SAFER ROADS AND WATER

After a couple of years of political disagreement over the state’s bonding capacity, lawmakers this session overwhelmingly supported a $295 million bond package, of which $131 million will be before voters June 12. The bonds, on highway and water-quality improvement, deserve voter support because they make nuts-and-bolts investments in Maine that help the state move forward.

On transportation, $113 million – matched by $260 million in federal funds – would pay for replacing aging bridges and repairing port facilities; it would smooth roads and increase their safety while adding trails for bicycles and walking. Maine is home to hundreds of subpar roads, bridges, piers, and trails in a time of high costs for materials. The bond, as large as it is, won’t nearly pay for all repairs, but it would put Maine back on course to improve badly worn infrastructure.

Besides being a safety issue, this bond is also important economically. Maine already knows how far it is from major markets, whether it looks south or west. It cannot hope to change this, but it can reduce the cost of delivering and receiving goods and reduce the time it takes for people to move in and out of Maine by improving its transportation network. This bond package at least will keep things from getting worse. As always, the projects are distributed statewide and will add a further boost to the state construction economy.

The second question on the ballot would spend $18.3 million – with a federal match up to $49.5 million – for the wastewater revolving loan fund, the drinking-water loan fund and in the largest portion at $12 million, water-pollution control facilities. That item subsidizes construction for municipalities to hold down the water bills for residents. Towns counting on funding under this bond include Presque Isle, Ellsworth, Machias and Calais.

According to Dr. Dora Mills, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control, Maine has some of the oldest drinking-water infrastructure in the country. “Not only is piping wearing out,” she says, “but demands on our systems are increasing and new contaminants are being discovered.”

There’s nothing terribly exciting or controversial about these two state investments. But providing safe highways and safe drinking water are obligations of government and should be supported by the public. Further, these expenses are properly paid for by bonds not only because Maine’s bonding level is reasonably low right now and interest rates are similarly low, but because the projects – the waste-treatment facilities, bridges, ports, etc., – will be designed to last many years, providing benefits to future taxpayers, who should be expected to contribute as well.

It’s not often Maine voters can take a practical and substantial step toward improving safety and encouraging economic development here. Supporting the bonds June 12 does both.