Charting Maine’s Future

President Obama announced today that the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority will receive $35 million in ARRA funds to expand the Amtrak Downeaster route from Portland to Brunswick as part of an $8 billion national investment in high speed passenger rail. Senators Snowe and Collins released a joint statement about the grant explaining,

“Since its inception, the Downeaster service has enjoyed steady ridership increases, providing tremendous benefits to Maine, including reducing road congestion, cleaner air, commuting options, and easier access to the state for tourists and economic development opportunities for businesses and communities. Extending this critical rail service to Brunswick will not only build upon the these successes but also create jobs and further boost tourism in the Midcoast region, giving the Brunswick area, which is coping with the closure of Brunswick Naval Air Station, a much-needed economic shot in the arm.”

Read more about this announcement from the White House Press Secretary, the Press Herald, Trainriders Northeast, or Sen. Snowe and Rep. Pingree’s websites.

Check out GrowSmart’s latest “Charting the Course” column in Mainebiz. “Better Branding” explores how Maine’s public-sector economic development agencies are focusing on enhancing Maine’s “quality of place” assets in order to attract new jobs and businesses.

“All kinds of businesses — not just L.L. Bean, but also hunting camps, boat builders, bed and breakfasts, wedding caterers, furniture makers, horror novelists and thousands of others — have been making hay from the Maine brand for decades. This romantic idea of Maine also helps attract talented workers and businesses who bring their talents and incomes into our economy.”

Also, Ron Bancroft takes a look at how the gubernatorial race is shaping up in his column in today’s Portland Press Herald.

“What we do know is that the key issue in the campaign will be the economy and how to position Maine for job growth.

“The state desperately needs a real growth plan. With more jobs, many things are possible, without them the state will continue a slow downward spiral as chronic budget deficits and an aging workforce make needed investment for the future unlikely.”

Whether any of the candidates embrace the economic development plan laid out by the GrowSmart-Brookings Report, or introduce a new strategy, 2010 promises an engaging debate about how to move Maine forward.

Last year, we had a discussion over lunch with David Greenham of the Theater at Monmouth to talk about some of the issues raised in our 2006 “Charting Maine’s Future” report. Greenham had helped produce the 2006 play Taxing Maine, a short play about taxes that became especially relevant on the eve of the first TABOR referendum, and was working on a new project that would put a theatrical spin on growth and development in our state.

The new play, titled As Maine Grows, had its first performances this summer, and is gearing up for a statewide tour this fall. Here’s a description from the Maine Humanities Council, which is helping produce the play:

Maine is changing so rapidly and in so many ways, it’s almost impossible to keep up with it all. There is population growth in some areas and decline in others, new business clusters springing up in some places, dying in others. Maine’s governor wants us to become a leader in wind technology; the proposed school consolidation is intended to provide better education for less money. Meanwhile, there is always lots of conversation around land use: do we want to turn traditional timberlands into resorts, houses and golf courses or leave them as open space? What about public access? How well do we actually do this planning business? How well has Maine ever done it? As Maine Grows brings you some of the stories of past efforts at planning and growth. Silly? Outrageous? Depressing? Insane? It depends on your perspective.

As Maine Grows doesn’t touch on every issue of development, but we think it will help to start a conversation in your community about the important issues we’re facing and how we might want to address them.

So if the GrowSmart-Brookings report was too wonky for you to read without falling asleep - we won’t take it personally - this sounds like an entertaining way to think about the same issues. Here’s where you can see As Maine Grows this fall:

Thanks to Belinda Stewart at the Freeport Library for putting these performances on our radar - you can watch “As Maine Grows” at her library in downtown Freeport on Saturday September 19th at 7 PM.

George Smith’s latest column in the Kennebec Journal does its best to light a fire under State House lawmakers:

“It wasn’t exactly an earthquake, but when GrowSmart Maine released its Brookings Institution Report, “Charting Maine’s Future,” in October 2006, it took the state by storm….

“Real accomplishments followed, including a bond of $55 million for research and development and our “innovation” economy and two bonds for ‘quality of place’ land and river conservation and community revitalization… I got so excited about all of this that I joined the GrowSmart Board of Directors last year, eager to make sure this dynamic organization advocated strongly for the rural Maine attributes and values that Brookings recognized as our strength.

But Smith laments the lack of action on important initiatives that the Brookings report had recommended, and the bungling of others:

Example number one: consolidation of schools. Here’s what Brookings said: “Maine could realize between $10 million and $35 million in annual K-12 education-costs savings without closing or consolidating a single school by reducing administrative costs to various national or Maine consolidated-district standards.”

That’s right, we could have reduced administrative costs substantially “without closing or consolidating a single school.”

But we made a mess of it, didn’t we?

