After years of deliberation, our Founding Fathers created a unique system of government with checks and balances, so that no one body has more power than the other and freedoms are protected.
To which Maine responds, "Thanks, but no thanks," and takes steps to change all of that.
Maine’s House of Representatives voted this week to merge itself with the state Senate, creating one unicameral body, with the goal of saving taxpayers $11 million each two-year legislative session. Maine state representative Joseph Wagner called the state Senate a "colonial legacy" of the state’s early days, in which the upper chamber was "a council of [the state's] wealthiest landowners." Opponents say it removes an appropriate check and balance from the state government.
If the plan goes forward, Maine would become the second state, behind Nebraska, to have a one-chambered legislature, and the umpteenth to use the economic crunch as an excuse to make silly and irresponsible decisions.
9 years ago
