The laziest political position in Maine is to complain about the state’s heavy tax burden and focus only on the taxes collected. But a tax burden has two parts: taxes in relation to income, and Maine is in some ways worse off with income than with the amount of tax it collects. Unlike many more successful states, Maine has for decades shortchanged investment in jobs, neglecting to build up higher education and support forward-looking industries. The Legislature seems determined to do so again with its latest bond package.

Originally, Gov. John Baldacci had proposed a total bond package worth $197.35 million, appropriate because it is the amount of bonded debt the state would retire this year and too small because Maine hasn’t had a bond package in two years. Nearly $55 million of that money would have gone to research and development, a proven economic development tool.

A requirement that a bond package receive two-thirds support from the Legislature and the threat of base closures, which would reduce state revenues, cut the package back last week to $83 million, with only $20 million going to a range of job-creation investments. It is an understandable retreat, but it is also timid. If Maine is going to lose jobs through base closures, its choices are to hole up and hope for better days or get out and start looking to attract or expand industries.

That isn’t to say that it should put its money just anywhere, but Maine has found in nearly a decade of experience that R&D works. The university system, for example, has leveraged four times the research money it has been provided by the state; biomedical facilities can show a 6-to-1 return. They have created hundreds of permanent, high-level jobs with these funds, jobs that pay back the state investment through taxes year after year.

Maine isn’t the only state that knows this – it is, in fact, one of the last to accept it. While Augusta each year puts $20 million or $30 million toward R&D total, many states have individual projects that size, with total research budgets that are many times that. Wisconsin has spent nearly $1 billion over the last 15 years in high-tech facilities; Massachusetts appropriates $100 million from its budget for R&D; Illinois has committed $1 billion over the next decade for stem-cell research; California has committed $3 billion. Arizona is investing $90 million to a new biotechnology center, and Maryland is dedicating $15 million a year for a biotech facility there.

Some lawmakers already are talking about adding to the job-creation side of the bond, perhaps by $20 million. They should be encouraged. If Maine is going to compete for desirable jobs it must invest in the high-tech infrastructure it has while working to develop new opportunities. Sitting around and complaining got the state into its current predicament. More of the same isn’t good enough.