Recent Advances In Central Management Of The Maine Economy

To give some context to theory, I am posting this history:

The Boothbay Comprehensive Plan of 2015 follows word for word a Maine State bill passed in 2013 and codified as "Industry Partnerships" This act seeks to centrally control the the entirety of all resources in Maine, as a corporate conglomerate structure.

Title 26: LABOR AND INDUSTRY

Chapter 39: MAINE INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS

§3304. Industry partnerships

2. Responsibilities of the collaborative.  The collaborative shall:

A. Provide support and staffing assistance to the industry partnerships established under this chapter; [2013, c. 368, Pt. FFFFF, §1 (NEW).]

B. Create an industry partnership to advise the collaborative, the State Workforce Investment Board established in section 2006 and the boards of the local workforce investment areas designated pursuant to the federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998, Public Law 105-220 on aligning state policies and leveraging resources across systems, including workforce development, education and economic development; [2013, c. 368, Pt. FFFFF, §1 (NEW).]

C. Include requirements that support industry partnerships in all relevant programs, grants and new initiatives; and [2013, c. 368, Pt. FFFFF, §1 (NEW).]

D. Use industry partnerships as a connective framework across systems and programs when applying for federal and private funds. [2013, c. 368, Pt. FFFFF, §1 (NEW).]

From another Era

 No individuals or groups (political parties, cultural associations, economic unions, social classes) outside the State. Fascism is therefore opposed to Socialism to which unity within the State (which amalgamates classes into a single economic and ethical reality) is unknown, and which sees in history nothing but the class struggle. Fascism is likewise opposed to trade unionism as a class weapon. But when brought within the orbit of the State, Fascism recognizes the real needs which gave rise to socialism and trade unionism, giving them due weight in the guild or corporative system in which divergent interests are coordinated and harmonized in the unity of the State Benito Mussolint- The Doctrine of Fascism 1932

The language found in the Boothbay Comprehensive Plan of 2015 regarding home businesses  reads like it was cut and pasted from Industry Partnerships. Ordinances, which are supposed to be written by local governance in response to local needs are being written at the state level, instead, which has no direct contact with local needs, this can be reasonably presumed to be in return for the hoped for payola of state grants.

Industry Partnerships

[ 2013, c. 368, Pt. FFFFF, §1 (NEW) .]

Action B.2-3. Revise the standards for more intensive “home businesses” that include activities that are carried on outside of a structure on a residential property or that generate noise or commercial traffic or similar impacts. These uses should be allowed through a planning board review process in which the owner of the home business must demonstrate that it will meet standards with objective criteria for minimizing the impacts on the adjacent neighborhood including providing appropriate buffering and maintaining the visual character of the roadscape.

Action B.2-4. Explore creating a small business assistance program that would help growing businesses, including home businesses and home occupations, with financing and with locating in appropriate commercial/industrial districts when appropriate.

Boothbay Comprehensive Plan of 2015

Town of Boothbay – Comprehensive Plan Update 2015 23 Action B.2-3.Revise the standards for more intensive “home businesses” that include activities that are carried on outside of a structure on a residential property or that generate noise or commercial traffic or similar impacts. These uses should be allowed through a planning board review process in which the owner of the home business must demonstrate that it will meet standards with objective criteria for minimizing the impacts on the adjacent neighborhood including providing appropriate buffering and maintaining the visual character of the roadscape.

Action B.2-4. Explore creating a small business assistance program that would help growing businesses, including home businesses and home occupations, with financing and with locating in appropriate commercial/industrial districts when appropriate.

I have not yet found Boothbay Harbor Town Ordinances. For Comparison's sake, Damariscotta Ordinances. do not include sections copied from the Maine's Industry Partnerships Act.

The Boothbay Comprehensive Plan of 2015 states that if the town submits a state approved plan, it can get a state grant. The municipality will serve as an instrument of the state- ie the three former military bases in this state are chartered as municipal corporations serving as instruments of the state. In conventional use those municipal corporations are never referred to as towns but rather "authorities".

§3305. Industry partnership grant program

1. Grant program.  The collaborative shall establish a competitive grant program that provides support to industry partnerships and eligible applicants pursuant to this section. The grants must be used to provide training or the ability for local, state or regional industry partnerships to meet the objectives listed in section 3304.

[ 2013, c. 368, Pt. FFFFF, §1 (NEW) .]

2. Applications and guidelines.  The collaborative shall establish grant guidelines and develop grant applications and forms and institute any policies and procedures necessary to carry out the provisions of this section. These procedures must include at a minimum:

A. A competitive application process; [2013, c. 368, Pt. FFFFF, §1 (NEW).]

B. A process to review applications and to make recommendations to the collaborative; [2013, c. 368, Pt. FFFFF, §1 (NEW).]

