MaineBusiness.com

One of the great things about elections is that – at least for one brief moment – they give us a clear picture of who and where we are. The public choices we make reveal what unites us and what divides us. And clearly the most important fault line in Maine today is reaction to change. There are those among us who see change as threatening, as movement away from cherished ideals, as an assault on the bedrock of principles that has endured from the distant past. And therefore as something that must be resisted fiercely.

And there are others among us who see change as unavoidable, as necessary and ultimately good, as the only way to realize our cherished ideals.

The other fact that this most recent election has revealed is that the focus of public initiative has changed from state government to local government, from Augusta to Town Hall. Whether it is to resist change or initiate change, the center of action over the next few years will be in the community, not in the capital. The greatest opportunity for social creativity lies close to home. The jobs of boards of selectmen, planning boards, school boards, conservation commissions and economic development committees will be far more interesting over the next four or five years than the jobs of state representatives, state senators or even the governor.

There are two reasons for this change in opportunity. The first is simply the natural result of our tax structure and the business cycle. State government revenue is very highly dependent on sales taxes, income taxes and gas taxes. And, even more importantly, on an extraordinarily narrow sales tax heavily dependent on automobiles and construction materials, on a highly progressive income tax and on a gas tax that punishes our roads when we drive less – something that growing awareness of global warming and the harsh budgetary realities of rising oil prices will continue to force us to do.

Statewide, we will be fortunate to regain 2007 employment levels by 2014. The capital gains and big bonuses that spiked our income tax revenues a few years ago are not going to reappear anytime soon. Still depressed housing prices and loads of underwater mortgages preclude a return to the construction boom of the past decade. If the "Still Fed Up With Taxes" crowd succeeds in shooting holes through the small parachute the Legislature did succeed in deploying last session, our state fiscal free-fall will simply accelerate.

Those taking jobs in Augusta over the next few sessions will face two tasks – gather like Wall Street traders of October 1929 or September 2008 to see how bad the revenue fall proves to be and then turn around to their budget and cut, cut, cut.

At the local level, on the other hand, the story is different. Voters – for whatever reasons – rejected TABOR II, the excise tax silliness and the proposal to reverse school consolidation. While everyone loves to whine about the burden of the property tax, we all know what it pays for – schools, safety and infrastructure. And whatever else we may say about them, we know that property tax revenues don't bounce around month to month with the volume of manufacturers rebates, the level of interest rates or the operation of some federal "cash for clunkers" bail-out program du jour. We also know that all of us – owners and renters, households and businesses – pay property taxes and closely follow how they're set and applied and collected. And finally, we know, or will soon, that the time for grousing about state mandates and hoping for more state "assistance" is over.

The ball is clearly in the court of local government.

The opportunity to make Maine "the way life ought to be" rests on the imagination, ingenuity and hard work of our local leaders. The chaos and dynamic inaction of partisan gridlock, that engulf our federal and state governments brings public responsibility right to our doorstep more clearly than ever.

If we wish to address our two most fundamental problems – providing our children and grandchildren with a truly world-class education and making our communities welcoming to the new and growing businesses that are our only hope of reversing the economic and demographic death spiral that threatens us – we must do it close to home. We must do it by joining local governments and making them the face of Maine, by making them the embodiment of our most cherished ideals.

Charles Lawton is senior economist for Planning Decisions, a public policy research firm. He can be reached at:

clawton@maine.rr.com