By Paul Jacob

Every once in a while I read something that makes me want to cheer.

Not long ago the Bangor News ran an op-ed by one Peter Petersen, a chemical engineer who answers the claim that we are losing everything when we lose the "experience" of outgoing legislators.

Mr. Petersen says we should look at the track record of Maine legislators when they were not being term- limited. He notes that "from 1945 to 1985 . . . we had no term limits, and all-powerful Senate and House leaders ran the Legislature as a personal fief. During this time the legislature [imposed] more than 40 tax increases and innumerable regulations concerning business and private affairs culminating in making Maine the undisputed leader in the United States in taxation per capita. . . ."

Petersen reports that many companies won't even consider Maine as a base because of the "inhospitable way they are being treated in this state. The few operations that set up shop in Maine were only enticed by tremendous tax breaks and abandon the state the minute those breaks are gone." He says the low-tax regime of New Hampshire is the place to be, not Maine.

I don't follow the Maine legislature as well as our national legislature. But I'd say, based on what's going on in Washington, DC, that Petersen is right. Congressmen of all parties engage in runaway pork- barrel spending and runaway deficit spending, and don't bother to actually read most of the legislation they pass.

Look at the track record of un-term-limited incumbents, and youll find what experience usually brings: inefficiency, runaway spending, and packets full of pork.

This is Common Sense. I'm Paul Jacob.

Common Sense is published by Americans for Limited Government. Their website can be visited at www.limitedgov.org.