Preserving The American Political Philosophy

Tweet This #http://goo.gl/ovHME3 Over the years that I have been researching the Maine economic development policies that you find documented here in this blog, I have upon numerous occasions come across the state and the Governor justifying the polices on the basis that they are forced to implement them because other states are doing so. However my still limited investigation into the policies instituted in other states is not finding that to be so. It is true that all states that I have researched have economic development policies and tax incentives, but not all states have chartered state corporations that dole out tax credits to corporations. Incentives are most often in the form of tax exemptions rather than tax credits, the difference being that, as tax credits work in Maine, they are largely refundable tax credits and as impacted by other statutes and policies that have been implemented over the years, that translates as direct redistribution of wealth from the general taxp

Tweet This: http://goo.gl/t7bJbI   Below is a quote that was passed on to me by an acquaintance who had contacted a member of the media concening investigations into the legal status of Subchapter 12: MAINE NEW MARKETS CAPITAL INVESTMENT PROGRAM  , which is the premise of the legality of a fraud perpetuated on the Maine people as reported as fact by the Maine media and costing Maine tax payers 76 million dollars at the latest telling in this article by Whit Richardson Thanks for writing, and for taking the time to do some digging. What you discovered is true. I don’t believe the Senate voted to approve LD 991 in 2011. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter as the bill’s language was folded into the budget bill that year. The House and Senate both voted to approve the budget, which means they also voted to create the New Markets program even though the original bill died on the appropriations table. Legislative leadership can fold language into the budget bill any time they want . T

TWEET THIS   goo.gl/bDXMYY There is a noteworthy article in the Portland Press Herald by staff writer WHIT RICHARDSON Pay Day At the Mill tells the story of how investors from out side the state lobbied the legislature to create new program Maine New Markets Capital Investment program, written by their own lawyers to include the ubiquitous refundable tax credit found throughout economic development programs devised by the Maine legislature In the end, here’s what really happened: Two Louisiana financial firms arrived in Maine with a plan to create such a program, hired lawyers and lobbyists to get it passed in Augusta, then put together the Great Northern deal using one-day loans that made an $8 million loan look like a $40 million loan. While they claim they did this to leverage more investment, the result is that Maine’s taxpayers are going to pay $16 million to banks and investment firms that invested only half that amount. And all of it was legal. Whit Richardson Payday A