A basic responsibility of Congress is to decide on a budget in a timely manner. Not an easy task, I’m sure.

It’s made much more difficult when members of Congress on both sides would rather keep partisan politics in the forefront than put aside their differences and work together.

Many of our elected representatives, it seems, would rather fight like spoiled children than do the job they were elected to do: represent the interests of the people of this country.

All too often, many of us say there’s nothing we can do, and when we have that attitude, we’re absolutely right. With freedom and democracy come responsibility. Our responsibility as citizens is to be active participants in our form of government.

When our elected representatives aren’t doing the job the way we feel they should be, it’s our responsibility to demand that they do. If they still won’t, then it’s our responsibility to replace them with people who will.

I’m a congressional district leader for the group No Labels. We’re campaigning to make Congress work and are trying to pass a bill, “No Budget, No Pay,” in the U.S. House (H.R. 3643) and in the U.S. Senate (S.1981). The hearing date is March 14.

Just as the bill implies, Congress would have a reasonable time frame to pass a comprehensive budget, or every day that they don’t, they wouldn’t get paid. It’s that simple. Congress works for us, not for special interests, the superwealthy or big business.

I invite you to go to the www.nolabels.org/work page and review the bill. Contact your U.S. senators and U.S. representatives with your concerns. Please help us to get Congress to work.

Gerard N. Pare

Augusta

If Congress doesn’t do its job, it shouldn’t get paid! Senate Bill 1981, the “No Budget-No Pay Act,” comes before the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on March 14. Sen. Susan Collins, the ranking minority member of this committee, will have an important part to play in the fate of this legislation designed to help Congress focus on its primary constitutional duty, passing appropriation bills. The appropriation bills should be passed and sent to the president by Oct. 1 of each year. It’s been 1,000 days since Congress passed a budget resolution, 14 years since it passed government spending bills on time. This means that spending is not being properly evaluated to determine whether money is accomplishing what it is supposed to. Continuing resolutions are wasteful and irresponsible.

U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud is a co-sponsor of the House version of this bill, H.R. 3643, but no other Maine lawmakers have signed on as co-sponsors of the Senate or House version at this time. We should ask them to do so or explain why they don’t support this. This is truly bipartisan legislation, introduced and sponsored by lawmakers from both parties who are tired of gridlock and want to do their job.

Priscilla Markley

Winthrop

Shipyard sewer dispute brewing a bad impression

Is it any wonder that Maine is perceived to be an unfriendly place to do business? Having followed with interest the Portland Water District versus Shipyard Brewing dispute, I don’t wonder at all where this perception comes from. Clearly, some mistake was made many years ago and has recently been discovered. Clearly, there has to be some resolution.

Finger-pointing is not the answer, nor is billing Shipyard a huge amount of money.

The confrontational stance taken by the Portland City Council (at least some members) serves no purpose other than to give a negative impression to potential business owners who may consider coming to Maine. Whatever the outcome, it should be amicable, reasonable and minimal.

One should consider what Fred Forsley and his Shipyard brewery have brought to Portland, and Maine for that matter – jobs, a much-needed facelift to a part of town long neglected and a sizeable contribution to Portland’s tax base.

We don’t need an independent third party to figure this out; that’s just plain absurd. We need to come to an agreement that will settle this amicably so the perception is that Maine and Portland are friendly places to do business.

If Shipyard is assessed a huge amount of money on the premise that this oversight affected other water district customers, then I’ll be looking for my rebate from the Portland Water District!

Now that might take an independent third party to figure out! Come on Portland!

Chris Shaw

Falmouth

‘Takings’ bill would expose state to numerous lawsuits 

As a biologist who has spent more than 30 years protecting and restoring habitat and educating others about the importance of Maine’s natural environment, I am deeply concerned about an ill-conceived regulatory “takings” bill that our state Legislature is currently considering.

Consider this scenario, which would unfold if the “takings” bill passed: Let’s say a landowner perceived that an existing environmental law reduced his or her property value by 50 percent. That landowner, right or wrong and perhaps buoyed by an inflated and unrealistic development plan in order to make a viable claim, could take this gripe to court, and the state would be forced to:

• defend against the landowner’s claim, leading to countless lawsuits (your tax money);

• compensate the landowner for the perceived “taking” (your tax money) or;

• grant the landowner a waiver to the environmental law and permit substandard development on the property. This could lead to a patchwork of inconsistent environmental standards statewide and chill the Legislature’s commitment to pass environmental bills to deal with existing or new threats that could directly impact your health and welfare.

“Takings” legislation has been soundly defeated five times by the Maine Legislature. Moreover, “takings” proposals have been widely rejected nationwide, especially after lessons learned in Oregon, where takings legislation adopted in 2004 was largely repealed in 2007. The Oregon law resulted in more than 7,000 claims for compensation, totaling nearly $20 billion, and more than 400 lawsuits.

Please contact your state legislators and ask them to reject this dangerous “takings” bill.

Lois Winter

Portland