Re: “Capping a long debate, trustees cut three programs at USM” (Sept. 23):

Eliminating three educational programs at the University of Southern Maine is short-sighted. It is symptomatic of the failure of the legislative and executive branches to act constructively to ensure Maine’s economic future.

A vision for Maine includes investment in its educational, medical, environmental and social services. Raising tuitions for an already declining student population is the wrong way to go. Eliminating valuable fields of concentration narrows the opportunity for students to develop critical and creative thought.

There are ready solutions to these issues.

First, acceptance of the Affordable Care Act by the executive branch would diminish Maine’s health care costs for the next three years, thereby inproving both delivery of care and the budget deficit.

Second, taxing extraction of ground water for export would be a way to increase revenue and invest in Maine’s future. Our most abundant and renewable natural resource and key to our future is our water. For many years, the Legislature has failed to act to make ground water (aquifers) part of the public trust.

Billions of dollars in profits are drained from Maine annually by a private corporation that exports the water and does not pay any state excise tax. This is in contrast to the states of Alaska and Texas, which receive handsome royalties from their oil and gas extraction and have become rich, while Maine remains a poor state.

The political process can and should work for the citizens of Maine. It is time to stop nonproductive political bickering and do what is best for the present and future citizens of Maine.

Howard A. Corwin

Center Lovell

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