There is a lot of talk about partisanship and dysfunctional government these days. But behind the attention grabbing headlines, the Legislature has compromised and improved state government for the people of Maine.
As a first-term lawmaker, I had the opportunity to see this up close with legislation to assist Maine veterans. We passed new laws this year to strengthen state services to veterans and restore tuition assistance to our state’s National Guard service members at Maine colleges and universities.
The veterans bills were put together out of the recommendations of a special commission that I co-chaired with my Republican colleague, Sen. Ron Collins, after a bill I sponsored to create the commission became law. There was a lot of hard work and negotiation, and I was gratified to see these measures became law with overwhelming support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
The Maine Bureau of Veterans Services is the chief advocate for our state’s veterans, but it does them no good unless they know the bureau exists. The new law gives the bureau a permanent outreach coordinator, important new technology upgrades and an annual marketing and outreach budget so that it can inform veterans about available resources, and work with the more than 70,000 Maine veterans who are not enrolled in VA health care.
The new law also provides the bureau with three new veteran service officers, two who are mobile-based so they can travel to veterans in rural areas of the state, and a third to focus on assistance to homeless veterans.
We should all be proud that our state continually ranks among the highest per capita for military service and feel good about the fact that our Legislature and state government are working together to help veterans access the health care and resources, such as educational programs like the G.I. Bill, that they earned.
That’s not all we accomplished in the 127th Legislature. House Democrats and Senate Republicans forged a budget compromise to give middle-class families an income tax break, and direct property tax relief. In 2015, the state income tax was 7.95 percent for income greater than $20,900, and 6.5 percent for income between $5,200-20,899. In 2017, the income tax will be 7.15 percent for income greater than $50,001, 6.75 percent for income between $21,400-50,000, and 5.8 percent for $21,399 and less.
In addition, the budget doubled the Homestead Exemption for homeowners from $10,000 in 2015, to $20,000 in 2017. In Lewiston, this means that the average household will receive a property tax reduction in 2017. We also created the Sales Tax Fairness Credit to help offset the state sales tax.
The Legislature increased the state’s share of education funding, making an important investment in students, but left a disproportionate burden on property-tax payers as it fell short of the voter-mandated 55 percent.
We also reformed the “welfare cliff” so that people on government assistance are rewarded for work while maintaining a smaller level of assistance so they can enter the workforce, help provide for their families and build toward self-sufficiency.
We preserved the Drugs for the Elderly Program so that seniors can better afford the medications they need, and passed a Senior Housing Bond so that they have access to affordable housing.
Democrats and Republicans also approved $185 million in transportation bonds to improve the transportation infrastructure we all rely on to get to work and that businesses depend on to move commercial goods every day.
That’s not exactly partisan gridlock for a Legislature with a Democratic-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate.
It is true that government can never have all of the solutions, but it’s also true that we all owe our success in part to government support at every level, from public schools, to public roads, to public safety.
Whether it is teachers who educate our youth, Department of Transportation employees who maintain our roads and bridges, police officers who protect and serve or CDC employees who look out for our public health — there are thousands of state employees who represent how government works for our benefit every day.
Those are just a few examples of how, for every negative headline about partisan fights, there are a half-dozen potential positive headlines about political compromise and good governance that were never written.
Rep. Jared Golden, D-Lewiston, is serving his first term in the Maine Legislature. He served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
