Green Party responds to State of the State address

January 23, 2010

Green Independent Party gubernatorial Lynne Williams Thursday called for the State of Maine to create an economic climate based on sustainability. The former chair of the Maine Green Party delivered the Party’s response to the annual State of the State address by Governor John Baldacci.

Currently, Williams said, neither the state’s budget process, its economic development efforts or its tax structure reflect a sustainable model.

“We simply guess at future economic conditions and revenues,” Williams said, “and it often appears we’re not only ignoring history but letting our wish-list budget drive the projections, rather than let the projections drive the budget. Maine should budget based on the average of revenues that actually came in to the treasury.”

“Farmers understand this concept,” Williams said, “and they budget based on multi-year averages of their yields. That way, they can often ride out bad years and use strong years to build up a surplus – a surplus they use only when yearly revenue falls below the average. Municipal governments often work the same way”

But while Maine works towards a sustainable goal, Williams said, “it still must deal with the current crisis, which our lack of foresight has dealt us. But we must do so intelligently, and with an eye towards the future, not just with quick fixes.

“Maine is not a business, and should not become a business – at least in the Wall Street model. The citizens of Maine are not the customers of government; they are the owners of government, owners of an economy that depends largely on factors beyond our borders – both natural and man made. It is not the purpose of government to create jobs, because the only jobs government can create are government jobs. The economic purpose of government is to create an environment in which private businesses – big and small – can be born, prosper and live out a useful and productive life. This environment should be fair to all businesses. It should not encourage new development and ignore the needs of long established Maine businesses. The business environment Maine government creates should encourage private job creation that truly benefits the citizens of Maine – the owners of Maine – not just out-of-state investors and multi-national corporations.”

In addition to smart budgeting and sustainable economic development, we must look at savings, Williams said, noting “the current administration has made much of consolidation, particularly the ill-advised forced school consolidation, and possible future plans to consolidate state agencies. But random consolidation of state agencies is not the answer – particularly when it comes to the natural resource agencies.”

Some agencies are licensing and law enforcement focused, others are land use agencies, and still others are protection and conservation based, Williams said, and it is “very unwise for the state to assume that because they all deal with ‘natural resources’ that they could be merged. It would be like merging the Department of Education with DHHS because they both deal with children – a complete misunderstanding of the functions and responsibilities of the agencies”

While duplicative functions of some agencies can be identified and consolidated, to combine entire agencies in order to promote questionable savings is the wrong approach, Williams said.

Lastly, she said, it’s clear that we must have some taxes, but they not only have to be the right mix of taxes, they must be fair and balanced – both to residents and those from away who support our recreational industries.

“The Maine Green Independent Party is founded on principles including Decentralization, Community-based Economics, Economic Justice, Personal And Global Responsibility, Future Focus and Sustainability,” Williams said,

“There is no reason Maine government should not adopt those same principles. We’d all be better of if it did.”