=== Fix the State ===

Stop Digging the Debt Hole

Every baby born in Maine begins life owing at least $4000 to the State. That’s each citizen’s share of 5.2 billion dollars in retirement benefits owed to teachers and state employees. Maine’s financial structure is tottering because of promises it cannot keep. Until we have funded our binding promises, our budget motto must be, “Pay as you go or do without.”

Further reading: Maine Public Debt (Peter Mills, Feb. 2005)

Measure Human Services

Human services has become the dominant role of Maine government. The services are delivered by thousands of private contractors with no clear targets for results, assessment of work, or consequences for poor performance. We must bring accountability to the Department of Health and Human Services. We must learn to measure performance, to pay for value rather than volume, to assess regained independence not the number of dependents.

Further reading: Maine Socio-Educational Complex (Peter Mills, March 2007)

Raise School Results

Maine taxpayers are paying far too much for K-12 education without getting results. Our per pupil costs are well above the national average; yet our comparative test scores are dropping and we have one of the shortest school years in the world. The state has tested students for 25 years, but we have no system to reward teachers for producing results, nor for imposing consequences on failing students. A Maine high school diploma implies no standard of competency. Modern assessments can quickly and easily gauge student progress and school performance. We need better measurements, more incentives, timely remediation — and a longer school year to allow for daily physical exercise, supervised homework, and professional development among teachers.

Cut School Overhead

While the 2007 school consolidation plan was defective, politically inept and only partially successful, the state itself has now run out of new money to support K-12. The resulting pressure on school budgets will drive property taxes through the roof. Yet there is still no coherent reason why school costs should continue to rise in the face of diminishing performance, a short school year and ever fewer students. Our neighborhood schools can best be protected by lifting administrative burdens from their backs through voluntary consolidations incentivized by the state.

Further reading: An Act to Increase Efficiency in School Administration (Peter Mills, Feb. 2007) | Let Them Learn in Ghettos (Peter Mills, March 2007)

Renovate Retirement Plans

Maine’s contracts resemble those from General Motors. We imprison teachers and state employees in jobs they no longer want, and discourage private sector professionals from taking public jobs as second careers. Maine’s pension plans are cemented to a policy of lifetime employment in a single occupation. These pensions punish employees who leave and reenter public service. We must move to a system that will give new hires portable pensions to supplement Social Security with defined benefits. This will avoid federal penalties that are so detrimental to our teachers and public employees who qualify for Social Security.

Further reading: Imprisoned by Public Pensions (Peter Mills, May 2008)

Reinforce Health Care

We need to revive the competitive insurance market, redirect Dirigo Health to create a high-risk pool with disease management features, and develop a statewide, secure, electronic medical-information system for patients and providers. We can extend public health care rather than costly insurance with:

- School based health clinics
- Affordable dental clinics in which patients contribute to the cost of their own care
- Rural Health Centers where patients pay a sliding scale fee
- Use of our charity care hospitals as outreach agents for public health
- Nutrition and health education

Further reading: A Seven-Point Prescription to Cure Dirigo Choice (Peter Mills, Feb 2006) | Deliver Health Care, Not Insurance (Village Soup, Dec. 2005)

Demolish Medicaid Abuse

So long as Medicaid is free, it will be abused. So long as it is supplied without condition, it will not improve health. Medicaid should be more demanding of its customers and more creative with its providers. Maine should ration non-essential benefits, particularly for patients who refuse to manage their own health or who abuse the privilege of care.

Trim Duplicate Services

Maine cannot afford duplicate services in public works, police and fire protection. Maine taxpayers support three separate layers of law enforcement: state police, county sheriffs and local police. Small towns six miles apart sit with idle graders and brand new firetrucks in every garage. The state can play a powerful role by offering incentives to local governments to share in the management of essential services, and helping coordinate those efforts.

Further reading: Maine Budgets: State and Local Spending (Peter Mills, Sept. 2005)

=== Rebuild Maine ===

Repair Infrastructure

More than 1000 state bridges are over 50 years old. Our typical high school has seen 40 graduations. Road deterioration outruns repair crews. The economy of rural Maine is paralyzed by 2000 miles of posted roads in mud season, cell phone voids along main roads and lack of high-speed internet. We need to remember basics when allocating scarce revenues. This means bridges, roads and buildings need our attention. The DOT should rebuild enough posted state roads each year to make posting a thing of the past. The state should establish a comprehensive plan for utility companies to eliminate cell phone and broadband voids within five years.

Spark Maine’s Economy

Through the Fund of Funds inspired by Tech Maine (details) we should make capital available for Maine’s entrepreneurs. We should incentivize our public pension managers to invest in Maine. We should cease providing whimsical tax favors to attract businesses that are here today and gone tomorrow. By controlling taxes and reducing regulation we can better support Maine’s traditional sources of economic strength: agriculture, fishing, tourism, forest products, manufacturing, and guided sports. In some cases, all it takes is for government to move out of the way.

Power our Future

Maine is sometimes called New England’s “Saudi Arabia” of renewable power. We have 17 million acres of forest, dozens of hydro dams, numerous bio-mass plants, and a high potential for wind, tidal, bio-diesel, and solar sources. Yet we pay some of the highest electricity rates in the nation. Although conservation is crucial, cheaper power is even more important.

Maine is in the center of an energy sandwich with cheap power to our north and a high priced market to our south. We have access to electricity that could cost as little as a nickel per KWH, but we in Maine are paying 10¢, the same price paid by residents of Boston and New York. By paying a nickel too much, we are losing $600 million per year, equal to half the burden of Maine’s state income tax. To reduce our costs, we must take better advantage of our natural resources and our closeness to Canada’s cheap power. We must drive hard bargains with the multinational companies that seek to dominate our energy markets, deals that tangibly benefit Maine people.

Further reading: Maine’s Caught in an Electricity Vise (Peter Mills, May 2008) | Peter Mills on Wind Power, Oct. 2008: Power to Rely On (pdf) Capturing the Wind (pdf)