In 30 years, historians will look on the 2018 election as a watershed, a time when the darkness of a demographic winter began to shorten, when Maine began to pull out of a two-decade socioeconomic death spiral and the seeds of sustainable prosperity began to germinate.

As longtime students of economic forces that shape Maine, we are confident and optimistic because of the unique combination of experience, character and vision now offered to Maine citizens by Democrat Janet Mills. It is clearly articulated in her economic plan. She alone among those seeking to be our governor has the experience, attitude and ability to bring us together and make government work again.

All clear-eyed citizens recognize that Maine faces a barrage of individual and community crises:

• An opioid plague that kills a Maine person every day and ravages thousands of others.

• An education system saddled with declining enrollments, rising costs and inadequately paid teachers in aging communities struggling to pay property taxes.

• Escalating health care costs while hospitals struggle to stay open.

• An inadequately maintained transportation infrastructure and a communications network that leaves thousands stranded on the wrong side of the digital divide.

• A government increasingly captive to bullying and ideological brinksmanship that has left citizens of all persuasions more disillusioned than ever over our apparent inability to address serious problems.

Our most fundamental problem, however, the one whose solution will release the potential required to solve the rest, is the problem of our labor force.

From 2010 through 2017, employment in Maine grew by 45,000, an increase of 7.1 percent. Over the same period, our labor force increased by 12,000, an increase of just 1.7 percent. This differential was great for reducing unemployment. But it isn’t sustainable. Employment can’t grow faster than the labor force. We can’t continue to create more jobs without people to fill them. And we can’t get more people from a population that grew by just 0.6 percent over this same time period.

Finding people to fill jobs gets harder as the inexorable reality of our demographic structure continues to unfold. Hundreds of baby boomers retire every day. The challenge applies not just to workers, but to business owners as well. What happens when owners of Maine’s economic backbone – its small businesses – can’t find a new generation of entrepreneurs to buy their businesses and bring them fully into the potential prosperity that surrounds us? They close their doors, collect their receivables and walk into their golden years, leaving not just jobs unfilled but also community foundations to wither.

If we don’t create more jobs, attract more workers, reach out to those who have dropped out of the labor force and keep our small and family businesses going, we can’t begin to address our other problems. Indeed, they will get worse regardless of who governs. These problems, combined with the dysfunction of our government for the past eight years, seem self-reinforcing and inescapable.

This is why we are convinced that the election of Janet Mills to be Maine’s next governor is so pivotal. She understands the crisis that confronts us and has a detailed plan to address it. Most importantly, she has the experience, knowledge and courage to make it work. Janet is a convener and a broker. She will mobilize political, business and community partners to work with all levels of government in a collaborative effort to address our problems.

The stark contrast between what has been and what could be is why Janet’s election is so crucial. The missing piece to Maine’s rebirth is a government that is part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Janet knows that, however detailed, comprehensive or convincing a plan may be, a plan alone will not solve our problems. The citizens of Maine, working with a skilled bipartisan leader, is the only way. There is no single key to economic and community development – not tax or regulatory reform, not health care, not job retraining. It is all of these things combined. It is making government work again.

And that is what Janet Mills alone can do. We must elect the leader who can accomplish this fundamental goal. It is the key to addressing all of our problems and thus to realizing the prosperity available to us if we but reach out and make it ours.

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