C. A process for providing applicants with additional information about eligibility requirements and assistance in preparing applications; and [2013, c. 368, Pt. FFFFF, §1 (NEW).]

D. A procedure for establishing eligibility requirements. At a minimum, this procedure must include the following:

(1) Involvement of the local workforce investment board;

(2) Participation of at least 4 employers, with at least 2 employers representing businesses with fewer than 50 employees;

(3) Participation of employees and, where applicable, labor representatives;

(4) Private sector matching funding of at least 25%, except that businesses with fewer than 25 employees may be exempted from this matching funding requirement at the discretion of the collaborative; and

(5) Commitment to participate in the performance improvement and evaluation system established pursuant to section 3307. [2015, c. 156, §1 (AMD).]

[ 2015, c. 156, §1 (AMD) .]

3. Grant period and renewal.  The grant period for grants awarded under this section must be not less than 12 months and not more than 24 months. The collaborative may provide opportunities for renewal after the initial grant period ends.

[ 2013, c. 368, Pt. FFFFF, §1 (NEW) .]

4. Technical assistance.  The collaborative shall provide technical assistance to grantees throughout the grant period.

[ 2013, c. 368, Pt. FFFFF, §1 (NEW) .]

5. Other funding sources.  The collaborative shall seek funds from other private and public sources to support and sustain industry partnerships and related activities established in this chapter. Industry partnerships also may seek other sources of funding, both public and private.

[ 2013, c. 368, Pt. FFFFF, §1 (NEW) .]

SECTION HISTORY

2013, c. 368, Pt. FFFFF, §1 (NEW). 2015, c. 156, §1 (AMD).

The formula for getting the most money from the state is through public private partnerships. The selectmen, despite their claims that they cannot do anything to help individual businesses likely have their public private relationships in the works.-my guess !

The Home Rule Amendment (1969) authorized local self government calling for public approval of expenditures by municipal referendum. In 1976 Longley's Board set a goal of eliminating municipal referendums, followed by a declaration by the Legislature which deemed central management of the economy to be an essential government function which must be done by public private relationships. The policies embedded in the Maine Capital Corporation used central management by government to create a class of public private capitalist partners who would become "the owners of the land",or in Marxian terms, "the owners of the means of production". Central management sold this to the public as a  public benefit, reasoning that the public-private-capitalists-owners-of production are creating jobs for landless laborers- which is where the term wage laborers came from as explained in this passage found on Quora. written by Brian Johnson, who identifies himself only as "Victim of the consequences of capitalism"

For capitalist economic history, Britain became the first industrial nation ‘spontaneously’; that is, without the help of direct state intervention. This interpretation, however, does violence to the history of violent expropriation of the agricultural population from the land. The state did critically intervene in the interests of the emerging capitalists in two ways:

• Enclosure movements, enforced by the state, dispossessed the peasantry of both common and individual land usages. The landless labourer was created.

• Wage legislation and systems of social security, most notably the Poor Law

Amendment Act of 1834, forced long hours and factory discipline on the landless labourer. This turned the landless into wage labourers.

Why is Maine's central management writing regulatory passages for home occupations to be inserted into municipal ordinances? Is the insertion of state created municipal regulations into municipal ordinances part of the backroom deals between municipal leaders willing to form secret agreements with central management to function as authorities and instruments of the state in exchange for being designated as a favored recipient in the states capital redistribution system? Given the secrecy with which the JECD is acting, it is reasonable to speculate about such things.

In contrast to the political social-economic vision embedded in Industry Partnerships, Andersen Design's vision for re-establishing our production as a social enterprise is based on establishing a network of independently owned ceramic slip casting productions spread across Maine's free enterprise zone. The free enterprise zone is other wise known as "the other Maine" and is largely excluded from central management's wealth redistribution policy. The idea for the Andersen Design network grew out of my own love for the business in a home lifestyle, and the mind-engaging process of ceramic slip cast production. The business in a home is the direct descendant of the family farm. I feel that people care the most about that which they themselves own and so providing the opportunity for the operator of the production to also be its owner would tap into the greatest sense of commitment and devotion.

The 2013 Industry Partnerships Act is an all encompassing plan for managing the entire economy and capital distribution in Maine. It is the current evolution of the paradigm shift from the local governance provided for in the Home Rule Amendment to the deeming of a state managed economy found in the Report from the Governor's Tax Force of 1976. (This report can be had by requesting it from the Legislative Library of Maine.) The word for word repetition of text from the Industrial Partnerships Act of 2013 found in Boothbay Comprehensive Plan of  2015 gives the appearance, that the selectmen are working as agents of the state, rather than for the local community. The economic development council does not appear to be functioning as a local resource, but rather as a development corporation with its own agenda, aligned with that of the state.

