“Corporations have been enthroned. . . . An era of corruption in high places will follow and the money power will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people. . . until wealth is aggregated in a few hands . . . and the Republic is destroyed.”_Abraham Lincoln, 1864In the eight years I’ve covered the State House for the Portland Phoenix, I’ve been struck by the depressingly constant themes: paralysis on tax reform; public aid for health insurance and heating oil that cruelly leaves many of the poor out in the cold; abuse of people in state institutions; deference by officials to companies menacing the environment; and the wastefulness, cronyism, and self-indulgence of politicians and upper-level bureaucrats.
In keeping with the season, a time for reviewing things, I looked back over my Phoenix stories in search of an explanation for this stagnant sameness. In my reading, I have discerned a similar miasma in other state capitals and in Washington, and that observation increased my curiosity.
Having written 161 stories since 2000, I had to neglect many subjects in my review, and I haven’t reported on every issue of significance, including many environmental threats; also, I am in the thick of my series on Maine’s prisons — which has revealed sickening abuse of prisoners — so it would be premature to evaluate that subject now.
But what I discovered in reexamining a few big issues may throw light not just on the past and present, but also on the future — including the upcoming legislative session.
Tax reform/budget woes
THE ISSUE Despite forceful expressions of citizen unhappiness, Governor John Baldacci and the Democratic Legislature have failed to craft a fairer tax system — one that would be more “progressive,” based on the ability to pay, and that would avoid repeated cuts in services to the poor, the mentally ill, the developmentally disabled, and other disadvantaged people as the main answer to huge, continuous shortfalls between budgeted revenues and expenses. This is the Big Deal issue of state government.THE STORIES My first story about Baldacci as governor — when he was inaugurated in 2003 — was about how this Democratic former congressman was really a Republican. He seemed far more interested in cutting state expenditures and taxes than in improving services and fashioning fairer taxes. Since then, as industries have continued to abandon Maine, I have written about how Baldacci and legislators ironically have rewarded the corporate sector by cutting its taxes and defending its tax breaks.
The Republicans, narrowly in the legislative minority throughout Baldacci’s tenure, basically have loved his attitude, although they complain he doesn’t go far enough in slashing spending and taxes. Democratic lawmakers are more responsive to the constituencies that bleed from his cuts, but only marginally so, and Baldacci can “convince” recalcitrant legislators with promises of support for their bills, with a piece of the budget pie, or with a hint of a future job.
The governor has considerable leverage over Democrats because on key issues he is a social liberal. So gay-rights lobbyists were marshaled to support his budget (in effect, its cuts) while he supported a successful gay-rights bill. Thus, professional-class Democratic activists and legislators were pitted against the economically less fortunate.
UPDATE Occasionally, Democrats reflect their liberal heritage. In the last legislative session they gave birth to a modestly progressive tax-reform bill that also would have dampened the wild swings in state revenue that our narrowly based sales taxes produce. It was killed by one vote when Baldacci, allied with Republicans and business lobbyists, pushed Senate president Beth Edmonds to switch sides.
THE FUTURE? To avoid raising taxes, Baldacci also has tried to wring efficiencies from government by consolidating its elements. Last session, he pushed through a school-district-consolidation bill. In the coming session, he wants to consolidate county jails with state prisons. Democrats as well as Republicans are increasingly uneasy about his challenges to local control. He will have resistance on the jails issue.
In 2008 legislative Democrats could again attempt tax reform. There are no strong legislative leaders, however, and the governor has a veto. Still, Baldacci does not have deep support in the state. He was reelected with only 38 percent of the vote.
Dirigo Health
THE ISSUE Baldacci has failed to insure the many Mainers without health insurance — at present, 122,000.
THE STORIES In his first year in office, Baldacci made national news by getting the Legislature to adopt the Dirigo Health Plan, which would within a few years insure all the uninsured. It didn’t happen. DirigoChoice, as the insurance is called, now covers about 12,000 people, but most have switched from private insurance. There are close to as many uninsured Mainers now as in 2003, and as the country heads into an economic downturn, possibly a recession, the uninsured undoubtedly will increase in number.
