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Every politician of every possible persuasion promises to support Maine people and create Maine jobs - right?

 

Well, while searching the Checks to Businesses & People section of MaineOpenGov.Org, the out-of-state spending by the State of Maine is shocking!  After Maine, the biggest pile of money sent to another state is the $52,838,303 spent with Massachusetts firms in 2007.  That is a bit more than one million tax dollars a week!   
 
It gets worse!  The total spending shows 2007 State of Maine vendor payments of $1,012,794,401.  About 64 percent ($647,527,689) was spent with Maine companies.  This means that more than a third of these tax dollars ($365,266,712) were spent outside of Maine in 2007.
 
That is one million dollars a day!
 
Politicians will justify high state spending by emphasizing the Multiplier Effect - which estimates that every dollar of state spending generates three or four or five dollars in the private sector economy. 
 
OK.  But if this Multiplier Effect argument is part of the justification for Maine's high spending... why is Augusta sending one million tax dollars outside of Maine every day - so they can "multiply" somewhere else?   
 
Some people argue that there are specific services and products unavailable in Maine, and that is correct.  But a million tax dollars a day are spent on things like office supplies, office furniture, marketing support, printing, consulting, professional services, public education services, desktop computers, office interior design, repairs to buildings, laptop computers, document scanners, construction contractors, computer maintenance, computer printers...  
 
Pick up the Yellow Pages, Augusta!  These products and services are available through Maine businesses, who employ Maine people, who pay Maine taxes... and would like the chance to try out this Multiplier Effect theory here in Maine!  (And if Maine companies cannot compete with out-of-state firms because of our business climate... who's fault is that?)
 

 

MaineOpenGov.Org is a window into state spending, and we hope that our Moggers* are using this information to question candidates this fall!
 

  
 

  
* MOG Users are known informally as "Moggers."

It's here!

Maine people now have the ability to actually see the Public Information needed to understand how the State of Maine spends tax dollars.

This new Web site is a searchable, downloadable database of Maine's Payroll, Pension and other Spending accounts for 2006 and 2007. 

Search by category to see what your Tax Dollars buy.  Do research on state vendors and the state agencies who buy their goods and services.

 -  Curious about how many Maine State employees make more than the Governor? 

 -  Want to know how much the State of Maine buys from New York companies?

 -  Ever wonder what Maine spends on airline tickets?

 

It's easy to find out at MaineOpenGov.Org 

While this question has tasked the human brain for hundreds of decades, the answer to a similar question is much more apparent:

Which came first - the Taxes or the Spending?

Even though it may seem the case... the most aggressive politicians don't intentionally raise taxes faster than they can spend the money.  (It DOES happen occasionally, when tax rates are so high the revenues outpace expectations - creating that ear-to-ear grin on a politician's face when they can jump in front of a TV camera and claim to have a "surplus" to spend!)

But no.  There's no "surplus."  There's never a "surplus!"  And there won't be a "surplus."   

Here's why:   "It's the Spending, Stupid!"

But how did it get this way?

Ross Perot liked to repeat: "politicians buy your votes with your money," a statement that has been true since at least the Roman Republic.  The worst part of this observation by the little guy from Texas, is that there is always another election - with more votes to buy, more promises to fund forever, and more taxes to raise!

Government Spending is a financial sink-hole because it includes the checks written today and, more importantly, the promises to write exponentially more and larger checks in the future.  It's the long-term interest on bonds that paid for short-term projects.  It's hiring someone who can never be fired.  It's paying lifetime retirement and health benefits for someone who stops working in their forties.  It's "entitlement" programs that create multi-generational recipients who become trapped in dependency with no incentive to become self-supporting and no time-limits on their monthly checks.  It's paying millions of dollars studying moths' flight patterns, thorns on rose bushes, and hiring rooms full of psychologists to determine that, yes: teenagers without adult supervision will experiment with sex and alcohol.

Here in Maine, most people seem to agree that our tax dollars are wasted in criminal-theft proportions... then send the same politicians back to Augusta with one more chance to "fix" things. 

Pssssssst:  Unless Maine's elected leaders are bound by law to control spending, they will not. 

Please don't be fooled when politicians float "trial balloons" about shuffling lower Income Tax rates with higher Sales Taxes, increased Fees, higher Permit Costs or simply passing off more Maine taxes on tourists and seasonal residents.  The words are meaningless if they don't control spending.

