Reflection point | Four years after a landmark report, Maine has made strides large and small
“Charting the Course” is written by GrowSmart Maine, a Portland nonprofit that promotes and encourages new ways of thinking about Maine’s future. This issue’s column will be the last in the series, and was written by Christian MilNeil, GrowSmart’s communications director.
In this, our final column for Mainebiz, I’d like to take stock of the achievements Maine has made since the 2006 publication of GrowSmart’s “Charting Maine’s Future” report, and take a look at what still needs to be done.
We need to find creative new solutions that solve more than one problem simultaneously. Our economic development strategy can also benefit the health of our environment, with more walkable communities and renewable energy technologies. And our budget cuts should be seen as an opportunity to improve public services and cut through red tape that impedes economic opportunity.
Sustainable communities
One of GrowSmart Maine’s larger victories of the past two years was the passage of a new tax credit to help finance historic preservation projects in Maine’s cities and towns — one of the report’s key “quality of place” recommendations.
Passed in 2007, just before the massive financial meltdown, the tax credits helped salvage a number of high-profile projects, along with hundreds of design and construction jobs. Today, the first projects are nearing completion. They include projects from North Berwick (where they helped finance 40 new apartments for the elderly) to Waterville (where they helped renovate the former Hathaway shirt factory).
The past decade witnessed record levels of land conservation in Maine’s rural hinterlands. But in the coming decade, look for more focused conservation efforts that hone in on the cities and towns where Mainers actually live. The metropolitan Bangor area is undergoing a multi-town collaboration with the Trust for Public Land to protect regional natural resources, and Bridgton recently preserved a large “central park” in the middle of town. More and more Mainers are coming to realize that the best of Maine’s natural wonders are as accessible in Maine’s towns and cities as they are in the rural suburbs.
The innovation economy
In 2007, with hundreds of letters from GrowSmart Maine’s supporters, the Legislature approved a landmark bond package that provided new grant funding for promising research and development projects. The state also budgeted money for growing small “clusters” of businesses into something larger.
The bulk of these funds was distributed during the darkest days of the recession, and helped create a local, specialized stimulus to some of the state’s most promising new business ventures. Rigorous evaluations have demonstrated that these investments have more than paid for themselves with new economic activity for the state, better-paying jobs and new enterprises.
Still, the skinflint mentality in Augusta has put these investments in peril: In 2010, only a paltry $3 million for statewide research and development bonds will be on the ballot. Stinginess in economic development today will make the job for future budget-writers that much more difficult.
Streamlining government
The State House cut half a billion dollars from last year’s budget, and this year legislators will contend with another $438 million shortfall. Meanwhile, the state’s health care and energy costs continue to rise. Back in 2006, we called for an independent commission to investigate and recommend structural changes to save hundreds of millions of dollars, outside of the regular political process. Most politicians had little use for the idea, but it persists. Last year, for instance, an independent task force within the University of Maine System recommended a slate of structural changes to Maine’s higher education system, aimed at not only reducing costs, but also improving educational results and the university’s positive impacts on Maine’s economy (see “Well Schooled” in the Oct. 5 issue).
Signing off
The budget crisis is an opportunity to reinvent and improve government in general, a chance to jettison failed bureaucratic ways of doing business and introduce more innovative and entrepreneurial management styles. Over the course of 2010, GrowSmart Maine will work with the internationally renowned Public Strategies Group to update an “action plan” for making Maine’s governments more effective, while improving services.
As much as we’ve accomplished, many initiatives from the “Charting Maine’s Future” report remain to be implemented. We hope that Maine’s gubernatorial candidates will borrow freely from them.
Thanks for reading our “Charting the Course” column. You can stay in touch with us, and receive action alerts when important policy issues come up, by signing up for our e-mail list at www.growsmartmaine.org.
Christian MilNeil can be reached at christian@growsmartmaine.org. Read more of Charting the Course at www.mainebiz.biz.
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