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...
Examining the Fundamental transformation of the American political system that originated in the political philosophy preserved by Publius in The Federalist Papers. This blog was originally published as Main Street Economy and focused on legislation passed in the state of Maine "inspired" by similar laws passed by other states which collectively constitutes a fundamental transformation of the American political philosophy within state incubators.