MEASURES OF GROAN

The Maine Development Foundation’s annual rating of the state’s living conditions, Measures of Growth, has become the most commonly relied-upon source for a snapshot of the Maine community, environment and, mostly, economy. The 13th edition of the report was released last week and a summary of that summary can be condensed to one word: Dismal.

The rankings for growth in state product, for jobs, productivity and investments in future productivity through research and development are all embarrassingly poor. Infrastructure, such as high-speed Internet access, is lagging; business starts, in which Maine once led New England, now trail the regional average. Health care costs, already painfully high, continue to grow against the state

product. The state and local tax burden you know about.

These unsettling conclusions are why reports such as the recent Charting Maine’s Future are so important. Created by the Brookings Institution, the report’s general conclusion is crucial to understanding the economic mess Maine is in.

The report’s mantra is “cut to invest,” with the “cut” part just as important as the “invest.” The state has spent too much too erratically to focus substantially and consistently on development programs that could pay off. By spreading money so thinly, however, lawmakers keep taxes high but can’t show positive results for the effort.

But when, for instance, Gov. John Baldacci tries to change that unfortunate condition by reducing the enormous amount spent on school-district administration, he is immediately attacked as being opposed to local control of education, and the Legislature starts backtracking before the end of the first hearing. Certainly, legislators shouldn’t simply accept the governor’s proposal because it would cut costs, but he has taken the public heat on an issue that was widely seen as needing repair. Lawmakers’ obligation is to find at least as much savings, but indications are that they are unwilling to do so.

The governor himself has failed to make R&D investments a large enough part of his agenda. R&D spending not only creates jobs and attracts many more dollars in the labs and on the campuses where the work is being done, but creates opportunities for new industries in Maine that bring vitality to the economy. Measures of Growth points out that the Corporation for Enterprise Development recently ranked Maine first nationally for business created through university R&D: With the proper state commitment, the R&D network in Maine can do great things.

But it won’t do great things or much of anything unless it attacks the issues highlighted so well by this latest assessment of Maine.