill Goldthwait and Rep. Randall Berry, have provided a sensible course, which urges the governor to submit a revised budget that better reflects estimates of the shortfall, due Aug. 28 and expected to reach $230 million. The committee and other relevant policy committee would hold public hearings, then confer with leaders to reshape a budget to fit within projected revenues. Those leaders – Speaker Michael Saxl, Senate President Richard Bennett, President Pro Tem Michael Michaud, House Minority Leader Joseph Bruno, Majority Leader Patrick Colwell, etc. – then must do what their jobs require: return to their caucuses and make the case for that agreement. The response so far from both Republican and Democratic leadership has been mostly positive.

This does not have to be an extended exercise. It is essentially a smaller version of what happens during the usual budget process and both sides already agree on most of Gov. King’s current plan, which covers most of the shortfall. What is different this time is that lawmakers do not have the luxury of spending or cutting taxes to please various interest groups, but do have an important election a dozen weeks from now. A clearly defined scope for the special session and consensus from leadership on the steps along the way are essential to prevent a prolonged session.

The imperative behind this orderly process is not to avoid messy debate but to put together a timely budget that is as free of politics as possible while improving the outlook for the next challenge, the expected $700 or more million shortfall in the upcoming biennial budget. Lawmakers this year cannot do much about solving the large majority of that problem, but they can do some and they certainly can avoid making matters worse. For instance, the more ongoing expenses that can be cut responsibly now, the lower the deficit number drops for next year’s debate.

A budget agreement among leadership could be achieved within days of the Appropriations Committee’s public hearings, with the full Legislature brought in soon after. This is a difficult time for all sides, with the temptation to grandstand exceptionally high. All the leaders, however, can recall the budget breakdown of the early 1990s and the years spent repairing the damage. They know the stakes; now they must work together to guide Maine out of current troubles.