This New England

-- Susan Wadsworth

Monadnock Fall III: Perkins Pond (1999 pastel and pencil on Arches paper).

(swadsworth@fsc.edu)

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New Hampshire legislators just nixed a proposal for four-year terms for governors.

The state has what many people might call inefficient, old-fashioned political structures.

For instance, it has the largest legislature of any state -- 424 members (!) -- and, with Vermont, still elects governors for two-year terms, thus, you would think, bogging governors down in endless politicking.

You'd also think that a state where 90 percent of funding comes from the towns would provide bad education.

But in fact, New Hampshire government works quite efficiently and at least as measured by test scores, public education performs among the best in the United States.

That's because the place has a strong and generally public-sprited civic culture, a tradition of local voluntarism and government participation, and an orderly sense of what government can do well and not so well.

In the end, it seems that civic culture, and not the details of government structure, is what's important.

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There's a curious battle in Vermont between businesses seeking to tap maple trees on state land for the sap and lumber people distressed that the tapping makes the wood less attractive for harvesting.

At least this resource is (slowly) renewable. Let it not be said that New England lacks natural resources, especially considerng the high price of maple syrup these days because of past weather problems still hurting Quebec's production of the liquid gold.

 Tags  maples New Hampshire New Hampshire legislature Susan Wadsworth two-year terms

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