The current legislative session has called for many difficult decisions – including the need to deal with a $1.2 billion budget shortfall that greeted us in January. Budget cuts were required to produce a balanced budget, but they aren’t the end of the story. If we stopped there, we would have fulfilled our obligation to the state constitution – but not to the people of Maine.

Gov. Baldacci recognizes that we need to do more to promote new jobs and get the state economy back on track. Voters will be able to participate in one part of that strategy on June 10, when a special state election will be held to consider a $60 million economic development bond package.

The governor took office at a time when the economy was in the doldrums. No sooner had he given his inaugural address than Great Northern Paper filed for bankruptcy and shut down its mills, putting 1,100 people out of work. Along with job cuts at other mills and an increase in the statewide unemployment rate, it was clear that Maine, like the rest of the country, hasn’t recovered from the recession that began in 2001.

And so the governor asked the Legislature to approve a bond package, for June and November, of $175 million. Why do we need to borrow? Because responsible borrowing, for long-term needs, is an essential part of state fiscal policy – and particularly important when the economy is flat. Because interest costs and state indebtedness are low, we can use borrowing to give our economy a much-needed boost.

Bond issues require broad agreement. It takes a two-thirds vote by both houses, which means that both major parties must work together. In the end, we agreed on a single economic development bond issue of $60 million for the June ballot, somewhat smaller than the $70 million proposed by Gov. Baldacci. When the Legislature returns to session on April 28, we’ll begin working on the questions to be considered in November.

Although the Appropriations Committee approved the June bond issue 12-1 and it passed both houses by more than the required two-third votes, not everyone was happy. Some questioned why the state was doing any borrowing, and others characterized the governor’s total package as the largest ever proposed. This isn’t true.

In years past, the Legislature has sent bond packages to the voters that exceeded, in current dollars, $200 million. In 1992, when Maine was also trying to recover from a lengthy recession, the Legislature approved June and November packages totaling, in current dollars, $165 million. So the governor’s approach is right in line with what we’ve done before.

Unlike the federal government, we can’t use deficit spending to stimulate the economy. What we can do is borrow responsibly. That’s what we’re proposing now. Interest rates are at 30-year lows, Maine has a rock-solid bonding rating, and interest payments are a small proportion of the state’s budget.

Some years ago, the state decided that interest payments shouldn’t amount to more than 7 percent of the General Fund budget. A more conservative standard, used by some bond rating agencies, says interest should be kept to 5 percent. We exceed both of those standards. Interest costs amount to only 2.6 percent of the current biennial budget – the lowest such figure in New England.

So we have the capacity to borrow, but will doing so help our economy? I believe it will. The $60 million June bond package will be matched by additional public and private spending totaling $134 million, for a total of nearly $200 million in new investment. The $20 million we spend for biomedical research will leverage $100 million in federal and private grants. The $8 million targeted for affordable housing will bring in an additional $21 million. Had we adopted the governor’s original proposal, we could have done even better. He proposed $13 million for housing, which would have brought in $36 million.

The University of Maine’s Department of Resource Economics and Policy says the bond issue will create more than 2,000 jobs directly, and another 2,000 indirectly. It will lead to an additional economic output of $335 million, including $117 million in payroll.

There are times when the economy needs a jump-start. We did our job earlier by cutting the budget, but we would not be serving the state well if we simply waited passively for things to get better.

The people will have the final say on June 10. Once they look at this plan, I’m confident they will agree this is a good way to put our budget troubles behind us, and position Maine to start growing again.

Pat Colwell is the Maine House speaker.