McGowan Proposes to Shrink Maine Legislature and Lengthen Terms
By Tom Porter
Maine Public Broadcasting Network
May 25, 2010
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Pat McGowan today unveiled a package of political reforms which he claims will save taxpayers up to $15 million every two years and make state government more efficient. Speaking at a press conference on the steps of Portland City Hall Tuesday afternoon, the former state conservation commissioner said he planned to cut the size of the Legislature.
"I will propose, as governor, to reduce the size of the Maine House of Representatives to 99 members and the size of the Maine Senate to 24," he said. This equates to a one-third reduction in the number of legislators, from 186 to 123, which McGowan says would mean four House members per Senate district."I have nothing but respect for the work that is done by the Maine Legislature," McGowan said. "But we have a high ratio of legislators to citizens, with an average of about 3,000 fewer citizens being represented by each member of the Legislature compared to many of our states that are around us. By reducing the total number of legislators by mroe than 60, we will be closer to the average ratio, we will be saving money and we will make government more efficient."
McGowan, who is one of four Democratic candidates running for governor, also wants state lawmakers to serve four-year terms, instead of the current two years, and to be able to serve a maximum of 12 years, as opposed to the 8-year limits in place at the moment.
"This aims not only to ease the burden of campaigns on Maine citizens, but also to establish a Legislature with experience rather than a two years turnover with a high learning curve. Remember every two years one-third of the Legislature is replaced by new members."
University of Maine political science professor Mark Brewer feels this proposed extension of term limits is a step in the right direction.
"You know, when I talk to state legislatures they almost always say the same thing: They say the first term they're in there they basically have no idea what they're doing and the second term they're in there they know what they're doing, they start to become effective legislators. The third term they're in there, they're really ready to go and ready contribute and make public policy and possibly rise up to leadership positions. The fourth term, they've got leadership positions, they're very effective, and then bang! They're termed out. That doesn't make any sense to me," Brewer says.
McGowan's other proposals include moving the primary election date from June to September. He says this will reduce the burden of the campaign season.
In addition McGowan wants Maine to fall into line with most other states and create an elected office of Lieutenant Governor, who would be responsible for tie-breaking votes in the Senate and would take charge of the any transition that would occur should the governor die or become incapacitated while in office.
He also wants to make legislative sessions shorter and limit the number of bills per session to 1,000, something which at least one of McGowan's Democratic gubernatorial rivals feel does not make sense. "I don't think we need to limit the number of bills -- we need to require more support in committee to get a bill onto the floor," says Rosa Scarcelli.
Scarcelli says her manifesto also calls for controlling the number of bills considered annually, but not by imposing any numerical limits. "A thousand is an arbitrary number. This is not about arbitrary rules, this is about a pragmatic common sense approach and we are completely out of step with the national average, in terms of the number of bills, and it's because we have underlying rules that don't work. You can get a bill out of committee with very little support and that doesn't make sense," she says.
McGowan's plan calls for combining a number of state departments to create a single Department of Commerce - which would encompass the Department of Economic and Community Development, the State Planning Office and the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation.
Current House Majority Whip Seth Berry says many of the efficiencies proposed by McGowan are already being successfully tackled. "The Legislature has cut its budget by around 10 perent in response to the fiscal issues that we face. We shortened the length of the legislative session this year by a couple of weeks. Legislators reduced the number of bills they put in by over 30 percent."
Also vying for the Democratic nomination in next month's primary elections are former state Attorney General Steve Rowe and Senate President Libby Mitchell. Their offices did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
