MOVING BEYOND ‘NO’

“No” has become the most frequently heard word in Augusta. Merge the state’s natural resource agencies? No. Reduce services to and funding for foster families? No way. Close a youth detention facility? Nohow.

With the state facing a likely $200 million budget shortfall – which is likely to grow if the economy continues its downward trend – a lot more than “no” is needed to come up with the money, either through spending cuts or tax increases, or more likely a combination of the two.

While frustration with the state’s budget situation is understandable – who wants to tell the elderly, disabled and poor that they won’t get services they rely upon? – responding by rejecting every possible solution that is offered is counterproductive. The standard for rejecting budget-cutting ideas offered by the governor, department heads and legislators should be to offer alternative suggestions.

Earlier this week, the state’s various departments were required to submit lists of what might be cut to meet spending reduction targets.

On the Department of Corrections list was the closure of the Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland as part of its $5.4 million reduction for 2008-09.

Sen. Bill Diamond, chair of the Legislature’s Criminal Justice Committee, likened this suggestion to threatening to cut the football team and kindergarten as a way to build support for raising taxes rather than making other more reasonable cuts.

Among the Department of Education’s proposed cuts is to reduce funding to local schools by nearly $37 million, essentially flat funding general purpose aid to education in the coming fiscal year. The governor has, for the time being, rejected this approach, in favor of looking for other options to cut education spending. Still, Assistant House Minority Leader Bob Crosthwaite accused the administration of playing games. The Republican from Ellsworth said there were other places to cut.

The Department of Education has 154 employees (it had 259 in 1990). More than half of them are paid by the federal government to provide and oversee services, such as migrant education, nutritional services and special education, mandated by Washington. The salaries for 63 department employees come out of the state’s General Fund. These employees are responsible for managing education standards, curriculum development, teacher certification, school construction, compliance with state and federal regulation, and other tasks.

Rather than reject every idea as soon as it is proposed, lawmakers would do better to look at all the proposed cuts and evaluate them against one another and against the option of raising more revenue, which would mean unpopular tax or fee increases. By viewing the whole picture, and not just the departments they oversee, lawmakers should get a sense of the real challenges and limited options facing the state.

Legislators face difficult and unpopular decisions. They should want as much information as possible – even if they disagree with it – before making these decisions.