Dollars and Sense: Maine State Budgeting at a Crossroads

Authors

Josephine M. LaPlante, Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern Maine
Robert G. Devlin, Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern Maine

Files

Document Type

Book

Description

Dollars and Sense: Maine State Budgeting at a Crossroads provides a "bird's eye" view and analysis. The value of this approach is the capacity to take an "arm's length" look at state finances. We hope that the broader perspective will promote viewing expenditure and tax policy issues comprehensively, not as isolated slices of the state budget pie, but rather, as interdependent building blocks of a healthy fiscal system. There is an important limitation to an "outside" study, however, which is actually the same as its strength: distance from the "whys" and "whens." We do not pretend to understand every policy area as fully as specialists within government, nor to be privy to the same information. Thus, this report will be best used as a working document, to encourage and facilitate directed inquiry, open and thoughtful discussion of issues, and hopefully, decisions that can place Maine on a sound fiscal footing for the 1990's.

Publication Date

1-1993

Publisher

Edmund S. Muskie Institute of Public Affairs, University of Southern Maine

City

Portland, ME

Keywords

budget, Maine, state policy, finances, University of Southern Maine, Muskie School of Public Service

Comments

Funding for research assistance and production expenses of this study was made available through a grant from the University of Southern Maine President's Office. Professor Josephine LaPlante has contributed her extensive research and writing time on this project as a public service.

Recommended Citation

LaPlante, Josephine M, and Robert G. Devlin. Dollars and Sense: Maine State Budgeting at a Crossroads. Edmund S. Muskie Institute of Public Affairs, University of Southern Maine, 1993.