Following the Financing of Kestrel leads to the Belly of Maine State Socialism PART ONE

The Kestrel de-financing mystery. 

Two articles, one from CEI Capital Management LLC, in April 2011 and another from Areo News on January 03 2012, report that it $20.7 Million from the New Markets Tax Credit Program fell through. 

The New Markets Tax Credit is a federal program designated low-income areas. It can be used for any kind of business.  

CEI Capital Management, LLC (CCML) is a for-profit subsidiary of Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI) that furthers CEI's mission to help create economically and environmentally healthy communities in which all people, especially those with low incomes, can reach their full potential by working to help attract capital to low-income areas using the U.S. Treasury Department’s New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program.

The New Market Tax Credits program targets low-income areas and applies to any kind of business, not only those in the Maine legislature's "targeted sector".  However, the state agencies that I have looked at all target the legislature's "targeted sector" and seek to satisfy the "social benefits" justification for use of taxpayer money. 

This is the list of Coastal Enterprises investments, many of which are located in other states. I did a quick scan looking for recipients that fell outside of the state's "targeted sectors". Every instance that caught my attention turned out to be an investment in a state other than Maine- but it was not a rigorous search.

This is the CEI's Mission Statement:

CEI’s philosophy and mission are rooted in the civil rights movement. Since its inception in 1977, CEI has grown and adapted to changing markets and new possibilities, always focused on helping people, especially those with low incomes, reach their full potential. Targeted sectors have included:

• value-added fisheries, farms and forest projects
• microenterprise development 
• the creation of supported, rental and privately-owned housing
• assistance to women business owners
• child care facility development and
• support for refugees and new immigrants

…all to achieve social and economic justice within sustainable communities.

Now, where have we heard the term "social justice" before?

This is found on a site called First Things.

Today, political activists often use the phrase “social justice” to justify government redistribution of wealth. In the mid-1800s, however, Taparelli prefaced “justice” with “social” to emphasize the social nature of human beings and, flowing from this, the importance of various social spheres outside civic government. For Taparelli, these two factors were essential in formulating a just approach to helping those in need.

Full disclosure  this is a statement from First Things  About Us page :

First Things is published by The Institute on Religion and Public Life, an interreligious, nonpartisan research and education institute whose purpose is to advance a religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society.

The question remains unanswered as to why the federal funding for Kestrel fell through. Considering the amount of tax money invested in the MRRA on the promise of federal funds this is a question that should concern the general taxpayer. The question in my mind is whether it fell through for the Kestrel project or fell through for MRRA, which would have a more far-reaching impact, especially if it concerns the unconventional merging of two mutually exclusive legal entities- a municipal corporation and an instrumentality of the state. If the loss of the federal capitalization had to do with this, it would likely apply to the other federal funding for the MRRA, which gets the bulk of its funding from the federal government.

The CEI describes the MRRA as "a public municipal corporation established by the Maine State Legislature" .

CEI may understand the legal complications of the MRRA's impossible structure as both a municipal corporation and an instrumentality of the state and the language takes the appearance of a cover to make it all sound copacetic. 

The words "established by the legislature" are often used as if to convey authority, while overlooking that the legislature has an authority that governs it- the Maine constitution and United States law to which they must take an oath to uphold. 

It is incredulous that no one at CEI would see the obvious - that a municipal corporation and an instrumentality of the state cannot be merged. I have read court opinions on this matter in which it is very clearly stated that the two are mutually exclusive. The CEI  board includes Peter Pitegoff ,the sixth Dean of the University of Maine School of Law and so it is reasonable to conclude that the CEI  willfully looked the other way when they awarded the capitalization for this project. The words "chartered by the legislature" probably make it alright in the minds of those who made that decision.

The University Of Maine is in the inner circle of the legislature's "targeted sector". If you search the term 'socialism" on the University of Maine website, you will get 129 results.

A diagram found for the first course on the list, Models of Market Socialism, makes my case that the operative government of Maine is socialist. Unfortunately, this diagram is too wide for the space but I have transposed the top layer of content so that it can be presented here. I think it clearly demonstrates that The State of Maine since it decided to disregard Article IV, Part Third, Section 14 of the Maine State Constitution, is unquestionably a socialist government

Italicized comments aside - this is directly quoted from the University of Maine course.

Ownership of wealth/means of production

Soviet Socialism: State

Capitalism: private and inheritable

Accumulation, control & use of surplus (e.g., investment)

Soviet Socialism:State appropriation and investment

Capitalism: Exploitation; private savings; private banks

Coordination: market vs. planning

Soviet Socialism:central planning

Capitalism: markets in consumer and producer goods, capital and   labor; fiscal & monetary  policy; minimal state investment

Accountability of management

Soviet Socialism: to state bureaucracy 

Capitalism: to non-working owners (note the exclusion of working owners- i.e., the micro economy)

The minute opinionated adjectives are inserted such as the word "Exploitation" - applied exclusively to capitalism above, the course goes from one of education to one of indoctrination. 

The comparison between socialism and capitalism is already a form of indoctrination as it compares a political philosophy (socialism) not with another political philosophy (democratic republic or the American political philosophy) but with the economic principles of the American political philosophy and thereby reducing the whole of the American political philosophy to its economic part when the American political philosophy is actually a philosophy based on esoteric principals such as inalienable rights. 

If one uses language that signifies a complete political philosophy for one- then a similar signifier should be used for the system of comparison Both systems are capitalistic but Marx successfully reconfigured the word 'capitalism" to signify private capitalism, when the pure meaning of "capitalism" is actually inclusive of "state capitalism" and "private capitalism".

The economic system of socialism is state capitalism. 

The economic system of the American political philosophy is private capitalism. Using these terms would be a more equitable comparison. -that is what the diagram explains. If equitable language were used in the first place then the inclusion of the adjective "Exploitation" would rightly be distributed equally across both systems,

Where does the MRRA fit in this map? A business development owned and operated by the state and granted the power of eminent domain in its charter. Its goal is the central planning of Maine's economy.

Take the Small Enterprize Growth Fund- truly an example of socializing the risk and privatizing the gain and to whom does it submit ian annual report? To the legislature who chartered this hybrid corporation, placing it categorically in "accountability to the state bureaucracy." (socialism)

This very interesting link to another course of socialism that is being taught at the University Of Maine, 


From The University Of Maine

Socialist and Marxist Studies Series

(Controversy Series)
Fall 2010

To be continued .