MPBN: Maine Lawmakers Consider $100 Million in Bond Proposals

By AJ Higgins

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The bond proposals lawmakers are considering total more than $100 million and have the potential to infuse the state’s economy with hundreds of jobs. While the bills have bipartisan support, they will still have to pass muster with Gov. Paul LePage, who takes a cautious approach toward state borrowing. Compromise is likely to prevail in an election year, since the governor and legislators will both want to take credit for a bond plan that benefits all Mainers. A.J. Higgins reports.

The bond proposals before the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee have regional and statewide impact. One would provide funds for constructing lobster processing plants in Maine. Another would channel investment in the state’s marine and biotechnology infrastructure. And another would generate the funds necessary to purchase the defunct Bar Harbor Ferry Terminal.

But Sen. Linda Valentino, a Saco Democrat, says the $73 million bond to support Maine small business and job creation has the level of bipartisan support needed to work its way through the Legislature. “Well, I feel our bond really transcends the politics of the day,” Valentino says.

The bill is the product of the Legislature’s special Workforce Committee charged with developing proposals aimed at improving the state’s economic profile. As the committee’s co-chair, Valentino says it was important for her panel to turn out a bond proposal that represented all members of the Legislature.

“There’s no sponsor of the bill, so it’s not as if somebody’s name is on that bill,” Valentino says. “This is a product of the Workforce Committee, of 15 people working together – independents, Republicans and Democrats – to get out a proposal.”

By channeling the money through the Finance Authority of Maine, the Maine Technology Institute, the state Department of Economic and Community Development, the University of Maine System, the Jackson Laboratory and the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, Valentino says the bond would insure small business loans, leverage matching funds for research and development and make much needed infrastructure improvements.

Speaking to members of the Appropriations Committee Thursday, Muskie School economist Charlie Colgan says that kind of focused investment would send a positive message to many Maine businesses.

“A lot of small businesses which have sat on the sidelines waiting for signs that the Maine economy was going to be moving ahead on a consistent basis are now ready, I think, to get back into the game,” Colgan said. “To the extent that they are constrained by capital, the availability of the funds that you’re talking about doing now will be very helpful in speeding Maine’s recovery over the next couple of years.”

While the committee’s proposal is the largest of the bond packages before Appropriations, it is competing against other more focused measures. Senate Majority Leader Troy Jackson has advanced a $10 million bond to develop and expand the state’s lobster processing capacity.

Rock Alley, a Jonesport lobster fisherman, says more processing facilities are needed if Maine is going to preserve the fishing industry that dominates the Down East economy.

“We need to put our own processing plants up in our towns and not depend on Canada anymore,” Alley said. “What benefits do we have by depending on Canada? They don’t support us. They’re not giving me any money. If we had our own processing plants in the state of Maine, so that we didn’t have to send 70 percent of our catch to Canada to be processed, and then it’s turned back into the United States and sold at a big profit – why can’t we do it here in Maine?”

Lawmakers on the Appropriations Committee could choose to develop a single bond proposal that addresses aspects of the four plans submitted to them in an effort to unite two-thirds of the Legislature behind a plan that could – if necessary – override a potential veto from Gov. Paul LePage.