MAINE’S BUDGET, REDUX

Having heard the complaints from legislative Republicans about the details of the state’s new budget, Democratic Gov. John Baldacci offered a means for compromise this week that Republicans should embrace – with a couple of observations of their own.

Republicans recently initiated a

referendum on one portion of the budget, a $447 million loan, after Democrats shoved through the 2006 budget on a simple-majority vote, thereby limiting the influence of the GOP. Part of the loan pays for the state’s ongoing expenses, a condition no one likes. But it was the rushed vote that really irritated Republicans.

In a letter to them Tuesday, the

governor sounded conciliatory and eager to work with the minority party. “While we may have occasionally disagreed on the final course of action,” he wrote about the budget, “the end product was better for our combined efforts and I feel confident that we have all had the best interests of Maine citizens in our sights.”

Any elected leader who makes an effort to work with the opposing party should be encouraged, and Senate Minority Leader Paul Davis did so yesterday when he said, “If Democrats are serious, we’ll sit down and talk with them.” Being serious is the key, and Democrats should offer a formal framework for reconsidering the loan in Part I of the budget. As elected officials in

a closely divided capitol, Republicans deserve that consideration. Equally, they have a responsibility to produce reasonable alternatives to the current budget proposal if they disagree with it so strongly that they are willing to gather signatures for a referendum on the issue.

Time is now short this spring for alternative plans, but Sen. Davis says his party already has several ideas it would like to consider as part of a deficit-reduction package. These include raising the deductible on the state employee health plan, cutting a portion of the funds in the Dirigo health program and stopping the plans to use racino revenues for scholarships and health programs and direct the money into current expenditures. They would consider an across-the-board 5 percent reduction in state government.

Republicans began the referendum when they felt powerless to affect the budget process any other way. Letting that happen was a tactical mistake by Democrats (much as similar tactics under consideration by Republicans in the U.S. Senate are mistaken), but they can fix the problem in the remaining weeks of the session by making the

referendum unnecessary.

Failure to do so not only leaves a substantial structural gap for a future legislature, but continues the distraction of the referendum when lawmakers have a lot of work to do.