State Sen. Susan Deschambault

The Legislature met on Monday, Aug. 26 for a special session to vote on a series of bonds to be sent to Maine voters for your approval.

While our first session had ended in late June, Gov. Janet Mills called a special session in late August because we still had not addressed bonds, all of which would make critical investments in Maine’s economy.

Like you probably have seen on a ballot many times, the public decides whether the government funds bonds or not. These bonds were “emergency” bills that needed a two-thirds majority vote to pass in the Legislature.

There were four bonds, all of which had the support of the Maine Chamber of Commerce, among others groups. The economic development bond was about strategically updating certain infrastructure to boost Maine’s economy. This bond invests $23 million to help career and technical education centers, modernizes Maine National Guard facilities and expands high speed internet access, especially in rural areas. Many of these initiatives included matching funds that would make a large contribution to the overall investments.

Another bond focused on investing in renewable energy and wastewater treatment, with the purpose of updating old, potentially dangerous septic systems and lowering heating costs for homeowners. If the Legislature sent this bond to voters and they supported it, it would mean that more people would be able to install heat pumps in their homes, which drastically reduces the cost of heating.

Family farms in Dayton and Lyman, as well as people whose livelihoods depend upon working waterfronts in the Biddeford area would be interested to learn about the bond dedicated to Land for Maine’s Future.

The Land for Maine’s Future program is the main organization that conserves public use land in Maine. This bond, backed by the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, would raise $20 million to guarantee continued public access for hunting, fishing, farmland, working forests and working waterfronts, as well as for other outdoor recreation.

The final bond we considered was one dedicated to transportation projects. This bond invests $105 million to namely upgrade roads, bridges and ports, among other things. We would receive $137 million in matching funds to support these initiatives. It is exciting that with approval of this bond from Maine voters, we would be able to support construction jobs, small businesses and improve our quality of life by fixing the roads we drive on every day.

Unfortunately and surprisingly, only the transportation bond received enough votes to pass in the Legislature. That is the only bond you will see on the ballot in November.

I am disappointed. We did not get enough votes from our colleagues to let voters make decisions for themselves about what they think the State of Maine should fund to invest in our economic prosperity. This special session was an opportunity to show voters that we trust you to decide what bonds you think were the most important.

Instead, we took a step backward on a lot of the progress we made and the compromise we worked on to make sure the cost of this bond package was modest and the initiatives funded were worthy.

Ultimately, those hurt by the outcome of this special session are Maine voters. With only one bond passing the Legislature, that means voters won’t have the ability to express their opinion on funding the other initiatives proposed. If we trust voters to support the candidate they think is best, I believe we should have trusted voters to decide which bonds Maine should fund.

— State Sen. Susan Deschambault, D-Biddeford, represents Senate District 32, which includes Alfred, Arundel, Biddeford, Dayton, Kennebunkport and Lyman.