Watch television during any election night news coverage and note that almost as soon as the first visible percentage points of the vote total rolls in, some pundit will opine with authority that the preliminary results are either a humiliating defeat for one side or a sweeping emphatic victory for the other.
Such pronouncements usually follow the political leanings of the commentator.
That said, it seems pretty clear that inside Lincoln County anyway, local residents could do without two big pieces of state legislation forced upon us: same-sex marriage and school consolidation.
Applying the standard for election night news coverage, we can confidently opine that these results might be seen as a referendum on our State’s leadership. Both same-sex marriage and school consolidation were handed down from Augusta. School consolidation was rammed through via a budgetary gimmick and the same-sex marriage debate was forced upon Mainers ahead of such issues as genuine tax relief.
We still believe rural communities are ill served by school consolidation and when the lights dim on small schools across the state, schools like South Bristol and Somerville and Jefferson, we hold that gutting of the heart and soul of rural communities will be this governor’s ultimate legacy.
Interesting too, in a state that is screaming for tax reform, both citizen’s tax initiatives on the ballot went down to defeat. It is heartening to see that the urge to cut taxes is not accompanied by the urge to cut our own local throat. Both initiatives would have capped available revenues without addressing the real issue, which is spending.
If we are going to cut taxes we need to start figuring out what services we are willing to do without, or more likely which un-funded state or federal mandate we are willing to ignore.
We believe in the democratic process. We feel any major piece of public business should be decided by the largest amount of people possible and that is what happened Nov. 3. Now the entire state has had a chance to weigh in, we accept the verdicts and look ahead.
