When the Appropriations Committee voted unanimously for the supplemental budget, the Maine Legislature looked like a rare beacon of bipartisan efficiency.

Then the guy who didn’t bother to show up for the work session blew it up. Maine’s over-stressed medical system and thousands living in poverty are holding their breath as the Legislature once again humiliates itself in a fit of partisan chaos instead of finalizing a budget.

Surely there were provisions left on the cutting room floor that any number of us, left or right, could get behind. That’s how negotiations work. In order for the whole committee to strike a deal, no one gets everything they want.

Delicate negotiations got that bill to where the entire working committee could support it; an incredible feat in this political climate. One guy, who couldn’t be bothered to be there for the hard work, pulled it all apart.

Now the Republicans who voted for the bill in committee have flip-flopped, voting against it on the House floor. There’s no telling where this ends up, but at best, it’s more stress, more fear, and more strife.

We deserve elected officials who will treat the process and their colleagues with due regard instead of waltzing in a day late and blowing up hours of their work. Without that baseline respect, the system does not work. But that’s the whole point: this disaster is calculated for political, not policy, reasons.

Mainers deserve better than this.

Tina Riley, Jay