A REGIONAL WIN

Soon after he took office in 2003, Rep. Mike Michaud adopted the very good idea of creating a regional economic zone along the northeast border – Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York – to help economically distressed towns, much as an Appalachian zone has helped that region for 40 years. Last week, after expanding the idea to a national set of zones and with the help of a switch to a Democratic House, he got his bill.

Under the Regional Economic and Infrastructure development Act of 2007, five regional commissions would be created to steer federal grants toward development that crosses state borders: transportation, telecommunications and other public infrastructure. And it would give smaller grants to issues such as job training and developing tourism and alternative energy projects. The estimated cost of the bill is $1.25 billion between 2008 and 2012.

The Northern Border region would include 36 counties from Maine to Cayuga County, New York. The state boundaries in the region are less important than the characteristics they share. In this northern rim of the Northeast, says Rep. Michaud, “our mills are closing, our young people are leaving and too many of our workers are looking for work.”

Not all towns are so desperate, of course, but all struggle with trying to move goods efficiently, trying to attract sufficient air service and expanding broadband technology. Very often all that’s needed is an economic plan that encompasses more than a county’s immediate circle and a relatively small grant to push projects along. The coordination among counties may be more important than the money, and states should be prepared to take the commission seriously – sticking to a plan of trying to prosper on their own hasn’t worked in generations; officials owe it to the public to try something new.

The chance of success is considerable. The 13 states of the Appalachian Regional Commission in recent years have used federal dollars to leverage projects to expand highways and redevelop rail lines; they have funded local education projects and expanded wireless access to emergency personnel. States have improved health care by recruiting physicians to rural areas and expanded telemedicine. Tourism has been helped too, with cultural heritage trails that support small towns economically. The number of economically distressed counties has been cut in half in that region and the poverty level has dropped from 31 to 15 percent.

In a commentary the other day, Rep. Michaud said he worked to pass this act because “federal investment in our region would help us capitalize on our great assets to create jobs and build our economy.” That is something this region has been notoriously bad at for years. The commission in this bill could get it moving in a more cooperative direction.