AUGUSTA, Maine — Changing government is far from easy.
Every so often, a well-respected, often bipartisan or nonpartisan group gets together to outline a vision for Maine and to set goals for achieving that vision.
Sometimes certain details of those voluminous reports get parsed out and lead to meaningful change. More often, though, the reports sit in a drawer.
Sen. Richard Woodbury of Yarmouth, the only independent state senator in Maine, wants to take the best of those reports and create an all-star commission to turn them into a plan of action.
“While these reports vary in specifics, they share a similar vision for how Maine must change for our economy to thrive,” Woodbury said recently while introducing his bill to the Legislature’s Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee. “The reports emphasize Maine’s unique reputation or brand, and our quality of life, as foundations for a dramatically more vibrant state economy than we have now. But they call for investments in human capital and innovation, and a restructuring in public policy and governance that makes these investments possible.”
Woodbury said his goal is to create something that is truly nonpartisan. In the past several years, he said many policy initiatives have suffered because they were created and passed largely by one party. For many years, that was Democrats but over the last year, Republicans have been in charge of the Legislature.
Woodbury said the Democrats’ tax reform plan in 2009, which was overturned by a people’s veto a year later, and the Republicans’ health insurance reform plan in 2011, which Democrats continue to criticize, are prime examples.
“In the political environment today, proposals tend to be developed and praised by one party and one set of interest groups, only to be discredited by the other party and another set of interest groups,” he said. “A great thing about these reports is their origination far outside the realm of partisan politics.”
Among the reports or studies cited by Woodbury were:
• Charting Maine’s Future, prepared by the Brookings Institution in collaboration with GrowSmart Maine.
• Measures of Growth, produced annually by the Maine Economic Growth Council.
• Making Maine Work, a three-part series by the Maine Development Foundation and Maine State Chamber of Commerce.
• Reinventing Maine Government by Envision Maine.
The challenge lies with the fact that Maine’s Legislature turns over every two years. Another is that the proposals could bypass or conflict with the vision set out by the executive branch.
Laurie LaChance, president of the Maine Development Foundation, spoke in support of Woodbury’s bill.
“People are hungry for that action piece,” she said.
The bill, LD 1437, would create a Commission on Reinventing Maine Government, composed of established statesmen and stateswomen who have earned broad respect for their leadership, vision and commitment to Maine, according to Woodbury.
The Legislature’s labor committee is expected to hold a work session on the bill at 1 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9. Woodbury said he has been tasked to bring back more specific details at that meeting.
Government does need to be reinvented because it has stopped working for us a long time ago. Many years ago we invented a government to work for the people, it has gotten so large we the people are forced to work for the government. Just take a look at your deduction side of your paycheck if you are in doubt ! WE need to rid the Government of the three party system, we do not need Republicans , Democrats or Independents; Just one party that is interested in serving all people and not their own agenda !
Good luck with a one party system, it works so much better, just look at history.
And our multi-party system is working so much better ? If you put 21 people in a room to solve a problem , you get 21 different ideas ! Which one is the right one for all of us ?
Better than a one party system by far. No system is perfect someone is always going to fall through the cracks, there will always be people that feel things should change. You go with a one party system and it will be much worse than what we are seeing now. What we need is the existing parties to sit down and work together to make things happen instead of stalling and working for their own agendas. A one party system might sound like that would end that quick, and it would but they’d be working for themselves and not the rest of us. How many one party systems are seen in a positive light, not the route to go.
We do the IRS.
If you do not take everything from anyone who has something to give to those that want everything free than count the dems out. There is not enough money to cover all the payoffs neccesary to get the liberal vote.
Call the Koch brothers they own most of the republicans in Congress.
Sounds like someone is trying to back door a position for the captain of theEPA. Mr Cutler
George Orwell just twittered me and said he is rolling on the floor with LOL.
quote”The bill, LD 1437, would create a Commission on Reinventing Maine
Government, composed of established statesmen and stateswomen who have
earned broad respect for their leadership, vision and commitment to
Maine, according to Woodbury.”
The moonbats cited in the above quote are the very people who provided the leadership to get us past the point of no return with regards to Global Warming. see http://www.heatisonline.org
These are the people who remained silent and provided 0% leadership, nada , zero, around
problems with law enforcement committing more crimes than they solve including dealing drugs, raping
our sons and daughters while spying on political activists trying to speak out against the corruption
of ” esteemed statesmen and stateswomen who have earned a broad respect…..” LOL
When do Maine voters and taxpayers take back civilian control of the military driven criminal justice system?
These are the very people who turn a deaf ear or collaborate with the taxpayer funded law enforcement agencies who are committing voter fraud to ensure the election of moonbats who will turn a deaf ear and blind look to law enforcement abusers.
google leonard gates bob draise fbi voter fraud
Could you tweet Mother Goose and get her reaction please?
This looks like expanding government instead of reinventing government. Mr. Woodbury uses alot of Liberal organizations to cite his reasons for this bill. We need less Government which LePage and the Republicans are trying to do not more Government this is why the Legislature should kill the bill in committee.
DC, LePage isin’t shrinking the size of Gov’t. He’s doing everything he can to re-make Maine Gov’t a ‘My way or the highway’ Gov’t. That you don’t like where some of these ideas come from is just too bad. That’s the basic premise of democracy. Everyone can, or does not have to, contribute to make it better. You got some ideas that can make Maine better, fine. Putt’em out there for all to see. Discuss, debate, negotiate and compromise is what the democratic process is all about. LePage is apparantly unhappy that anyone else but His Highness has any ideas that might contradict his. Hey, Paulie ! Get over it ! You don’t like it, fine. There’s always Florida.
There’s been talk about reducing the size of legislature to save money and we don’t seem to have the political will to do that, so HOW are we going to find the courage to go even further and reinvent government?
Finding a way that the chief executive and legislature can work together is a huge problem, one that may never be solved. The Legislature in Maine could be halved and contain only a Unicameral group, it would save money and shorten the work flow.
The headline in this article sums up all of our problems in one line. “Maine’s only Independent senator”. We need people who are interested in doing the bidding of the people of Maine. Not one corrupt party or the other. We would be much better off if everyone in Augusta was an Independent and there were no Democrats or Republicans, period. Those two parties have driven this country into the ditch, it is time for a different approach.
He’s unenrolled, not “independent” – you’d think any Maine reporter would know that. Plus, he caucuses with the Democrats in the Legislature. Funny how the BDN conveniently omitted that fact. More great reporting from Eric Russell.
They just cannot stand the Republicans running the legislature.