link includes digital audio
Maine business leaders today put forward a plan to stimulate economic growth in the state. After nearly a year of conducting interviews and surveys with about a thousand employers, the Maine State Chamber of Commerce and the Maine Development Foundation released a publication called "Making Maine Work."
Maine Development Foundation President Laurie Lachance, left, and Maine State Chamber of Commerce President Dana Connors, unveil a plan to boost Maine's economy.
"We are encouraging government to set up the environment that allows the confidence and the encouragement for private sector to invest," says Dana Connors, president and CEO of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce. "The private sector invests because they believe there's hope and that there's opportunity -- the rest will come in place."
The report points out that Maine has a rapidly aging population and ranks only 45th in the nation in terms of productivity. It concludes that the main factors holding back economic growth in the state are the cost of health insurance, the cost of energy, state regulations and the high level of income tax.
Connors says his constituents believe that creating a regulatory environment that's more favorable to business is key to spurring investment in the state. "Different agencies operate different permitting requirements, and it's as much, sometimes, an attitude as it is an action, going to various departments, various places to get permits, trying to streamline that, trying to put more of a one-stop concept in place -- just dealing with an attitude as well as some steamlining will go a long ways."
"There are a combination of economic and demographic trends that are pressing down upon us," says Laurie Lachance, president of the Maine Development Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to driving sustainable, long-term economic growth in the state, and co-author of the report. "And right now they demand our attention, they require us to create and pursue new approaches to economic development and they compel us to take action."
The report makes 12 policy recommendations for the nextLegislature to consider. Topping the list is the need to bring down healthcare costs.
"We challenge Maine's next governor to challenge Maine's healthcare leaders to reduce annual increases in healthcare spending below the national average every year," says Rich Donaldson, a director at LL Bean who sits on the Making Maine Work advisory committee. "Our next governor must call together major healthcare providers and stakeholders to create a public-private strategy to meet the healthcare cost inflation goal."
"Maine has done this before," says Christopher St. John, executive director of the Maine Center for Economic Policy, which was not involved in writing the Making Maine Work report. "In the 10 years that we had the Maine Healthcare Finance Authority that regulated hospital costs, we reduced the rate of growth in hospital costs to below the national average, so I do agree that it is do-able to reduce Maine's healthcare costs."
On the whole, St. John says he agrees with the report's recommendations, including the call for property tax relief. But he says he does not agree completely with a proposal to bring down the top income tax brackets.
To read the complete report, Making Maine Work, click here.
