One of the most rewarding aspects of serving the Maine people in the legislature is when we get the opportunity to bring the concerns of our constituents to the front lines of the debates that take place at the State House every day.

Last week, thanks to Woolwich Select Board member Allison Hepler, we had the chance to do just that. We met with our local town officials from Georgetown, Arrowsic, Phippsburg, and Dresden to discuss how Governor LePage’s two year budget plan would impact our residents and more importantly, what we as legislators could do to make it more palatable to the towns we represent.

Let us start by saying this: What the governor has proposed is as bold and transformational as anything we’ve seen in Maine state government in a half-century. His plan to revamp Maine’s tax code is bold and ambitious, to say the least. The key part of the proposal is the drawing down and eventual elimination of the state’s income tax, a piece which many people support. It’s how we offset that income tax cut where the debates begin and the battle lines are drawn. This is where the input from our local towns is vital to helping us understand what we can do in Augusta to best serve our towns during the budget process.

The governor’s proposal is only the beginning of the budget process, as policy committees take it and work with it, and then the Appropriations committee takes the policy committees’ recommendations and crafts the budget that the full Senate and House will eventually vote on.

Currently, much of the debate taking place about the budget is centered around the governor’s proposal to eliminate revenue sharing with Maine’s cities and towns. Some cities and towns have little or no problems with the plan, while others have serious concerns about it. Either way, it was beneficial for us to be able to listen to our town officials lay out their issues and concerns, and in some cases offer suggestions. These issues, concerns, and suggestions we can now take back to Augusta to share with our colleagues on the Appropriations Committee who will eventually make the final recommendations on the budget. This is exactly how this process should be working. Local and state governmental collaboration is essential to making sure those of us in Augusta are doing everything we can to best serve our constituents.

In addition to revenue sharing, we also got valuable input on other issues like road and bridge maintenance, school funding, and the unintended consequences of some of the legislation we pass. Specifically, unfunded mandates that may have a negative impact on those they’re intended to help. The Legislature has long had a bad habit of forcing new regulations and programs on municipalities or school systems without providing a funding source. We were interested to hear about how those that were implemented in the past are currently affecting towns, and how any future unfunded mandates may impact the towns.

When the meeting was over we took away a lot of information to bring back to Augusta. This meeting and all others like it guarantee one thing. The budget is still months away from being finalized but the people of Georgetown, Arrowsic, Phippsburg, and Dresden will have a front row seat at the negotiating table.

We encourage anyone with thoughts on the budget proposal to reach out to us:

. Senator Baker — [email protected]

. Representative Pierce — Jeffrey. [email protected]

It is with input from you that our representative form of government best functions.

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Rep. Jeff Pierce of Dresden represents House District 53 which includes Arrowsic, Dresden, Georgetown, Phippsburg, Woolwich and part of Richmond. Sen. Linda Baker represents Senate District 23 which includes Arrowsic, Bath, Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Dresden, Georgetown, Phippsburg, Richmond, Topsham, West Bath, Woolwich and the unorganized township of Perkins.