GrowSmart Maine
Excerpts from
Brookings Report Summary:
Here are the
Brookings Institution's specific
recommendations:
Invest in
Maine's heart and soul to
bolster our 'brand'
Create a
permanent Maine Quality
Places Fund
Maine
should create a $190
million fund and invest in
four areas to:
1.
Revitalize our cities and
towns to absorb future
growth and reduce pressure
on rural areas.
2.
Protect and preserve
forests, farms and working
waterfronts.
3.
Improve public access to
traditional fishing,
hunting and boating areas.
4.
Increase tourism
promotion, particularly on
a regional basis.
The fund
would be paid for by
dedicating revenues from a
3-percent increase in the
lodging tax, which would
put Maine more in line
with other
tourism-oriented states.
Invest in
Maine's resourcefulness
and creativity
Create an
Innovation Jobs Fund
Maine
should create a $200
million fund to grow more
jobs through innovation,
which is the driving force
in modern economies. Most
of the money - $180
million - would go into
research and development,
doubling Maine's current
rate of investment. The
remaining $20 million
would go into business-led
networks of emerging
clusters that would help
individual businesses to
act as a group. This
builds on something that
we're already doing in
Maine. Boat builders, for
instance, are already
working together on joint
job training and
marketing, while famously
independent lobster
fishermen are now
marketing under the same
banner. With a little
help, these exceptional
efforts could become the
norm in bio-tech, organic
farming, eco-tourism,
green building and a
variety of other emerging
sectors that have real
promise.
Streamline
government and cut taxes
Create a
Binding Government
Efficiency Commission
Maine needs
to modernize and overhaul
state government and K-12
school administration, and
reduce some aspects of
local government
duplication. A
top-to-bottom overhaul of
bureaucracies would not
only improve service and
finance needed
investments, but could
also make a down-payment
on tax reform.
The commission would be
modeled after the federal
Base Realignment and
Closure Commission, which
has won begrudging praise
for its ability to reduce
the nation's over-extended
military infrastructure.
The so-called BRAC
commission reflects the
fact that in some cases
government cannot
restructure itself without
going outside of
government for help. In
this case, a high-level
commission would undertake
a rigorous analysis of the
structure and cost of
state government and make
recommendations that would
be subject to a simple up
or down vote by elected
officials.
Brookings
estimates that Mainers
could save from $60
million to $100 million a
year with such a tough,
extensive, thoughtful and
binding review.
Savings
would go toward
investments in the
Innovation Jobs Fund and
toward tax reductions.
Property tax relief should
be earmarked to towns with
a high percentage of
un-taxable property. The
income tax should be
reduced by lowering the
top tax rate and
increasing the threshold
that triggers the entry
rate.
Help Maine
communities plan for the
future
Provide
adequate funds for towns
and cities to shape their
future
Maine's
tradition of local control
places enormous
responsibilities on small
communities. But many are
being overwhelmed by
growth and traffic. While
thousands of Mainers
volunteer on planning
committees across the
state, trying to manage
growth in the town's best
interest, they are too
often working without
adequate tools and
resources.
The report
recommends increasing the
resources available to
local communities to
engage citizens in shaping
their towns' future and
implementing their plans.
The funds would come from
a small fee on all real
estate transactions, when
recorded at the county.
Give towns
meaningful incentives to
cooperate
Having
towns operate separately
probably made more sense
when people lived their
lives largely within the
confines of single towns.
But it has some real
limitations in the modern
world where we live in one
town and shop, work or
learn in others, in a
larger region. But how do
we re-engineer government
into thinking more
regionally, while still
preserving the best of our
small town traditions? The
report recommends offering
substantial financial
incentives, in a few pilot
projects, to towns that
fully commit to regional
collaboration - not just
in planning development,
but also in reducing
duplicating services.
Among those incentives
would be the option for
towns to adopt a local
sales tax, which could be
used to lower property
taxes.
Remove
regulatory barriers that
undermine smart,
common-sense growth
The growth
of rural and suburban
areas has happened in part
because we have made it
difficult to build in
older communities. Over
the years, layer upon
layer of confusing,
conflicting and
occasionally contradictory
regulations have made it
too expensive to build in
town centers. This is
particularly true about
building housing in
walkable neighborhoods
near schools and services.
Brookings recommends that
state and local
governments should work
together to adopt a single
building code that levels
the playing field between
new construction and
rehabilitation and between
older communities and open
fields. The state should
also produce model local
zoning ordinances that
encourage more growth in
our existing communities
and less in the rural
areas.
