Returning Senate President Beth Edmonds and new House Speaker Glenn Cummings used their remarks at swearing-in ceremonies last week to call for a focused legislative effort to turn recommendations on improving Maine’s economy, outlined in a Brookings Institution report, into law.
The report, released a month before the election, contains a lot of ideas, but boils down to cutting the size of government so tax dollars can be reinvested in business research and development to create good-paying jobs in Maine. It also calls for raising the lodging tax to pay for land conservation and restoring Maine’s downtowns – to preserve the state’s natural beauty and character.
The report specifically calls for more regionalized school services, saying there are too many school districts in Maine and that leads to too many administrators. Just cutting down to the national average, it says, would save $25 million annually.
While the report was produced by a Washington, D.C., think tank and paid for by a nonprofit – GrowSmart of Maine – it has been embraced by Democrats in state government as a manual for change. Gov. John Baldacci last week announced the creation of the Council on Jobs, Innovation and the Economy, to help implement parts of the study relating to business investment.
Edmonds referenced the study in her remarks to senators, who had just been sworn into office by Baldacci last Wednesday.
“We must find common ground. We’re a small state with limited resources. We have to focus on a few things and do those well,” she said.
Edmonds said after her speech a bill is being drafted to incorporate recommendations in the report and will serve as a starting point. Those recommendations then will be referred to a number of appropriate committees, from taxation to natural resources.
Ultimately those recommendations, as amended or added to in the committee process, will come back together for final review before what Cummings has dubbed a Special Select Committee on Prosperity. Legislators last week already were angling to be named to the committee.
“This committee will rely on the direct input of the standing committees of expertise. Through their work, they will report back to the Legislature, and to the people of this great state, with a thoughtful plan that will chart a course for economic growth and broad prosperity for our people. This road map for prosperity will be bi-partisan and it will focus on spreading economic development across the state,” Cummings said in his speech before the House.
In an interview after the speech, he said the ultimate proposal will be more than just what is recommended by the Brookings Institution.
“I have some very specific ideas on tax reform,” he said, as do others. “I would not feel comfortable,” if the ultimate set of recommendations simply mirrored what is in the report.
Both Cummings and Edmonds touched on areas that need to be addressed.
Those areas include reducing the high administrative costs of government to invest in growing industries like bio-technology; getting more high school graduates to go to college; discouraging “sprawl” development in rural and suburban areas and protecting pristine landscape; and, providing affordable health care.
“We must be bold. We must take hold of the opportunity to streamline our government, modernize Maine’s tax system, invest in education and in our innovation economy,” Edmonds said in her remarks.
“We have the opportunity to re-evaluate how tax dollars are raised and how and why they are spent. Theories of widespread government waste are not true. Don’t believe me. Just wait until you are the one charged with identifying and making cuts,” she told her fellow senators. “There are hard choices before us, necessary choices, but hard nonetheless.”
After the swearing-in ceremonies, legislators re-elected constitutional officers, including Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, Attorney General Steven Rowe and State Treasurer David Lemoine – all Democratic nominees.
Democrats currently hold an 89 to 60 majority, with two independents in the House and a one-vote lead in the Senate. The results in two House races are still being contested and will ultimately be decided by the House, based on the recommendations of a special committee.
The only partisan spat during the Legislature’s one-day meeting last week was over a Senate Republican proposal to increase Republican representation on legislative committees, particularly the important Appropriations Committee. Republican leaders thought they had a deal with Democrats that fell through. The gist of their argument is that with an almost even split in the Senate, there should be an equal number of Democratic and Republican senators on key committees. Currently, the ruling party gets two Senate seats and the minority gets one on each committee.
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