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Government Nepotism in the State of Maine- One Hand Awards The Other.

I hope others will join me in researching the real facts behind the rhetoric of the current bond debate instigated By Governor LePage's veto of the  research and development bond.. This page Maine State Legislative Links is where I keep track of what I come across in my research and makes a good starting point.

 I invite all to contribute a guest editorial about this subject.

Close to the top of the list is The Journal of Innovation & Transformation,  published by the Southern Maine Community College, a likely recipient of those r&d funds that the governor just vetoed.

About two thirds of the way down is The Midcoast Campus A Model In Educational Development  by Charle s Lawton , P .h. D. There you will find a chart of the "targeted sector", which looks pretty comprehensive were it not for the fact that it noticeably excludes the retail and tourist industries, which happen to be the main stay of my small community. It seems these sectors are not desirable in the eyes of government academics who design the plans for the future Maine economy, which is a reason why Governor's Lepage's recent support for taxing internet retail sales hits so hard. Not only does the state government not contribute anything to the wealth created by internet sales, but the state government ignores the entire in state retail sector in it's economic development schemes- but that is to be expected when the government is deeply entrenched in the special interests business as it is here in Maine. A special interest sector includes some while excluding others.

So the MRRA- the Marxist Regional Redevelopment Authority- I'm sorry- that's wrong- the first "M" stands for "Midcaost" and not "Marxist"- That is the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority- which is at once a municipal corporation - meaning local government defined by the territory that it occupies- which is much smaller than the entire Midcoast area- and an "instrumentality of the state"- which covers an area much larger than the entire Midcoast Area. Given the special act of legislation that stands as the charter for this corporation grants it the power to acquire adjacent property by eminent domain - and given that this is an agency of a state controlled economy, one can argue that "Marxist" makes as much sense as "Midcoast" makes nonsense.

In the short amount of time that I am able to devote to researching this subject today, I came across a recent press release for the MRRA.

It tells us this:


September 16, 2011 - MRRA Receives MDF's "Champion of Economic Development" Award - Click here to read press release

So the MRRA - an instrumentality of the state- ( in other words quantifiable as "government" in terms of LePage's claims about r&d research recipients) has received an award from the Maine Development Foundation- which is another government agency

A quote from the website of  The Maine Development Foundation

“MDF is a special creature of state law enabled to bring private sector thinking and experience to state government planning and program implementation. There is no other entity like it.”- Kay Rand, Managing Director, Bernstein Shur Government Solutions LLC

Charter for the Maine Development Foundation - est in or about 1977-1979
Charter For The MRRA est in or about 2009
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