…

And then there’s one of my favorite Brookings’ recommendations: a Maine government efficiency commission “to methodically review the structure and operations of state government and propose specific reforms to eliminate duplication and inefficiency.”

This didn’t happen because the Legislature choked on the suggestion that the commission’s recommendations “be subject to a single up-or-down vote by the Legislature.”

Few legislators are willing to give up their right to defend favorite state programs and jobs in an up-or-down single vote.

Just to be clear, GrowSmart Maine’s official position may differ somewhat from Smith’s - as flawed as some people think it is, Maine’s budget and schools are better off with the school administrative consolidation plan in place than they would have been without it. We worked in Augusta to make sure that the plan was enacted two years ago, and we continue to work to keep the state on task to dedicate more of our limited resources into classrooms, instead of administration.

On Smith’s second point, the desperate condition of this year’s budget may actually be able to convince lawmakers to give up their privilege to micromanage favored state programs - a privilege that’s become a heavy burden in the dire fiscal conditions of the past few months. In his budget proposal, Governor Baldacci proposed an independent efficiency commission similar to the concept endorsed in the Brookings report. We’ll see if it survives the State House next week, when legislators vote on the budget.

Today we’re at the Augusta Civic Center for the long-awaited Summit 2008. I’ll be trying to live blog at least some of today’s workshops as they happen. Here’s a quick summary of the morning’s first two keynote addresses, by Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institution and Jim Chrisinger of the Public Strategies Group.

Bruce gave the morning’s first address, and noted that as a result of his work in Maine two years ago, his 16 year-old daughter is now obsessed with Maine’s “quality of place,” going to an Outward Bound trip this summer and gunning to attend college here. A great example of how Maine’s “brand” exerts a pull on people all over the state.

Bruce then gave a quick rundown of the Brookings report’s recommendations, which, he maintains, remain the same two years later, even amidst the remarkable economic changes we’re going through right now.

In fact, Katz maintains that challenging economic times make the Brookings report’s recommendations more timely than ever: now is the time to recommit to the fundamental strengths of Maine’s economy. Those are Maine’s “brand,” its quality of place, and its entrepreneurial, frugal culture. By leveraging those strengths, Maine’s economy will thrive in the long term.

Katz then gave us a “report card” on how well we’ve implemented the strategies contained in the report, and what still needs to be done. Although the state has made some laudable investments in research and development, quality places, and efforts to streamline government, Katz notes that the state needs to make a long-term commitment to those investments, by finding a dedicated source of funding for investments and freeing up more resources from a leaner government.

Jim Chrisinger spoke next. His first line: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” The crowd chuckles, and Chrisinger notes that it’s a reliable laugh line. But as a former public servant, he’s troubled that it’s such a reliable laugh line. Why should government be such a joke?

Chrisinger’s current employer, the Public Strategies Group, works all over the world, at all levels of government, to try to make government more effective and cost-effective to its public “customers.” He gives a quick history of the history of our current model of government: the top-down, rigid bureaucracy had its genesis in the old progressive era, as a solution to the spoils system that had generated so much corruption and failures at the turn of the century. Back then, “bureaucracy” wasn’t a dirty word: it was seen as a vital solution, and it was the standard model in private enterprise at that time as well (think of Henry Ford’s assembly lines).

But after nearly a century under the bureaucratic model of government, it’s time to adapt: become less rigid and rules-based, and allow more creativity and entrepreneurial action in governments. Chrisinger gives a quick example: customer service standards at the DMV, so that if your license isn’t renewed within 30 minutes, you won’t pay for it. Instead of having a supervisor work as a (not very effective) cheerleader, DMV workers in this model have a real financial incentive to serve customers quickly and efficiently.

Chrisinger notes that there’s no shortage of creative ideas for entrepreneurial government: the “supply” side is strong. There is a shortage of demand for better government. He thanks GrowSmart Maine for getting involved in generating more demand, and asks the audience to demand the same of their candidates before election day.

Chrisinger and PSG will be working with GrowSmart to generate an “action plan” for better government in our upcoming “Governing Maine in the 21st Century” project.

As you may have read recently in the Portland Press Herald or Kennebec Journal, GrowSmart Maine intends to go ahead with two “sequel” reports that follow up on themes from the 2006 Brookings report, “Charting Maine’s Future.”

The first, “Governing Maine in the 21st Century,” would take a big-picture view of Maine’s governments and seek to find ways that they can provide better public services at lower costs. Fundraising is well underway for this report and we hope to begin research and collecting feedback from Mainers all over the state by this fall. You can read more about the “Governing Maine in the 21st Century” project in this June blog post, which also profiles David Osborne of the Public Strategies Group, our projected research partner for the report. Maine Sunday Telegram editorial page editor John Porter also wrote about the project in a May column.

