Budget balancing brings Bishop Gerry to Augusta Legislature, Baldacci offered moral compass

AUGUSTA – The principle of the common good should be the clear focus of lawmakers as they struggle to balance the state’s budget, Maine’s Roman Catholic bishop told the governor and legislators Tuesday.

Bishop Joseph J. Gerry reminded 140 people at his diocese’s annual legislative luncheon that keeping perspective is paramount as Gov. John Baldacci and the 121st Legislature make complex choices.

Lawmakers have begun reviewing Baldacci’s proposed $44 million supplemental budget, designed to balance the state’s books by June 30, and Baldacci must soon come up with a spending plan for the two-year cycle that begins July 1. Without changes, a $1 billion shortfall is forecast between anticipated revenue and spending during that two-year period.

“I don’t for an instant make claim to the fact that applying the principle of the common good to the complex task of sorting out a state budget will be easy or that knowing what is best to do will be easily discernible,” Gerry said.

“But I do suggest that proceeding without an internal compass … and a set of guiding principles will not yield the desired outcome, namely, a fair and equitable budget based on moral and ethical principles.”

So Gerry, leader of Maine’s 350,000 Roman Catholics, offered four guiding principles posed as questions and based on the 1975 document “The Economy: Human Dimensions” issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

. Is what is being proposed moral and is it just?

. Are the resources being allocated to assure that no one goes without the basic necessities of food, shelter, health care?

. Is economic development in the hands of the few who are rich and powerful or is opportunity for economic development in the hands of the many?

. Is taxation, in its various forms, based on ability to pay or does it place an excessive burden on those least able to shoulder the responsibility?

Marc Mutty, director of public affairs and lobbyist for the diocese, said he expects to distribute by next week wallet-sized cards listing the principles to every senator and representative as well as the governor, his staff and commissioners.

Mutty said that Tuesday’s luncheon drew a record number of participants, including legislators, lobbyists, diocesan staff members and, for the first time, the governor.

Baldacci, a lifelong parishioner at St. John’s Catholic Church in Bangor, thanked the bishop and the diocese for offering lawmakers, lobbyists and the church an opportunity “to come together and break bread” as the difficult task of balancing the budget gets under way.

“I look at this situation as if it were the ice storm five years ago,” Baldacci said. “But this is an economic and business ice storm. During the time of the 1998 ice storm, Maine people worked together and pulled together. We must recognize that spirit of purpose again. I believe that our best times as a state are in front of us, but these are serious times.”

The purpose of the diocese’s efforts, said Gregory Foltz, chairman of the diocesan public policy committee, is “not to influence public policy but to inform it. The dignity of the human person underlies all our work.”