Maine cannot escape the national and global urge toward economic efficiency that sends jobs to where they can be done most cheaply, homogenizes downtowns or erases them altogether, that makes once-thriving rural communities all but obsolete. But it can preserve its memory of what makes Maine the place it is and honor the best of what has come before by teaching to generations its history, culture, art and its spirit.

Since 1999, the state’s New Century Community Program – made up of seven statewide cultural, historic and arts agencies as part of the Maine State Cultural Affairs Council – has used a small amount of money to large effect for saving the best of Maine. It has given seed money to hundreds of projects all over the state to improve libraries, help local museums, support area arts organizations, develop cultural tourism and enhance school curriculum.

One of the largest and most impressive projects it supported was the Maine Historical Society’s Maine Memory Network, a splendid online collection of Maine history. New Century has been able to do all this on a very small budget because the agencies that comprise it have worked together to an unusual extent. Last year, the Institute for Government Innovation at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government honored New Century by naming it among the top 100 innovative programs nationwide.

There’s no secret for this level of success: It requires endless dedication by local arts and cultural organizations, guidance and skill from the statewide groups and a small, consistent amount of money from the state each year that gets leveraged, sometimes several times over, to fund these important projects. Because of a series of state budget shortfalls since its inception, New Century has never gotten that third piece. But legislation this year, LD 1787, would provide the council with $4.5 million for New Century.

The primary sponsor of the bill, House Republican Leader Joe Bruno, sums up the value of the program this way: “New Century funds create good jobs, help us retain our youth and attract economic development, support cornerstone institutions in communities that represent the fabric of the state, help revitalize downtowns and provide the culture and heritage backbone that sustains Maine’s important tourism industry.”

It is difficult to think about adding an expense to the state budget, no matter how comparatively small, when the state budget itself is in so much trouble. But the work done by these agencies not only provides Maine with an enduring sense of itself and its possibilities, it provides legitimate means for countless small communities to attract people – visitors, former residents, potential new residents – who strengthen these communities and help them survive.

That is important work in which all communities across Maine benefit and reason enough for the Legislature to support LD 1787 this year.