THE FUTURE? Given the revenue-bond embarrassment, Baldacci and the Democrats probably couldn’t get away with more cut-rate sales of big chunks of the state’s wealth. That makes a tax-reform push within the Legislature — with perhaps a tax hike on somebody — somewhat more likely, although the betting in Augusta is on continuing budget cuts to fill revenue gaps.
Wastefulness and cronyism
THE ISSUE Public money spent on questionable grounds is a huge subject. For space reasons, I must omit discussing, for example, my stories about state-employee self-indulgence, like the dinners the Maine Turnpike Authority executives held regularly with their consultants, one dinner famously featuring a $295 bottle of wine.THE STORIES Here’s one story: The Maine Office of Tourism spends millions a year on TV and magazine ads in the Northeast touting the state, and hundreds of thousands on polling to see if the ads work. In 2006 I wrote about how the polling was unscientific, according to a national expert. So no one really knows if these ads work, but the tourist industry demands the spending. The lodging and meals tax pays for the ads and polling, but that revenue could be used for other things.
UPDATE The spending continues, although tourism director Dann Lewis resigned after he had also come under fire from a blogger who raised questions about many of his actions. Baldacci appointed lobbyist Patricia Eltman to replace him. She was not experienced in tourism, but was a longtime Baldacci fundraiser. In 2006, she worked for the Democratic Governors Association advising on Baldacci's needs as the group injected big national corporate bucks into his reelection campaign. The money was not being counted as a Baldacci campaign receipt. After I wrote a story on what Eltman was doing, gubernatorial opponent Barbara Merrill complained, but a politicized Ethics Commission looked the other way.
THE FUTURE? Cronyism, lobbyist influence, and unquestioned expenditures to benefit business are likely to continue in Augusta.
Hysterectomized activism
THE ISSUE Doctor Baldacci and friends have not just ignored or made deals with liberals, they also have castrated, hysterectomized, or crushed a number of them.THE STORIES In 2006, I wrote about how Baldacci allies dismantled the most progressive (though nonpartisan) and effective reform group in the state, the Maine Citizens Leadership Fund. MCLF had successfully promoted public financing for Maine election campaigns and had been working hard for tax reform (contrary to Baldacci’s wishes). I have also written about how Maine Common Cause and the Maine League of Women Voters, formerly aggressive good-government groups, have nearly expired from the chronic wasting disease affecting Maine liberals.
UPDATE Nothing has taken the place of the MCLF, Maine Common Cause, and the state League. I have never seen progressive activism at such a low point, though some environmental groups are still energetic.
THE FUTURE? Only a crisis will revive liberals from their impotence. Or a new governor.
Plus ça change . . .
Why, in Maine politics, don’t things change?
Not to put too fine a point on it, self-seeking politicians and fearful bureaucrats fall to their knees in a religious ritual to smooch the elegant derrières of the undertaxed rich, their corporations, and their lobbyists. As a consequence, poor and middle-income folks get fleeced, services for the needy get cut, and the environment often gets despoiled.
