Smarter Goverment

Maine people want more from their government, and they want to pay less for it.

This isn't lost on the politicians competing for your votes, and they're busy filling the air with promises of more services and lower taxes. Promises won't get the job done, however.

Maine government has to take a good, hard look at how it does business and find ways to do more with less. Sure, there's some wasteful spending that can and should be eliminated, but we need to step away from the tired liberal vs. conservative, spend vs. tax arguments. We need to look at how we're delivering services and ask if we can find a better way.

This is not a new issue in Maine, but the problem has been that one branch of government always seems to have good ideas for how another can be reformed. The towns and cities point to the counties as needing to change. The counties look to the state. The state tries to force unpopular consolidation plans onto local school districts...

There's no level of government in Maine that doesn't need to reform, but as the chief executive of state government, the governor should start by examining how state government operates. Only leading by example can a governor create the climate necessary to make smarter government a reality in Maine. And, state employees need to be a partner and play a large role in this conversation. They have lots of good ideas that can be tapped to improve how government does its business.

We've got two starting points.

First, our corrections system is badly in need of reform. There is redundancy among our state prisons and county jails. Each facility is trying to offer a range of services without any economies of scale. We can do better. And it is vital that we lift the financial burden of operating jails from the backs of the local property tax payers who support county government.

Second, after spending nearly four years as Commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development, I've come to the conclusion there has to be better way to encourage our economy to grow. A range of state agencies see this as their mission - State Planning, the Finance Authority of Maine, Efficiency Maine, the Maine State Housing Authority to name a few.

While I've learned that it's important to maintain the independence of our regulators, state agencies working in a common direction should be better coordinated and find efficiencies within their ranks.

These are just two examples, but they can become a template for further reform.

Smarter government has to start at the top and not on somebody else's turf. That will take real leadership, not empty promises.