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2013 Maine Municipalities Warned to Tighten their Belts as Seed Capital Tax Credit Expands Eightfold

Tweet This: http://goo.gl/qOE3vX Worth a Listen:  http://wgan.com/podcasts/al-dimillo-1-11/ Compiled from various notes:  Feb 2013   An Act To Provide Greater Access to Capital for Certain BusinessesThrough Advance Payment of Employment Tax IncrementFinancing Benefits  SUMMARY 36 This bill allows the Commissioner of Economic and Community Development, under 37 extraordinary circumstances, to provide advance payments of employment tax increment 38 financing benefits to a qualified business based on a net present value calculation of the 39 projected employment tax increment financing benefit to the business. The advance 40 payment must be made in the form of a loan through the Maine Rural Development 41 Authority, pursuant to applicable conditions and requirements. Commentary This refers to the (up to) 80%payroll  tax credit that the state provides to its targeted sector- or in other words that the state requires the tax-paying sector (employees , retail sector, other

Discussion of LePage Budget Rages On Amid a Flurry Of Comments Being Scrubbed From The Net

Tweet This   http://goo.gl/FLhMCz I published this post in a shorter form several hours ago and decided to add to it. In the process composing this update I discovered that the post has become un-published but not by me. The images that you see throughout are documenting that my blog post was scrubbed from the net but that it does not register as having been done so by myself through an action of reverting it to draft. I included the web address bar for each screen which shows that the post had formerly been published. I haven't had time to write lately as I need to focus on our business but I have been involved in many discussions on line about the LePage budget.  I am hearing that comments not in favor of  LePage's fundamental transformation of Maine have been scrubbed from Lepage's  Facebook page and I have now had my first comment scrubbed by the Bangor Daily News, which until now has been remarkably fair about publishing comments. One can see a lists of one

Hayek's The Constitution of Liberty

Tweet This! http://goo.gl/6pCJ4d I have recently been in a Facebook conversation with Ray Richardson in which LePage's desire to change the Maine Constitution so that the Secretary of State and Treasurer are under the administration rather than being positions appointed by two thirds of the legislature came up. Mr Richard said this is a conversation we need to have, to which I responded  that if we have a conversation about the Maine Constitution, he and Governor Lepage should not expect that conversation to be limited to talking points which they decide. I ususally find it irritating when politicians announce that "this is a conversation we need to have !" in which the conversation is to focus on a small subset of ideas. I myself am engaging in a conversation we need to have by writing this blog This video outlines a comprehensive framework to the conversation we need to have, The panel is of opposing views, one being George Soros who displays his expertise in

The Lepage Plan- Filled with Inconsistencies

Tweet This http://goo.gl/dp9zpP In recent weeks we have been hearing that LePage wants to eliminate the income tax. My initial response was I'll believe it when I see it . During his tenure, LePage has agressively advanced corporate welfare, which our legislature and administration justify via the means of an income tax on labor. The state of Maine, being in fact today the corporation of Maine, and run in the interests of profit would not be able to justify the massive tax payer give-a-ways to capitalists without claimimg such a policy is profitable because it produces a high end labor tax base which brings in the revenue. So when LePage floats the concept that he wants to eliminate the income tax, I say that even if that were actually Lepage's intent it is highly improbable that it can ever happen without first deconstructing the corporate state and its ever expanding corporate welfare system. To start with expanding the instances in which sales tax will be collected is e