Good work by legislative committee

When Gov. Baldacci presented his budget to the Legislature in January, it was a bold response to voter concerns about the state’s financial sustainability, our tax burden, and our government structure. His budget continued funding for essential state services for the next two years, met the state’s obligation to pay 55 percent of the cost of local education, and made modest investments in valuable areas like higher education and research and development.

Yet it also contained several challenging and controversial proposals. First, the governor’s proposed budget included nearly $140 million in tax increases. Second, it included a top-down school reform plan that consolidated Maine’s sprawling system of local districts into 26 regional units.

The Legislature’s Appropriations Committee worked for nearly six months on the proposal before reaching unanimity on a plan.

The final product, which garnered overwhelming support in both the House and Senate, retained the bold direction of the governor’s proposal but reworked many of the details that caused great controversy and concern among members of the Legislature and the public. As House chairman of the committee, I was proud to lead the process toward consensus. So, how was consensus achieved?

First, our committee rejected the notion that a tax increase was necessary to bring the budget into balance. Instead, our committee worked in a bipartisan way with the Baldacci administration to find common-sense alternatives. We beefed up the enforcement division of the Maine Revenue Services to prevent tax evaders from free riding on the backs of the vast majority of Maine citizens who play by the rules. We strengthened the enforcement division within the MaineCare program so it can more effectively ferret out fraud and abuse on the part of both beneficiaries and private insurance companies.

Finally, we reduced the rate of growth in discretionary spending dramatically. In the coming two years, the growth of noneducational expenditures within the state budget will be less than the rate of inflation each year. Further, such expenditures will be $240 million below our state’s spending caps.

Second, the Appropriations Committee worked tirelessly to rework the governor’s school reform proposal. Instead of being “top-down,” our plan provides a “bottom-up” approach that allows local communities to pick their own partners for administrative consolidation. Instead of being mandatory, our plan allows communities to “opt out” by voting to accept fair financial penalties at the ballot box.

Our plan extends the timeline for consolidation, allowing areas that are not prepared to move ahead in January additional time. Our committee understood that such incredible structural change requires a thoughtful process and we wanted to allow sufficient time for our local communities to “get it right.” Finally, instead of requiring 26 regional units, our plan calls for 80 units or a number of units that meets the administrative savings goals set out by the Legislature.

Third, our committee heeded the advice of the Brookings Institution’s recent report on Maine state government – we “cut to invest.” Our investments were prioritized and focused to stay within available resources. First, we invested heavily in higher education, providing an increase of nearly $40 million to the University of Maine System, the Maine Community College System, and Maine Maritime Academy to hold down tuition and open up slots in crowded but essential programs.

Second, we invested in creating high-paying jobs by providing significant increases in funding to the Maine Technology Institute and the University’s Maine Economic Improvement Fund, both of which focus on technical research and commercialization. Third, recognizing the devastating effect domestic violence has on our communities and our families, we invested for the first time in a statewide program to prevent such violence through education and support.

By working together to find consensus, the Appropriations Committee crafted the best budget for Maine – it creates structural change in our state’s finances and it places us on a path of sustainability for the future.

In coming to consensus, we respected the left and the right of our political spectrum, and the North and South of our state, while coming together in the middle. We revived Maine’s long tradition of bipartisan budgeting that had faltered in recent years, and by doing so, we have left the institution of the Legislature in a better condition than when we inherited it after the November elections.

Jeremy Fischer represents Presque Isle in the Maine House of Representatives and serves as House chairman of the Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Appropriations and Financial Affairs.