So Spending does come first. 

And Spending must be controlled before we can touch taxes

At the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) Conference in New Orleans last week, I attended a state budgeting/spending seminar that was stunning!

The incoming Speaker of the House in Florida, the Honorable Ray Sansom, spoke of trimming $7 billion from a $66 billion state budget... without any thought of raising taxes.  Sansom explained "why make it harder on businesses in a downturn?"

He said that Florida has no intention of borrowing their way out of a downturn, and in reconciling the budget with lower revenues: "we're not making 'cuts,' we're spending the money we have."

These are clearly refreshing ideas that would turn Augusta on its head! 

But the best concept that Speaker Sansom talked about was the Florida Sunset Law.  On a rotating basis, every state agency is abolished every eight years.  Eliminated...  Kaput! 

The leaders then have to re-introduce the need for each state agency.   If approved, the "new" agency has an updated mission, a modernized structure, new goals and benchmarks, plus clear ways to measure achievements, productivity and success.

If Maine had a Sunset Law - do you suppose we would still be funding a couple of high paying jobs to oversee the safe operation of the Maine Yankee nuclear power plant?

 

(HINT: It was decommissioned eleven years ago!)

 

You may have seen this article from a few weeks ago on our site or in the Sun Journal, regarding the discrepancy between private and public sector compensation in Maine.  It seems to be somewhat obvious, but the best way of approaching the question of state employee compensation is to have all of the data available to you.  One of the first sections of our new website www.MaineOpenGov.org to go live will be the state payroll.  You'll be able to search our database and see exactly what every state employee makes, and the size of their benefits packages.  Making information available to the voter should always be the first priority in a democratic society.  For more information, sign up for email notification here.  You'll be the first to know as we take www.MaineOpenGov.org live.

 

Christopher Bea, Intern

Center for Open Government

The Maine Policy Heritage Center

One of the basic cornerstones of every free and democratic society is the availability of information.  Without information, the sovereign rights of the people are meaningless.  Without information, the voter is nothing more than a game show contestant, relying on blind luck to pick the door that has a new car behind it.  The strength of a democracy relies on the knowledge of the citizen.  As Thomas Jefferson wrote to Richard Price, the Welsh political theorist, "Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government..."

While information was a rare and precious commodity in Jefferson's day, today we live in an 'information age.'  We hope that our government reflects the wealth of information that we, as voters have at our fingertips.  It is this very hope that is reflected in the growing movement for government transparency. 

 

In 2006 the US Congress passed the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.  The President signed it into law less than two weeks after the House and Senate had both passed it with virtually no opposition.  The bill was co-sponsored by forty-seven Senators including John McCain, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and both Senators from Maine.  One might think that this sort of bipartisanship is only possible when there's a federal pay raise involved.  Instead, the Act sets out to show the public exactly how much money the federal government gives out and to whom.  This information is to be made available online, open for all to see. 

 

While on the federal level, a detailed breakdown of contracts and spending is sure to be somewhat overwhelming, it seems that a state like Maine may be just the right size.  The Maine Policy Heritage Center is currently working with state officials to create "maineopengovt.org," a web-based application detailing Maine state spending.  As we approach the launch date of late July 2008, sign up for email notification (link) and check out MaineOpenGov.org for details on what the portal will show, how to use it, and what it means for the citizens and taxpayers of Maine.

 

Christopher Bea, Intern

Center for Open Government

The Maine Policy Heritage Center

A Transparent, Open Government is a growing priority in the quest to preserve American individual liberties and economic freedom.  The ability to review the influences, interests, income sources and relationships of lawmakers is a way to confirm and re-confirm the trust the public has in our elected officials.  
 
In an ideal world, updated Transparency methods will not reveal anything new.  Just like cleaning your own front window with Windex, you hope to see no surprises in your yard.  Same trees, same sidewalk, same street, same neighbors. . .  nothing you didn't expect.
 
In the same way, as more information is available, Transparency should reveal nothing significantly new.  Hopefully, when we spray on this Windex, we will see no conflicts of interest involving relationships, supporters, personal income, campaign contributions or other reasons why representatives' decisions are not 100% based on what is best for their constituents.
 
It is particularly important in an Election Year that a focus on Transparency will help clarify that elected officials in Washington, Augusta and our hometowns are unburdened with obligations, favors owed and personal financial interests when they make decisions for the people who elected them.