🔒Taking Maine’s pulse

I have a pretty sunny outlook on life — the result of being well-reared and well-loved, I guess.

So I had more than a little trepidation when I opened the cover story, "Five on the future," to give it an edit. Last year's predictions from five premier economists of Maine's economic progress (or, more accurately, lack thereof) was so gloomy I couldn't find a single shred of uplifting news. I feared more of the same as I double clicked this year's compendium, worried that the political ineptitude that had dominated news for the past year or more was going to conclude in forecasts of despair and recession for Maine.

But, hey, not so.

Most of our esteemed economists see indications of growth, albeit small and slow, but still an upward trend in housing markets, energy prices, jobs and elsewhere. We'll take it.

There is a lot of work ahead, of course, as Congress' 11th-hour action to prevent us from toppling off the fiscal cliff merely postpones the hardest decisions. Spending cuts, especially around defense appropriations and entitlement programs, have heightened impact here as Maine relies more on federal money than many of our neighboring states.

And there's lots to do to right our own house as well, as state Sen. Dick Woodbury, an economist and Independent lawmaker from Yarmouth, points out in his reflections, "Laying odds," starting on page 16, an assessment of where Democrats and Republicans are likely to lock horns in the new legislative session.

Hmmm, "where" is probably the wrong word; I meant the issues the two parties will debate. The "where" is Augusta, which happens to be part of this issue's focus on the Kennebec Valley. Augusta and its thousands of square feet of capitol and state government buildings is in the bull's eye of two competing natural gas companies, both of whom want to build pipelines and provide service. Although they have the same goal, their business models are entirely different, as Staff Writer Matt Dodge points out in his story, "Power play," starting on page 18.

We also check in with Paul Boghossian, who, five years ago, refurbished and reopened the former Hathaway Shirt factory into the Hathaway Creative Center in Waterville. Now he's back at it, pulling together permits and financing to start the $20 million-$25 million renovation of two other buildings in the Lockwood Mills complex, plans he discusses in "Next phase," starting on the cover.

Clearly he's feeling some optimism about Maine's economy in 2013. Let's hope it's more than a feeling and becomes a harbinger of better times to come.