MAINTENANCE BONDS

Eastern Maine Community College would use bond money, if approved by voters in November, to replace leaky windows in its main building. Highway crews would use a share of their bond money for guardrail repair and bridge painting. The University of Maine System has labs that need rehabilitation. Culvert repair appears on the highway bond list.

These are included in just two of the bonds to be considered Nov. 8. Their presence is a sign of a deeper problem in Augusta.

Lawmakers should see it buried among legitimate bond requests: They are forcing Maine institutions to go to voters for such maintenance items as windows and guardrails. The interest paid on loans for items that should have been bought for cash, through the general fund, is not the worst of it. What’s worse is pushing spending for inevitable repairs out to voters who have no choice but to support them or hurt valuable institutions. Have legislators really let the state’s schools and roads fall into such lowly repair that their officials must plead with voters to borrow money to keep classes open and roads safe?

Capital improvement has been redefined. It’s no longer just about expanding opportunities and the quality of life in Maine – though there is some of that too in these bonds and in the others to be considered – but about keeping the lights on, doing maintenance paving and fixing old classrooms. Legislators who are serious about making sense of Maine’s spending must decide whether services such as education and roads are crucial to this state, whether current general fund revenues being invested in them are well spent and sufficient, and what they intend to do to get Maine out of its credit-card mentality for everyday necessities.

This is not a reflection on the quality of these programs or their need for funding. Maine once spent many times more for roads and bridges than it does today; the backlog of maintenance in the popular community-college system is so long that it would be understandable if the system went to voters with a bond request every year. Nor is this to diminish the very hard work required by lawmakers to meet nearly endless demands on limited funding.

But spending for maintenance and operations is a sign of unsustainable budgeting. If the bond requests are a barometer of economic health, they are pointing to stormy weather ahead.