OOPS- Maybe the Maine State Inc Owned Liquor Business Isn't As Profitable As Projected!

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Maine officials worry state effort won’t recapture revenue lost in alcohol sales to NH

Bangor Daily News

Under the previous contract, inked by the administration of former Gov. John Baldacci, the state was paid $125 million plus a small percentage of the annual profits between $7 million and $9 million per year over the contract’s 10-year span. The company doing the work, however, made about $36 million each year in profit.

Now how unfair is that- the company DOING THE WORK is making a bigger share of the profits that the corporation of Maine?  Gotta change that ! And I am sure companies will be rushing to compete for the contract especially after the University of Maine business consortium (a kinder, gentler way of saying public- private oligarchy), arranged to have the PUC terms of agreement changed in the Wind Baron Wars* in order to chase Norwegian company Statoil out of Maine so that Maine State Inc could create Maine Aqua Ventus and take over the wind mill Industry in true banana republic style politics for which Maine is establishing a grand reputation.

UMaine gets federal grant for offshore wind project, but far less than $47 million hoped for Bangor Daily News

OOPS Maine Aqua Ventus only got 3 million of those freshly printed dollars from the feds- those magic dollars that decrease the purchasing power for all as it redistributes wealth to the states chosen ones. Aqua Ventus was expecting to take in the 47 million that Statoil was supposed to get ! OOPs maybe the tzars of Maine State Inc don't understand global capitalism as well as they fancy that they do ! -Pure speculation - but could it be that Statoil has more sway with the feds than the corporation of Maine does?

And - I have been pointing out for a while that the whole idea that a state owned liquor industry being profitable has not had a chance to be proven true- The statute passed in 2003 returning the liquor industry to the private sector only expired in July of this year !- And even with a compromised start ahead of that expiration date- there hasn't been enough time to establish that the state owned liquor industry is profitable.

The same kind of accommodating finagling is going on with  state liquor contract negotiations as took place in the state arranged PUC terms of agreement that opened the doors for the state windmill industry- Maine Aqua Ventus: This is the problem when the state merges into the private sector. The state can re-write laws at whim and also write laws that oppose free enterprise practices as we find both in this quote from the Bangor Daily News article:

But, after the administrative hearing and while the panel was still deliberating its decision on whether the contract was valid, the state cancelled the contract award to Pine State and issued a new request for proposal that included substantial changes to previous language, redefining how much of a conflict a company could have in another state and still work in Maine. It also removed language that would have allowed bidders to offer incentive programs that would peg their profits to the success of their work.

The same kind of accommodating finagling is going on with  state liquor contract negotiations as took place in the state arranged PUC terms of agreement that opened the doors for the state windmill industry- Maine Aqua Ventus: This is the problem when the state merges into the private sector. The state can re-write laws at whim and also write laws that oppose free enterprise practices as we find both in this quote from the Bangor Daily News article:

Reiche, who also declined to comment for this report, said at the time the new request for proposal was issued that it de-emphasized the original focus of trying to compete more aggressively with New Hampshire.

 “We were interested in bidding on this when the state had a higher priority in recovering sales from New Hampshire,” Reiche told the Sun Journal in August.

He said his company’s original proposal hinged on an incentive program that would allow the company to take a profit only after it had accomplished the state’s revenue goals in clawing back sales from New Hampshire

But alas under the new laws, incentive programs are disallowed!

“This process was carefully crafted and vetted to ensure transparency and full and fair competition among bidders,” he said. “The governor was disappointed that there was only one bidder but is confident his goals of getting the maximum benefits for Maine will be realized.” 

 Peter Steele, the governor’s communications director.

Full and fair competition between bidders? Really? 

* If you want to know the history of the Wind Baron Wars that resulted in the formation of Maine Aqua Ventus- it is documented in the statutory time line that I created as a means to generate income from this blog. Since the download link never stays operational for long - I gave up on it and so anyone interested in obtaining A Maine Citizen's Timeline Through The Statutes of Transformation- which is a well documented statutory history of the transformation of the state of Maine into the corporation of Maine, complete with internal reference links, just send a payment- suggested minimum $10.00 but whatever you can afford- more or less- to mackenzie@andersenstudio.com via PayPal and I will email the doc to you.

If this blog were generating a cash flow I would research more deeply into articles such as this one- finding the bids that each company made, and follow the trail where ever it leads, but as an unpaid labor of public service urgency, I have to exercise discipline as to how I spend my time and I have to prioritize the use of my time on finding support for capitalizing  The Great American Ceramic Designer Craftsmen Network, which is where the motivation to do this blog began,