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AUGUSTA — This story is
part of a series of profiles on Maine
organizations that attempt to influence the Legislature, the governor and the
media through their research and advocacy.
When legislators are asked to decide on bills dealing with taxes, business
regulations or wages and benefits in this state, inevitably somebody in the
Statehouse halls makes a crack about how the vote will affect their MERI
rating.
For the uninitiated, the acronym stands for the Maine Economic Research
Institute and the rating is based on 15 or so bills a year that are being
monitored by two self-avowed statistical "nerds," who rent a small
office in the Maine State Chamber of Commerce building in Augusta.
Since 1999, MERI has been keeping track of the voting records of all
legislators in both the House and Senate and trying to let business people
know how the candidate they may be supporting is treating their interests in Augusta.
Democrats criticize the rating system as being stacked against them — pitting
business issues against consumers. Invariably, Republicans get the highest
scores while Democrats end up near the bottom.
But Ed McLaughlin, who runs the organization, said it's not about politics.
"I don't care if the Statehouse is all Democratic as long as they treat
the economy well," said McLaughlin, who was once a registered Democrat,
but is now independent. He quickly adds he doesn't care if it's all
Republican either, as long as the votes are pro-business.
McLaughlin, who served as the commissioner of agriculture in the King
administration, was approached by a group of business leaders to start MERI
in 1999 based on the success of a program in North Carolina that helped launch about
two dozen similar organizations nationwide.
"They thought the Maine
economy could and should be a lot better," he said, but no one was
holding legislators' feet to the fire on their voting records.
"There was no need to be accountable on economic issues," because
no one was watching, McLaughlin said, and all candidates say they support
jobs and a strong economy when they are running.
Glen Foss, a former manager with Madison Paper who joined McLaughlin in 2001,
was once one of those business leaders. He supported candidates based on what
they said but not on what they did for business.
Once he saw his senator's MERI rating, he stopped his support. "If I'd
known what his MERI rating was I never would have given it and never did
again," Foss said.
Half of the MERI rating is based on actual roll call votes made by
legislators on an average of 15 bills each session. Those bills are selected
through a winnowing process that starts with a list of broad topics
identified in a senior management survey.
McLaughlin said the survey is sent out to 3,500 businesses and about 20
percent are returned. "Taxes are an enormous issue," he said.
They also get advice on what bills to watch from a survey of about 90
business lobbyists, who identify what's important to them. A smaller group of
14 lobbyists forms an advisory board, which meets
every two weeks to make recommendations as the session moves along, but the
ultimate decision on what bills are used is made by the board of directors.
Its chairman is Peter Vigue of Cianbro, but even critics agree the board is
made up of Republicans, Democrats and independents.
Legislators are told what bills MERI is watching through a "Watch
List" issued four times during the long session of the Legislature and
three times in the short one, in the second year.
The list changes depending on whether a bill is killed in committee, amended
or replaced with something deemed more important.
The other half of a legislator's end-of-session score is affected by the 90
lobbyists MERI consults. They report back on how individuals act in committee
or even in the halls. The idea is a legislator can work behind the scenes to
defeat a bill, but then vote in favor on the floor to keep his constituents
happy.
That so-called "qualitative" piece of the overall score is
criticized by Democrats, who generally get anywhere from single digits to mid-30
ratings based on a possible 100 points.
"It's some group of unidentified people's opinion of you," said
Rep. Ben Dudley, D-Portland, the new head of the state's Democratic Party.
Dudley, who got a score of 5 1/2 for 2005, said Democrats largely feel
"no matter how you vote, they're going to make you look bad."
Sen. Richard Nass, R-York, who got a 96 1/2, thinks
the rating system may be a little too nuanced, saying the organization should
just tell people "who the black hats and the white hats are." That
said, he thinks the rating system has made a difference by measuring how
legislators vote on jobs and the economy.
"It think it's the best thing that has happened
on behalf of the citizens of Maine
in my 12 years as a legislator," Nass said.
MERI is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt, 501 c-6, business
organization — a designation that is also given to chambers of
commerce. The bulk of its money comes from subscribers, who pay a fee to
belong and get the growing number of report cards the group puts out. Additional sales of those reports also brings in up to 20
percent of the money the organization has to spend.
The group claims 325 subscribers or businesses, including local chambers and
trade associations, and McLaughlin said his goal is to get 1,500. In the
first year there were just 40, he said.
Tax returns from 2004 show MERI had revenue of $332,000, and McLaughlin said
that is now up to between $370,000 and $400,000.
The greatest chunk of that money goes into salary and benefits for the
two-man office. McLaughlin earned $105,000 in 2004, not including pension and
other benefits.
The second biggest expense is the production of its legislative report cards,
which include a paperback almanac every two years, voter guides and an annual
roll call or interim report on the two-year legislative session. The
organization also spends money on market research to track voter opinion on
business issues.
At the center of all its publications are the MERI ratings, and McLaughlin
and Foss are always looking for new ways to reach the public with the scores.
Between the two of them, they do 70 presentations a year.
One of their newer publications, Roll Call, goes out in bulk to chambers and
business associations, and they encourage business members to hand it out to
their employees.
While the latest one was just eight pages, with an explanation of the bills
used in the rating process and a few short articles and graphs along with the
individual legislators' rankings, McLaughlin said the feedback shows people
want it more to the point.
"They just want the ratings and pictures," of senators and
representatives next to their score, McLaughlin said. "The feedback we
got was there were too many words."
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