A second report, “Climate, Energy, and Prosperity: Challenges and Opportunity in Maine,” would examine ways in which Maine might overcome the linked challenges of climate change and energy price inflation by investing in a new, “green innovation” economy and by revitalizing our home-grown natural resource industries. We hope to select a research partner for this project over the summer and have a report ready for publication in mid-2009.

Each report is expected to cost $650,000 - as with the original Brookings report, half of the projects’ budgets will be devoted to outreach, education, and advocacy after the reports’ publication. These will be reports designed for action, and for moving Maine forward. If you’re interested in making a pledge to either project, please e-mail project manager Rich Livingston or call him at 847-9275 ext. 306.

We’ve updated our web site, www.growsmartmaine.org, with new information about these proposed reports on the home page and links to more detailed information under the “Projects” menu of the site’s webpages. Click here to visit the updated home page.

And here on the blog, we’ve added a few new sites to our blogroll. Future Freeport is a new blog about the “place, community, and economy of Freeport, Maine” written by Peter Troast, a local business owner and member of the Freeport Economic Development Corporation [and also, for the sake of full disclosure, the husband of GrowSmart Maine's deputy director Lisa Fahay].

Also new on the blogroll is the excellent Working in Maine blog, written by the Central/Western Maine Workforce Investment Board. Please pay both of them a visit!

In today’s Bangor Daily News, GrowSmart Maine president Alan Caron praises the Legislature and Governor for implementing a number of initiatives outlined in the GrowSmart-Brookings report, including a statewide building code, an expanded historic preservation tax credit, and an initiative to streamline administration of the state’s prison system:

“The effort to fill this year’s budget shortfall was a commendable achievement, but legislators who served in this last session should be most remembered for their farsighted initiatives to streamline government and promote prosperous and sustainable communities for the long term. Although there is much more work to be done in Augusta, Maine can look forward to enjoying the benefits of these accomplishments for decades to come.”

Maine’s Senate just voted to approve An Act to Establish a Uniform Building and Energy Code, with statewide enforcement (20 in favor, 15 opposed).

Following Friday’s passage of the bill by the House, this item from the Brookings Institution’s “action plan for sustainable prosperity” is well on its way to becoming state law.

This act of legislation attracted more advocacy from our members than any other issue we’ve worked on - something we consider fairly remarkable, given the relatively technical nature of the issue.

Many, many thanks to the dozens of you who wrote to your Legislators or called the State House to urge this bill’s passage. This bill had some powerful opposition from some of Augusta’s more formidable lobbying groups, and we absolutely couldn’t have done this without your grassroots support.

We’re looking forward to getting rid of the old regulations once and for all and clearing the way for new investments in Maine’s towns and cities.

A State House update from Maggie Drummond, our advocacy director:

The Legislature’s Business, Research, and Economic Development (BRED) Committee has given LD 2257, An Act to Establish a Uniform Building and Energy Code, an “ought to pass” recommendation with a 9-4 vote.

The 4-vote minority also supported a uniform building code, but would have preferred an amendment that would allow voluntary enforcement from towns and strike the energy requirements from the law.

While passing the law with these amendments would still represent a huge leap forward in streamlining Maine’s code enforcement, the provision for voluntary enforcement dilutes the bill’s intentions by preserving a vestige of the existing “crazy quilt” of differing standards in different towns. We believe that a uniform building code also requires uniform enforcement, so we’ll continue to advocate for the unamended version that was endorsed by the BRED Committee’s majority.

The bill now heads for approval from the full Legislature. Dozens of GrowSmart advocates have already written to their Legislators to endorse this important legislation - if you haven’t yet joined them, take a few clicks of your mouse to send your own message to your representatives in the State House.

The GrowSmart-Brookings report’s “action plan for sustainable prosperity” included over two full pages (pp. 119-121) of recommendations to reform the state’s complicated patchwork of building codes.

“Today, Maine’s lack of a uniform statewide building code seriously hinders redevelopment by injecting uncertainty into investors’ decisionmaking, consuming time, and making clear guidance from a central source impossible to obtain,” wrote the Brookings Institution.

Fortunately, tackling the state’s building codes was one of the first action items from the report that the Legislature tackled last year, and lawmakers directed the State Planning Office to draft a bill that would implement a single, statewide code of building and energy standards.

That bill is now ready to go before the legislature as LD 2257, and it fits in nicely with this spring’s agenda to support other revitalization and redevelopment legislation like the historic preservation tax credit. Here’s a link to the bill’s text.

The Legislature only has a few weeks left in session, but we’re hoping to make this bill into law before they wrap things up. As far as I can tell, the Legislature has yet to schedule a public hearing on this bill, but we’ll let you know when it will be as soon as we find out.

Stay tuned for advocacy updates on this one - we’ll be asking for our constituents’ help to shepherd this good idea safely through the State House.