Opportunity, education, jobs and keeping the rewards of hard work — these are the Maine dream.

The state has a $250 million surplus this year. The goal of Republican legislators, myself included, is to use that money to preserve and expand the Maine dream. As the Assistant House Republican Leader, I would like to outline our ideas on how to achieve that goal.

The health and care of our seniors is a top priority. Our state’s over-65 population is expected to explode in the next 20 to 30 years. This population will continue to put tremendous strain on the state’s long-term care system. The number and quality of staff servicing long-term care patients is inadequate because of poor pay and a lack of funding. Money committed to long-term care issues should first be used to fund expanded and better-qualified long-term care staff.

The number of people receiving state-funded home-based care has more than tripled in the past decade. Home-based care is affordable and allows us to help more aging citizens. Nearly 1,000 people are on waiting lists for Home Care, Adult Day Services, Homemaker and Alzheimer’s respite services. If these waiting lists are not eliminated, it will likely cost more for the State to care for these seniors in the long run.

Maine’s Low-cost Drugs for the Elderly or Disabled Program provides a discount on prescription prices for essential life-sustaining and pain-relieving medications. Maine’s expansion of this program has doubled the number of people eligible and increased the number of prescriptions purchased under the program by over 80 percent. Consumers are paying at least 10 percent less, and sometimes as much as 40 percent less.

Those who pay full cost for prescriptions are mostly seniors. It is critical that we maintain this level of coverage for those who need it most.

The Maine dream can best be achieved through education. That is why Republican legislators supported increased funding to General Purpose Aid to Education in the first session and will continue to support increases this session.

School renovation funding was highly important to Republican legislators who pushed to appropriate $24 million (about $4 million more than the majority party wanted) in the last session. The state board of education will release its study of construction needs on Jan. 12. We will closely examine their recommendation for long-term construction projects as we again make health, safety and air quality in Maine schools a top priority this session.

The $250 million surplus comes from taking too much money out of the pockets of Maine citizens. This money should go back to the citizens in the form of tax relief.

We support property tax relief by giving the Homestead Exemption refund directly to the homeowner. As it works now, too many homeowners aren’t seeing a reduction in their taxes even though the property tax bill lists the reduced assessment because the mil rate has been increased or overall assessments raised.

We should use one-time funds from the $250 million surplus to move up the implementation date (July 1, 2000) of the one-half cent sales tax reduction. After the previous one-half cent reduction, overall revenues, which were expected to drop or turn flat, instead spiked up dramatically. Finally, we support repealing the Snack Tax. If the Legislature doesn’t, we are confident the Maine voters will when they vote on this initiated referendum in November 2000.

Opportunity is what makes the Maine dream a reality. Opportunity can only be achieved through job creation. This session there are six regional economic development bills before the Legislature. It is time to stop all the studies and start investing substantial dollars. The areas of investment include natural resources, biotech, transportation, e-commerce and training and education.

The health of our senior citizens, the education of our youth and opportunities for hard-working Mainers will help all citizens realize the Maine dream. This is the goal of Republican legislators as we begin the second session of the 119th Legislature.

State Rep. Richard H. Campbell of Holden is assistant Republican leader of the House.