On Friday, Sen. John Nutting, D-Leeds, delivered to the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee a list of 50-plus positions within state government he considers “duplicative and unnecessary.”

The committee took his work for later discussion, amid its complicated negotiations about “The Initiative,” shorthand for their off-session work toward streamlining state government. (Which has covered everything including whether to allow cows to graze along the Turnpike, we understand.)

Nutting’s list coincides with the release of an Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability report stating executive-level confidential and appointed state jobs grew 44 percent since 1997, compared to 1.49 percent overall growth across all of Maine’s government.

On Sept. 2, we challenged Nutting to say where he’d cut the state budget, instead of criticizing the Appropriations process from afar, which we felt only undermined its important work.

Now he’s joined the fray with an interesting proposal, backed by a strong OPEGA report.

Kudos to Sen. Nutting for answering our challenge.