Rep. Linda Valentino will be missed on Appropriations, but the committee still has strong membership.

Where is Linda Valentino?

Rep. Valentino, you may remember, was a member of the Legislature's Appropriations Committee from Saco who distinguished herself in the last days of the 123rd Legislature last June by standing up to the state teachers union.

She helped to thwart its late-night attempt to retroactively boost teacher retirement.

It seems the Maine Education Association had cut a deal with Democratic leadership to restore a reduction in early-retirement benefits that had been rescinded in the budget crisis of 1993.

The union's intent, apparently, was to slip it through in the midst of the frenzied activity at the end of the session by claiming it had no fiscal impact.

In fact, the bill had a $200 million impact. It just didn't kick in until fiscal year 2010. So, Valentino, D-Saco, former House Chair Jeremy Fischer, D-Presque Isle, and the five Republicans on the panel blocked the legislation on an extremely rare 7-6 vote.

Of course, Valentino, Fischer and the Republicans were absolutely correct.

They had just finished a series of painful budget reductions and it did not seem appropriate to be adding to another group's benefits – particularly as they pertained to an arcane adjustment that only was relevant for early retirement.

Had this bill passed back in June of last year, there would be many red faces in Augusta today given our budget crisis – and more unhappy Maine taxpayers.

As I stated in a column at the time, trying to do what is best for all of the people doesn't necessarily get rewarded when you are bucking a lobby as powerful as the MEA.

When it came time to hand out committee assignments in the new Legislature, Valentino found herself banished from the Appropriations Committee, becoming the only returning Democratic member of that committee who was not reinstated (Fischer had left the Legislature).

Coincidence? I think not. I expect the MEA lobbied hard with Democratic leadership to get Valentino reassigned.

This is unfortunate because the people of Maine would have benefited from Valentino's experience and guts on a committee that will play a crucial role in working through the myriad of proposals to address the deficit problems of the next biennial budget.

On a more positive note, leadership on both sides of the aisle did a good job in selecting Appropriations Committee chairs and ranking minority members.

Co-Chair Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham, is a highly-regarded, experienced legislator who is more about solutions than partisanship. His House co-chair is Rep. Emily Cain, D-Orono, who, though only in her third term, did a fine job on the Education Committee during her first term and on the Appropriations Committee during her second term.

On the Republican side, Sen. Richard Rosen, R-Bucksport, and Rep. Sawin Millett, R-Waterford, are both the kind of capable, principled and experienced legislators of whom we need more. There is lots of talent in this group, and they will need to draw on all of it to get through this session.

The crisis of the kind we are facing in the national and state economy calls for bold action. Here in Maine, the new Legislature should seize this opportunity to address the chronic overspending that is sapping Maine's economy.

We need an honest assessment of what we can afford, principally in the two areas of health and human services and K-12 education.

These two areas make up about 80 percent of the budget and practically all of the year-to-year increases, crowding out needed investment in other areas, such as higher education, and putting us forever in a situation of continual deficits, Band-Aid solutions and muddling through.

What to do? First, let's form a bipartisan commission to study MaineCare (Maine's Medicaid program) and determine how we can fulfill the true aims of this program – providing health care for the poor – without trying to use the program to cover all those in Maine who lack health insurance.

On the K-12 front, several sensible proposals have emerged from such efforts as the Brookings Report. Unfortunately, Gov. Baldacci has made a hash of school consolidation, one of the main thrusts of Brookings. He had lots of help from the Legislature.

We will have to go to Plan B here and focus on the real problem, a student-teacher ratio that is way too small.

Maine will likely get some funding help from the Obama stimulus package in both of these areas.

Let's be bold in looking at how to use this money to assist the restructuring process and reshape our future.