Besides cheering for the Red Sox, the one area that every Mainer agrees on is that our state needs prosperity. We want healthy, vibrant communities with thriving local economies, where the well-being of every person is considered a top priority. This vision should be an expectation we have for Maine for the next few years, not in the distant future.

Maine needs a solid action plan of economic development, one that reflects the concerns of all Mainers. It has to include getting our kids into college and helping them earn their degree, making smart investments in innovative new fields to create jobs, reforming government at all levels to make it more efficient and effective, and targeting tax breaks to working families, rather than the wealthy.

But most of all, our economic development strategy must include open and honest leadership that transcends party affiliation. Partisan tunnel vision will continue to hold our state back until we learn to set aside differences for the good of all Maine people.

The path to prosperity can’t be paved with good intentions, but with serious leadership that creates opportunity through education, invests in people, innovation and Maine small businesses, and builds a stronger, more competitive Maine.

As the first person in my family to earn a college degree, I know that education is the key to opportunity. Despite the progress we have made in increasing access to higher education, less than half of Maine’s high school graduates go on to college. From creating an affordable and flexible community college system to increasing funding for adult education and retraining programs, we are working to bridge the knowledge gap for today’s traditional and transitional students.

But there is still much more we can do to open the doors of higher education to Maine students. Even a modest increase in state funding to Maine’s community colleges would dramatically decrease tuition, allowing more people to access quality affordable higher education.

We must also consider how to keep these opportunities networked for optimum growth. Our students must have the best opportunities for education tailored to the brightest futures in new and evolving industries. Building partnerships between our students and local small businesses and entrepreneurs allows Maine people to develop new skill sets that better suit business needs across the work force.

Research and development gives our state the opportunity to build a diversified economy where Yankee ingenuity, the heart of Maine’s business climate, is aptly rewarded. The Bangor Daily News was absolutely right in its recent editorial on the need for research and development opportunities as a key economic development tool here in Maine. Best of all, it allows Maine to capitalize on its most precious resource – its people. Maine needs to make innovative, smart investments from within in order to yield prosperity with new jobs.

Maine’s small businesses know that to be competitive, they must be resourceful and efficient. The same should hold true for every level of government. We need to create a culture of cooperation and sensible regionalization that focuses our energy on the most important issues, and cuts duplicative administrative services and costs.

Overall, Maine’s state tax burden ranking has dropped to 19th in the nation, and the expansion of the Homestead and Circuit Breaker rebate programs have helped many homeowners and renters put more money back in their pockets. But our individual tax burdens, such as the combination of income taxes and local property taxes, are still far too high for the average Mainer and small business. Lowering these taxes will make both individual pocketbooks and Maine’s economy stronger, and more competitive.

We missed important opportunities this year when Republican leaders successfully voted down proposals to increase property tax relief, cut income taxes and offer more child care tax credits.

Moving Maine toward prosperity means putting Mainers first for today and tomorrow. Too often, leaders in Augusta have only been able to compromise on short-term crises, like offering more heating assistance funds for low-income people or increasing state aid to education. But despite bipartisan support from rank-and-file legislators on both sides of the aisle, Republican leaders have held Maine hostage on the big decisions that chart our state’s course for the future, like critical investments in roads and bridges and opportunities for research and development.

All indicators point to this being the right time to make these investments, including one of Wall Street’s bond raters, Moody’s, which praised Maine’s “conservative approach to debt, with moderate bond issuance, and aggressive payout structure, and capacity to accommodate unforeseen borrowing needs.” But Republican leaders failed to answer when opportunity knocked.

Leadership is about real participation, not party affiliation, and the time for Maine’s prosperity is now. We must come together across the aisle and across the state to demand opportunities for education, smart investments for our future, and a government that works efficiently and effectively for all Maine people.

Glenn Cummings is the House Majority Leader and a business and economics professor at Southern Maine Community College.