Our lives will be much more local in a world with expensive energy and transportation. We'll be spending our time in our towns and counties and that will require changes in the scale of our government.

Most of the functions of our current government will have to be offered locally if they are to be available at all. Counties can take on new roles as the seat of a decentralized local government.

Education, welfare, mental health, transportation - services now provided by the state will become county or town services. In some cases counties might assume many of the duties now held by towns. In others, there might be additional political units other than towns, eg a watershed or a river. There might be sub-county units or not depending on what the people in the county decide. The state itself would become a federation of counties. [The Swiss cantons are an example of such a structure.]

The state government would shrink - perhaps as much as 3/4 - as powers were delegated to the counties and towns. The state legislature might set general statewide parameters and let the counties fine tune the details. One county might choose a slightly different mix of sales, income and corporate taxes than its neighbor. Another county might have a different school structure. Across the state, there would need to be some sort of financial equalization.

Counties will be governed representatively by an indirectly elected board. Communities will be free to move from county to county or to form new counties. Over time, communities will sort themselves into more sensible bioregions; a Cumberland county incorporating Long Island, Bridgton and the City of Portland will probably split up.

Both raising revenue and spending on services will be brought closer to the citizens affected. Rather than "one-size fits all decisions" passed down from Augusta, the local communities will be making decisions for themselves. In large part this addresses the frustration behind TABOR [Taxpayers Bill of Rights].