Within the next couple of days the state Legislature will vote for the final time on LD 144, an act that will allow the citizens to vote this fall to reduce the Legislature from 151 members to 131.
If passed, this bill expands each House district by 1300 voters. Representatives currently serve 8200 people. If approved by the Legislature and passed by the voters, the number of voters in a house district will rise from 8,200 to 9,800-10,000.
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This will save a minimum of $800,000 a year in salaries alone. Further economies should be achieved by reductions in staffing and clean elections costs. In a time when the state is asking everyone else to do more with less I believe it is high time that we shared in the sacrifice.
It has been 166 years since we last altered the size of our House of Representatives. In 1843, Maine, with a population of 500,000, set its House membership at the current 151. A representative in 1843 had to serve his 3,300 constituents by horseback. There where few railroads, but plenty of dirt roads, unreliable mail, no electricity, no phones, no computers, no cars.
When in session legislators all stayed in Augusta, as daily travel was out of the question, and they were elected every year. In 1840 Maine had 8 US congressmen, each with a constituent base set at 62,500.
By 2010 our projected population will be 1,300,000. With only 8,200 constituents per district a member of the Maine House faces a constituency work load which has grown only 2.6 time since 1843; while our two congressional deal with a ten-fold increase, about 650,000 people in each district.
Speaking on the floor of the House about LD 144 last week, I put this question to my colleagues. Can any of us actually look ourselves in the mirror and say that we can not better serve a slightly larger district today with cellphones, emails, faxes, planes, trains, automobiles, electricity and all the other modern conveniences than a man on horseback could over 150 years ago?
It seems to me that if the Legislature can require schools, towns, companies, and families to do more with less in hard economic time, then it must do the same.
On the first vote LD 144 passed 121-22 but the second vote it passed by only 86-58. If you feel the Legislature needs to be cut and would like to be able to vote on the issue this fall I urge you to call or e-mail your representative and let him or her know. With a margin that close you can help make this change. Let’s not let this chance go another 150 years!
