The takeaway from last week’s political wrangling in Augusta is simple and depressing: a basic disregard for citizens’ initiative and the will of the people.

As of this writing Friday morning, a partial shut-down of state government looms over Maine. In a last-ditch effort to avoid such a shutdown, Democrat and Republican legislative leaders met Thursday and voted 5- 1 on a budget agreement. Minority members of both parties appeared to have been shut out of that conversation.

” The deal makes significant investments in education, expands property tax relief for middle class Mainers and rejects devastating cuts to essential government services,” according to a press release from House Speaker Sara Gideon, D- Freeport, who sided in favor of the agreement. “The $7.1 billion dollar budget proposal includes $162 million in direct classroom education funds, the largest investment in public education in Maine’s history.”

What goes unsaid in Gideon’s release is how the deal jettisons a surtax to fund education imposed on earnings greater than $200,000.

” The agreement includes an additional $162 million in education funding, achieving the 55 percent state contribution threshold for the first time,” according to a statement released by Maine Senate President Michael Thibodeau.

Contrast that the funding to be generated by the surtax: A report in the Associated Press states the surtax would bring in an estimated “$320 million for schools, for a budget that includes at least $200 million in additional, sustainable education spending.”

“While no one will be thrilled with this budget, it is the result of a compromise …” said Republican Sen. Roger Katz, another supporter of the agreement.

We are definitely not thrilled.

The surtax should not have been necessary in the first place. In 2003, voters mandated that the state fund 55 percent the cost of education. The state never lived up to its obligation.

And so, voters in November 2016 decided a surtax on wealthy Mainers was an appropriate step in funding education to more desirable levels. Both Gov. LePage and Republican lawmakers have fought tooth and nail against the surtax, despite its approval at the ballot box.

On the same ballot, Mainers approved a ranked choice voting initiative. Last week, lawmakers attempted — and failed — to repeal the measure that will go into effect for the 2018 election. The repeal effort came after the The Maine supreme court issued an advisory opinion saying part of the voter-approved law was unconstitutional.

When it comes to action against RCV, we think Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said it best when he spoke with Maine Public’s Mal Leary recently: “My fundamental concern is not making worse this kind of distrust of government and politics and politicians. To simply say well there is a constitutional problem with this so we are just going to forget it … . my inclination would be to give the people a chance to make that decision themselves.”

Sadly, some Legislators didn’t get that message.

You know, maybe state government ought to be shut down. After all, if it doesn’t work for the will of the people, is it even worth having?