THE GOVERNOR AS BRIDGE

The applause from lawmakers Wednesday for Gov. John Baldacci’s budget should not mask the reality of the difficult choices the new governor has made. Proposing to close a billion-dollar shortfall without a broad-based tax increase was necessary to jolt Maine out of its slide toward economic failure. But the decision will be far from painless and will at times seem unfair. This should be recognized as the result of the Legislature and previous administrations failing for too long to address chronic tax and government-organization problems.

Gov. Baldacci proposes an across- the-board (with one or two exceptions) freeze on agency budgets, which amount over time to an actual cut; he would freeze Medicaid payments even as costs for services are increasing, and he would barely budge school funding as student-performance demands from the state and federal governments are reaching a fevered pitch. These are hard choices; they are what real tax reduction means and they absolutely require improved efficiency for Maine government to provide adequate services.

Everyone is in this together, the governor reminded lawmakers Wednesday, “We will help each other weather this financial storm.” That is his most important message and, properly, when opportunities arose to choose between his own party’s platform and that of the Republican opposition, he just as often sided with Republicans. The governor establishes his sincerity by doing this, serving as a bridge between parties, and Republicans have responded equally well. It suggests that cooperation, that rarest of qualities in the State House, may actually thrive this winter.

The budget is balanced, for now, but the costs of operating government have not simply disappeared. Hospitals and doctors are being asked to forgo more of the cost for Medicaid patients, and they in turn would shift some of those costs to patients with private insurance. Some Medicaid patients will see a small co-pay. An increased share of K-12 education would be borne more by property taxpayers, most likely to affect the poorest towns. As the governor emphasized, these times are temporary, and he properly included in the second year of his budget incentives to create efficiencies in schools and local governments. But the cuts to services and the tax shifts are real in his budget now, making it crucial for his administration’s health care reform panel and his new task force on school efficiency speed answers to Maine.

There was some new spending. The technical colleges will receive $1 million to evolve into a community college system, an encouraging and much-needed development. The governor has an ambitious plan to reduce the cost of student loans through a $50 million bond to cover some interest costs. There will be proposed bond money for research and development, which has proved itself repeatedly in the last few years. All good, targeted expenses that will strengthen Maine.

The governor had only a few weeks to assemble this budget, which he crafted while in complex negotiations over the future of Great Northern Paper. More time undoubtedly would have yielded more precise cuts and more identified areas for savings. Both may come in the next year as the tight budget produces pressure within agencies and lawmakers suggest different ways of assembling the budget. But substantial reform that creates more efficient, less costly government will follow only the kind of cooperative spirit the governor has created during his first month in office. Gov. Baldacci has had a difficult beginning to his term of office, but has faced the hardest questions and answered them well.