Additional Articles for August 2003 Issue
Legislative Session Review: The view from here
By Stephen Bowen
In the weeks to come, mailboxes in Maine will begin to fill with the annual “Review
of the Legislative Session” mailings sent out by your intrepid legislators,
yours truly included, and which catalogue for voters all of the wonderful
things achieved in Augusta during the recently concluded First Session.
Being a taxpayer-funded mailing, though, it is relatively restrictive in
the editorial license it gives its authors, so readers should anticipate
a rather dry laundry list of what was accomplished, rather than the kind
of stirring tale of great justices done and dark villainies thwarted that
many readers might prefer.
We’re not stopped, though, from taking any other opportunity we can
to editorialize about what we saw happen during the six months that we
spent in each other’s company at the State House. Herewith, then,
some reflections on the first session.
The session was dominated by a seemingly endless series of budget negotiations.
In a scant five months, we debated and voted on four separate budget packages,
two for last fiscal year and two (so far) for this one.
For individual lawmakers, working the budget means getting to look over
the budget requests of the departments under their committee’s purview,
then sending along recommendations to the appropriations committee, which
then negotiates amongst itself, the legislative leadership and the governor
to hammer out some deal. In other words, like the proverbial blind man
and the elephant, a legislator sees only a tiny piece of the big picture,
is handed a budget document about three inches thick and then given one
vote, only one in the entire process, up or down on it.
The effect of this process, which is not unlike how most major legislation
is dealt with, is to create a patchwork quilt of public policy with no
common thread of sense seeming to connect it. Worthwhile programs in one
department are gutted while needless ones elsewhere are given more money.
Departments which are staff heavy, such as Marine Resources, are forced
to cut that staff and programs, while departments that basically move money
from here to there, like Education and DHS, simply cut back the money they
pay out to schools and hospitals and otherwise go unscathed.
The bureaucrats in Augusta, being in too close a proximity to all this,
are able to defend themselves and their work at every turn, while those
in the hinterland, the municipalities, the school systems, small businesses
and the other interests not as well connected, get the deepest cuts. We
slashed a billion dollars out of the biennial budget, about 20 percent
of state spending, which resulted in cuts to health care, schools, natural
resource protection and transportation projects, but when the smoke cleared,
less than 50 state jobs had been lost out of 15,000.
And it kind of went like that most of the session. The Democrats, in control
of both houses and the Governor’s mansion, (though without as much
unanimity as they might have hoped, thankfully) were drunk with power.
The Labor committee spit out one divided committee report after another,
as the Democrat/Labor Union/Professional “Victim Lobby” nexus
swung for the fences with ever more business-crippling legislation on everything
from mandating weekly pay, to expanding unemployment and health insurance
mandates, to enacting “living wages” and rolling back Workers’ Comp
reforms. Unemployment will now have to be provided to some part-time workers
and a watered down version of paid family leave was passed.
Businesses with state contracts who find themselves unable to afford health
care for their workers will now be penalized during the bid process, with
the state now forced, if you can believe this, to imagine what the bid
would be if the firm did offer health insurance, and use that as the bid
instead. This ludicrous process is designed, according to the bill’s
title “to encourage responsible employment practices.”
Speaking of health insurance, single payer made a return visit, but got
shoved aside by the Governor’s “Single Payer—The Early
Years” Dirigo Health plan, which passed after having its more Maoist “command
economy” price controls stripped out, leaving it largely powerless
though still as costly as before. Though Dirigo will be launched using
$50 million in federal money, it will ultimately be supported by a four
percent tax on the health insurance premiums of those currently insured,
meaning costs will ultimately rise for the vast majority of Mainers. A
bill to study the extent to which state mandates were responsible for high
insurance costs was defeated.
Also defeated was a bill that would have allowed voters to vote on each
item on a bond issue, instead of up or down on the overall package. A bill
to prevent the state’s top elections official, the Secretary of State,
from endorsing political candidates was also defeated, largely along party
lines.
A proposed constitutional amendment to limit the growth of state spending
was defeated, as were bills to cut the size of the legislature, cut legislative
salaries, and shorten the length of the legislative session. In a fiscal
climate in which state agencies were asked to hold their budgets to zero
growth for the next two years, the budgets of both the legislature and
governor went up.
With cuts to state education funding, more school costs will be shifted
to local school districts and with tax reform plans having gone nowhere,
local property taxes will continue to rise. Income tax reform measures
passed last session have been postponed, so state income taxes will climb
as well. Gas taxes, if you did not notice already, went up on July 1.
Dirigo Health will take at least five years to complete its expansion of
insurance coverage and will have little effect on costs when it does, so
relief from high health insurance costs remains out of sight.
Small businesses dodged a few bullets this session, but the anti-business
factions are planning to keep up the fight. As the Governor’s pro-business
campaign promises fade with memory, so too might his admirable fortitude
in opposing many business-punishing bills that came up this session.
Higher taxes, more spending. Any of this sound familiar?
Then there is smoking. Follow me if you can. You can no longer smoke in
bars or taverns, but you can smoke at racetracks, OTBs and private clubs.
You may not smoke in Beano and Bingo Halls, but you can if Indians run
them. You can smoke in your car if you have children on board, but not
if they are foster children or wards of the state. You can order cigarettes
by mail, but someone who is not a minor must sign for them.
So the message the state is sending with regard to smoking is…what?
That it’s dangerous and people should be protected from it? Then
why not protect folks in Indian casinos or workers at Scarborough Downs?
If second-hand smoke is bad for kids, why are only some kids “protected” from
it? I mean, are we against smoking or aren’t we? It is this kind
of inconsistency and hypocrisy that prevails.
Of course, you won’t read all this in those “end of session” mailings
you’ll be getting in a few weeks. You’ll get a catalog of “achievements” from
the last session, that in many instances, other than costing you money
and chipping away your rights, achieve little.
But just when you are ready to give up on the system, you’ll read
about OPEGA, the new government oversight agency that the Democrats were
cornered into finally supporting. It has the potential to save millions
and bring needed reforms to state agencies, and it got there because Rep.
David Trahan fought a one-man war for it and finally won one for all of
us.
You’ll read also of a new graduated driver’s license system
that almost certainly will end up saving some young lives, and you’ll
read of Essential Programs and Services, which holds out the hope of more
fairly funding our schools and providing a new model for government spending.
As bad as it is, there’s usually a flower or two among the weeds.
Those mailers won’t give you the whole story, but they’ll remind
you that we’re there, that we are taking votes that change lives,
and that if you want to know what it is we’re up to, you’ll
get involved, learn everything you can, call us up and keep us honest.
Those mailers will contain your legislator’s email, phone number
and address. Use ’em.
Stephen Bowen (R-Rockport) is serving his first term in the Maine Legislature.
Reach him at <RepStephen.Bowen@legislature.maine.gov>.