By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

AUBURN – Former Gov. Angus King noted two things about Maine taxpayers Wednesday – they want more services almost as much as they want lower taxes.

“I’ve never had people come in to say the roads are great – and, by the way, I don’t think those taxes are high enough,” King said. It’s an entitlement mentality that’s common around the country.

Maine is getting to a place where it has to change, King told a gathering of city and town officials Wednesday. That gathering, a half-day session on regional government, was by law firm Bernstein Shur Sawyer & Nelson. The firm specializes in municipal government issues.

For King, the only answer is for cities to find a way to do their jobs cheaper, by learning to cooperate with each other. That hasn’t been an easy thing to sell in Maine, with its hundreds of small towns and school districts, and its distrust of government.

“I won’t say I’ve given up on government consolidation, but I do feel like it’s the same as banging my head against a brick wall,” he said. He looks at other states that have half as many school districts as Maine with twice as many students and knows something has to give.

“If we don’t, we cannot remain competitive,” he said.

Lawyers from the firm discussed initiatives at the state level that have been talked about as well as ideas from other states. King said he is a member of a group that could recommend reducing the number of school districts from more than 200 to 35, the number of state Senate districts.

It will be tough to make that happen.

“We have a natural distrust of big government, and we really value our local control,” he said.

In the meantime, municipal officials must be ready to lower expectations.

“We have to be educators,” he said. “We can’t go around and promise everything. The problem is, for politicians, there’s no reward for telling the truth.”

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