THE 123RD LEGISLATURE

The Legislature made significant progress on a number of controversial issues – reducing government spending to balance the budget, school and jail consolidation and funding Dirigo Health, for example. But time will tell whether the compromises that made agreement on these issues possible went too far.

Gov. John Baldacci praised lawmakers for patching a $190 million budget hole without raising taxes. They did this by reducing spending – a difficult task that required difficult cuts in programs and services. This work puts the state on stronger financial footing for the future.

Weeks after the budget was passed, however, bills were passed to raise vehicle registration, title and vanity plate fees to repay $160 million in bonds for bridge repairs and to raise beer, wine and soda taxes to pay for Dirigo Health.

While sustaining the Dirigo Health program was important, relying on new taxes to support it puts the program on shakier political ground and breaks the key tie between health care savings and increased insurance coverage. Dirigo and insurance market reforms will now be paid for, in part, through a 1.8 percent surcharge on all paid health insurance claims and tax increases on beer, wine and soda. A tax increase on cigarettes, which had a closer tie to health care, was rejected. House Republican leader Josh Tardy has already threatened a people’s veto to repeal the taxes.

Tightening the requirements for obtaining a Maine driver’s license was needed, whether the federal Department of Homeland Security demanded it or not, because the state too easily issued licenses to nonresidents, some of whom are in the country illegally. It is hard to believe, however, that the price tag for the improvements really went from more than an additional $2 million a year when the legislation was introduced, to zero when it was passed.

Streamlining the state’s corrections system was long overdue, but here, too, the final arrangement was watered down, which likely means the savings will be much smaller than originally projected. Gov. John Baldacci originally proposed a state takeover of county jails with the closure of some facilities. Yesterday, lawmakers approved creation of a board that will coordinate county and state corrections operations. Joint drug purchases and better allocation of jail bed space are part of the plan. These are helpful, but unlikely to result in the scale of savings that would have come from a truly unified system.

The school consolidation debate was long and rancorous, with several failed votes to outright repeal the consolidation law. In the end, lawmakers returned to the original bill to remove financial barriers to school districts merging. They did tack on an amendment allowing the commissioner of education to approve consolidation plans that deviated from the law’s requirements. This was a concession to districts that wanted to maintain a school union structure.

These and other areas have long needed reform. Whether this legislative session, which like any other required sometimes uncomfortable compromises, built a solid foundation for future improvements in areas such as education and health care or set the stage for failure will become clear in the coming year.