Maine lawmakers often seem to be acting out of “New Hampshire envy.”

Our only neighboring state has no income or sales tax and seems to get by without sacrificing any of the roads, schools and emergency services people expect to get from their government. And the fact that New Hampshire residents have higher income than their Maine counterparts adds fuel to the fire.

There may be ways in which Maine should emulate New Hampshire, but aping its laissez faire attitude toward fireworks is not the right one.

That is, however, what the Legislature appears to be on the verge of doing, unless some of its members have second thoughts. There are plenty of good reasons to keep Maine’s current fireworks policy.

Fireworks are dangerous. They not only injure the fingers and eyes of people who use them, but they can start fires.

Legalizing some fireworks but not others creates a burden for law enforcement officers, who now only need to see a streak of sparks in the sky to know that there has been a violation of the law. Under the new law, police would have to determine if the fireworks are the “wrong kind” of fireworks before writing a summons.

There are better ways to emulate New Hampshire than this. Maine should leave this law alone.