To note: For many years I googled the Maine Constitution and it came up -stand-alone- at the top of the list. In recent months the stand alone version has been hard to find and the Constitution is only accessible by searching for it in the menu of the Maine Legislature's web site, often with distracting pages being presented first, which can make one forget what one was looking for in the first place. After meeting resistance from the Maine Law Library webmaster, the accessible stand- alone version of the Maine Constitution returned as the number one listing on a Google search, but that has not stayed in place. Finding the easily accessed Maine Constitution via Google is sporadic. Today I could not find the Maine Constitution without going through a time consuming trail and when I got to it, it was embedded in the Legislature's website as if a department of the Legislature, which is only one of the three branches of government that the Constitution governs. Once again I will protest! The manner in which fascism was entrenched in Mussolini's Italy was by over writing the Constitution with statutory law. Here is the Home Rule Amendment which precedes the Longley Doctrine by less than a decade:

Note the subtle color change of the background color from the buff parchment color of the stand alone Constitution to the green background color used for the statutes, replacing the former blue color used for the statute. The color changes  act as a visual symbol, merging the Constitution into statutory law, with the Maine Legislature as a law unto itself- as it has been acting since the Longley Doctrine was implemented.

Article VIII.

Part Second.

Municipal Home Rule.

Section 1.  Power of municipalities to amend their charters.   The inhabitants of any municipality shall have the power to alter and amend their charters on all matters, not prohibited by Constitution or general law, which are local and municipal in character.  The Legislature shall prescribe the procedure by which the municipality may so act.

Section 2.  Construction of buildings for industrial use.   For the purposes of fostering, encouraging and assisting the physical location, settlement and resettlement of industrial and manufacturing enterprises within the physical boundaries of any municipality, the registered voters of that municipality may, by majority vote, authorize the issuance of notes or bonds in the name of the municipality for the purpose of purchasing land and interests therein or constructing buildings for industrial use, to be leased or sold by the municipality to any responsible industrial firm or corporation.

UPDATE: A few hours later. The stand alone Constitution with the parchment colored background is back- but now it includes links to the statutes which I do not recall having been there before, complete with a statute search, embedded in the online Maine Constitution. I do not think that belongs in our Constitution. The Constitution is ultimate law - the consent of the governed, which governs what is permissible in statutory law. Statute searches and links should not be in our Constitution but its is better than our Constitution being published in the context of statutory law,

WHERE DOES THE MONEY FOR INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS COME FROM?

The  fiscal note  for the 2013 LD90  industry partnerships,  removes General Fund appropriations from the Department of Corrections and gives it to Industry Partnerships in the amounts of $955,500 in fiscal year 2013-2014 and $1313417 in the fiscal year 2014-2015. . 

In the year 2015, Governor LePage publicly deplored the Department of Corrections for its lack of fiscal responsibility: In a Bangor Daily News story reported on February 10 2015,  LePage looks to elude Board of Corrections with county jail ‘receiver[1], Governor LePage proposes a new amendment in response to what he deplores as the lack of sound fiscal management by the Department of Corrections

The move would allow LePage to appoint a receiver “when, in the judgment of the governor, the state Board of Corrections system, for whatever reason, fails to fulfil the goal of sound fiscal management,” the amendment states:

The receiver would be in place until June 30 of this year. At issue are funding shortfalls totaling nearly $2.5 million this year for Maine’s 15 county jails. Five of those jails — in Aroostook, Cumberland, Penobscot, York and Androscoggin counties — are in danger of closure by the end of the state’s fiscal year on June 30. Sheriffs and lawmakers from those counties have said they would have to refuse to accept new prisoners or release inmates if they ran out of money. Bangor Daily News LePage looks to elude Board of Corrections with county jail ‘receiver’ February 10 2015[

The total amount taken from appropriations for the Department of Corrections to fund Industry Partnerships is $2268917.00. That is almost the same amount of the shortfall. When operating without enough capitalization everything costs more, accounting for the difference. The Department of Corrections is a genuine essential government function. Centrally managing the economy is merely deemed to be an essential government function by the Maine Legislature. To fund Industry Partnerships, the Legislature robbed the Department of Corrections of necessary funding, putting the safety of the people of Maine at risk.

The amendment offered Tuesday would provide $2,171,316. It was unclear, even among lawmakers, why the amount in the amendment was lower than the need identified by the jails.  LePage looks to elude Board ofCorrections with county jail ‘receiver,