It’s an awkward situation when you’re out to lunch with a friend who doesn’t pay his whole share when you split the check. What do you say to that person? After all, the person is your friend, and maybe he’s having a tough time right now. The first time, you probably give him the benefit of the doubt, and make excuses for why he didn’t pay his fair share.
But the next time, he decides to eat all of your french fries while you get up to find the server. He orders appetizers, salad, and a meal that cost twice what yours did. Yet he still doesn’t pay his whole share of the check. At this point, you’re probably ready to confront him, and definitely order on separate checks if you go out together again.
We all know someone like this. Among friends, we can usually settle these differences, and correct a failure of etiquette. In governing, however, it’s not as easy as refusing to pay for someone else’s meal and the consequences are much more severe.
As a state legislator, I often get asked why the state can’t afford to do one thing or another. Before I can answer, the person usually says that we need to make more cuts at the state level. Making cuts always sounds like an easy thing to do when you’re talking in the abstract.
Most recently, the federal government decided to flat-fund the Low Income Heating Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which last year helped more than 46,000 Maine families buy oil last year. In the meantime, the price of heating oil has tripled, but those families will only receive the same $440 benefit as last year.
These families aren’t the wealthy in our community, but people with an average household income of $12,000 per year-often seniors on a fixed income. Legislation has already been submitted at the state level to find money to help these families, and Gov. Baldacci has established a charity fund to help provide more funds.
Before LIHEAP, it was No Child Left Behind-the federal government’s answer to failing schools in other states. Maine, with its record of good schools and already higher educational standards, has to spend millions complying with standardized testing requirements and proving our teachers are “qualified.” Instead of spending time preparing lessons and working after school with kids who need extra help, our teachers are doing paperwork.
What’s truly wrong with this picture is that our teachers aren’t getting paid any more for doing more work. We will consider a bill in the Legislature this session to raise the minimum teacher pay from $15,500, a standard created in 1987, to $30,000. I still don’t believe that teachers should be paid this little, but I will support raising minimum teacher salaries because it’s time they were paid more to start.
In this past federal budget, they’ve also eliminated Perkins Loans, a low-interest higher education loan program that helps kids with financial need not only go to college, but graduate with a four-year degree.
The creation of the community college system by the Legislature has increased enrollment in higher education in Maine by 50 percent in only its first few years. As the Advantage U program gets off the ground, more students will be able to make the transition to our university system and receive a four-year degree at half the cost. This program does not make up for the assistance of Perkins loans, but it does keep higher education accessible to Maine students.
The cuts the federal government has made that impact Maine people read like a laundry list, and the bottom line is that we keep having to do more with less. Money for our schools, health care, and basic programs like heating assistance is not going to the people who need it most, it’s going to the wealthiest Americans and corporations.
But unlike going to lunch with the person who steals your french fries, we must keep finding ways to foot the bill. We can’t let our schools “fall behind,” our children enter the labor force unskilled, or our seniors freeze in a Maine winter. As I prepare for the upcoming session in January, I know there will be many challenges ahead, but we will not turn our backs on the people of this state.
Please feel free to contact me if I may be of assistance on any state matter. My number at home is 892-6591, and my e-mail address is RepMarkBryant@yahoo.com.
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