There is still a lot to fight about in the proposed state budget, but there is a bill before the Legislature that both sides should embrace and that would put off much of the major wrangling until another day.

The measure sponsored by Rep. Bernard Ayotte, R-Caswell, would make a single but important change in the law governing when a two-year budget is presented to the Legislature.

Instead of producing it in odd-numbered years, following an election, it would be presented in even-numbered years, or the second year of the legislative session.

That would mean that new legislators would have a year of oversight under their belts before making decisions about how the departments they oversee should be spending the people’s money.

And it would mean that a new governor would get more than a month in office before delivering a detailed plan for the next two years of spending.

There are potential pitfalls to this approach. A new governor and Legislature, especially when there is a change of power like the one we saw in 2010, would have to live with the last administration’s budget for a year after taking office. And shifting the budget to the second year of the biennium would put it closer to the other big event in even-numbered years: Election Day.

But those problems are easily overcome. Even Gov. Paul LePage, who swept into office on a Republican tide that gave his party its first chance to lead in a generation, says he would have preferred living with his predecessor’s budget for one more year, rather than try to enact sweeping reforms in such a short time.

As a practical matter, if the budget were pushed back, a newly elected governor who ran for office promising a significant policy change could still act on it immediately by introducing a supplemental budget that raises or cuts current spending.

As for the proximity to the elections, the legislative process is already political and won’t be tainted by politics.

Ayotte’s idea is a good one, and has support from key members of both parties. It’s a change that gives advantage to neither side but could lead to a better, more deliberate process.

This is an idea both parties should come together on, and leave the real fighting for later.

 

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