“The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.” -Jawaharlal Nehru

Lane/Tommy: Will the reduction of Maine school districts proposed by Governor Baldacci be fully implemented or is it just another political ploy? In theory, we do agree with the governor that Maine has too many school districts and administration that must be consolidated. Other New England states, along with Maine, suffer under antiquated school administration. Some other states have only one school district while others combine services to the greatest extent possible. Their goal is an excellent education while containing costs.

Lane: Not to be outdone, other groups are proposing their own pieces of legislation for consolidating school districts so there are now five separate proposals. Some would be mandatory while others wouldn’t. I would like to discuss all of them but the devil is in the details which I presently don’t have. All I can say is we must inform ourselves or we will be duped again.

Tommy: As a government watchdog I am very concerned that the consolidation of school districts is another worthy proposal which will not come to pass. Will Governor Baldacci’s plan be intact after debate by the legislature or will it be a piece of political fluff? Mainers are demanding tax relief. They are not willing to wait until pigs fly.

Lane/Tommy: Let’s use LD1 as an example of deceptive legislation with its promise of property tax relief because the state will fund 55 percent of local education. Supposedly this allowed municipalities to lower property taxes but we know that they just gobbled up all the money that they could. We can state that LD1 was a political smoke screen under the disguise of tax relief because during the Taxpayer Bill of Rights referendum opponents admitted that LD1 was flawed with loopholes requiring restructuring of LD1.

Tommy: In the past, I have asked legislators when will we receive tax relief. The standard answer is that it will take time. How much time will it take? I personally hope that the governor’s proposal does not get bogged down in a legislative quagmire. I do not want to see another frustrating miscarriage of promises of tax relief.

Lane: As I stated, I do not know the infinite details of any of the plans but I have heard bits and pieces about the governor’s plan. The more I hear the more I doubt that it will deliver what he pledges as far as property tax relief goes. I understand that his plan will call for a principal at every school, multiple assistant superintendents, laptops for all students and even another increase for teachers. So I ask, where will the $250 million in savings come from his proposal? There can be no huge savings unless the administrative staff is seriously reduced across the state of Maine. The shame is I hear nothing from our local school administration when blue collar workers are laid off from their jobs, so why shouldn’t they be treated the same? Are government workers special?

Tommy: Perhaps one of the more significant aspects of the governor’s program is that finally we could vote on the school budget by secret ballot. As we would have a regional school budget, voting on the school budget would no longer be conducted at the annual town meeting. Please do not fear this as school districts across Maine already do this.

Lane/Tommy: We do not see the governor’s plan as a loss of local control but instead as a positive step for tax reform that will stimulate economic development in Maine. Will this be the beginning of Maine no longer having our nation’s highest tax burden?

Tommy: Shouldn’t all make the effort to make sure this is not the same old political merry-go-round where nobody gets off?

Lane: True tax relief must be the outcome. With a play on last year’s word of the year, the governor and legislature must be pluto’d if no tax relief is forthcoming.

Lane and Tommy do not respond to childish remarks. They do respond to liberal columns that have a sense of intelligence. They are now trying to rent the Hubble Space Telescope in order locate liberals capable of such an accomplishment.