Lawmakers’ bipartisan spirit credited for budget passage

AUGUSTA – Perhaps it started in early February, when the Appropriations Committee of the Maine Legislature united on a plan to offset a $44 million revenue shortfall, clearing the way for House and Senate enactment.

That relatively small step was followed up by a much bigger stride last week, when the same budget panel’s unanimous endorsement of a $5.3 billion, two-year spending plan was overwhelmingly ratified in both chambers.

By week’s end, even the built-to-be-partisan apportionment commission had tentatively agreed on a plan for redrawing state House of Representatives districts.

Is it “Kumbaya” at the Capitol?

Lawmakers on both sides express some wonder at all the getting along.

Former Senate President Richard Bennett of Norway, now out of leadership but still influential within the Republican minority Senate bloc, pronounced himself “extraordinarily pleased and maybe a little surprised” by the way legislators from the two major parties have been able to work together.

A Democratic colleague, Senate Majority Leader Sharon Treat of Farmingdale, echoed Bennett’s near astonishment as the biennial budget was about to pass.

“I think it’s quite amazing that we are at this point today,” she said.

Bennett, among others, was explicit in giving credit for fostering cooperation with Gov. John Baldacci, a Democrat whose anti-tax, pro-business stance has been welcomed by a wary GOP.

House- and Senate-controlling Democrats, meanwhile, have generally accepted Baldacci’s “work-in-progress” characterization of budgeting to date, holding out hope that some of the program curbs they have approved thus far may be eased down the road.

Not all legislators speak glowingly of the fruits of the latest budget compromise.

“The same old, same old,” complained Rep. Thomas Murphy, R-Kennebunk, arguing that belt-tightening measures up to now have been inadequate.

Treat, urging adoption, termed the spending package “the best we can do under the circumstances, … faint praise, I realize.”

Conciliation can suddenly give way to conflict, and the current calm might well be merely a temporary lull.

Disinclined to stray far from the soothing side of his message, Baldacci continues to wed the austerity demanded by the budget to what he bills as the promise of development and growth.

Reiterating commitments to tax incentives for business and enhanced educational opportunities, Baldacci looks ahead and sees a time when “hopefully, Maine will have built up a stronger economic foundation.”

The vagaries of the budget blueprint and the approaches to taxation and health care yet to be taken up give lawmakers plenty more to ponder.

For now, modest expectations have been the salve.

“I don’t know whether it’s just people bonding together in hard times, or what it is,” said Democratic Rep. Matthew Dunlap of Old Town.

Offering one theory, he added, “There’s no pie to reach for.”