INTRODUCING CLICKBACK

ClickBack is a new venue for Bangor Daily News readers to share their opinions on topics of local, statewide and national interest and importance. Have ideas for cutting the state budget? Share them at ClickBack. An armchair goalie with tips for the Maine Black Bears? Go to ClickBack to take your shot.

Here’s how you do it: Each Tuesday, the BDN will print a series of questions here on the Editorials page and post them on the BDN Web site. Look for the ClickBack logo at www.bangordailynews.com, click on it to get to the ClickBack page, then click on a question headline to answer that question. Responses should be brief, in good taste and not raise libel concerns.

Acceptable responses will be posted online, and a small number of them will be printed on Friday’s OpEd page. These printed submissions may be edited for length, clarity, taste and libel.

You also may submit your own question online. Selected reader questions will be used in future ClickBacks.

Let’s get started.

State budget woes – the knives come out

As state lawmakers struggle to close a $200 million budget gap, the governor and legislators are considering cutting funding to local schools and social service programs, and working toward merging state agencies to save money. How would you slice and dice it? What programs get the ax and why?

UMaine men’s hockey team missed the playoffs – what happened?

For the first time since the 1996-1997 season, the University of Maine men’s hockey team didn’t make the playoffs. If you had been the coach, what would you have done differently? Which players would have seen more ice time? Who would have been benched? Should underclassmen have been given more ice time last year? What about next year?

Road salt that doesn’t corrode vehicles costs more – would you pay?

Magnesium chloride, a kind of liquid road salt that has been shown to not corrode vehicles, costs more than the calcium chloride now in use. Would you agree to a plan to raise vehicle excise taxes by $20 to pay for the less corrosive salt? Or should road crews return to using salted sand instead of the brine? Or should vehicle manufacturers learn to make vehicles that resist corrosion?

Now it’s your turn. Get clicking and share your opinions at www.bangor

dailynews.com.