Friday, March 2, 2007

That analysis came out of the Maine Development Foundation this week, in a report that is prepared annually for the Maine Economic Growth Council, a bipartisan group of business, political and community leaders in the state. It's called "Measures of Growth" and does just that -- it lays out a series of benchmarks for economic progress and then measures how the state has lived up to them. Progress on a benchmark is given a gold star; backsliding merits a red flag.

If we measure the measures, it's not a good picture. Two gold stars were awarded to the state, for having 89 percent of Maine's population covered by health insurance and for protecting our forests. That's nice.

It's the red flags that, of course, have us worried. State and local taxes are too high and haven't come down; health care coverage may be widespread, but it's punishingly expensive; our manufacturing productivity lags behind the national average. We've invested well in research and development in the past, but that investment is now at an ebb; we're not taking care of our roads and bridges and they've deteriorated alarmingly.

Lawmakers are now grappling with the state's high tax burden and deliberating over any number of proposals, both big and small. Lowering health care costs is a widely acknowledged priority, though still an intractable problem. As for the state's low productivity, that's largely a reflection of lack of capital investment, and last year the Legislature removed one major obstacle to that investment, the Business Equipment Tax Reimbursement program.

Roads and bridges and research and development, on the other hand, have become political footballs in the last few years. Last year, Republicans refused to sign on to a transportation bond, dooming our transportation infrastructure to further deterioration. Maine's roads and bridges are in considerably worse condition than those in the rest of the region. That takes a significant toll on economic activity in the long run and presents real safety issues. Things have gotten so bad around the state that voter dissatisfaction may prove the undoing of any principled or partisan opposition to a transportation bond. Lawmakers would do well to listen to those who have to drive our roads and bridges every day; many a political career has been derailed by potholes. Much of our economic activity is dependent on our transportation system and failing to address its problems is counterproductive.

And the argument for increased research and development spending was strongly made just this past week from other quarters than the Maine Development Foundation. The governor's Council on Jobs, Innovation and the Economy submitted an interim report that called on Gov. John Baldacci to increase investment in strategically chosen business sectors -- particularly so-called "clusters" of emerging industries -- from $4 million per year to $10 million.

"To create good-paying jobs and a robust economy in Maine, the state must grow its most promising sectors," council members wrote. That means, they said, focusing the state's investments on business support, work force training and research and development.

This isn't rocket science. Maine is losing its old jobs and old economy, and needs a turbo-charged thrust to make it into the new economy. Part of that momentum will be supplied by research and development into new ways to make things, new ways to work and new ways to educate workers to do all the above.

We can't think small in this regard; Maine's got a lot of people who need good-paying jobs.