Mills Presents Bold and Transformative Action Plan to Improve Maine's Economic Future

Statement

In the wake of an alarming report that projects virtually no job growth for Maine, Democratic nominee for governor, Attorney General Janet Mills, today proposed a new, innovative, and transformative economic action plan that will immediately alter Maine's economic trajectory towards sustained growth.

Standing at Kennebec Technologies, a small, precision-manufacturing company in Augusta that was named the Manufacturer of the Year 2013, Mills presented "A New Prosperity: An Economic Action Plan for Maine's Future". The proposal includes nearly 20 action items that Mills would move to implement within her first year in office -- all of which are aimed at making it easier for small businesses to grow and expand, for the state to retain and attract young people, and for rural communities to flourish again.

"Maine can no longer afford the old ideas of the past. It's time for a new direction -- with bold and forward-looking proposals that will jumpstart economic growth," said Mills. "My economic action plan will accomplish that by supporting small businesses, developing our workforce, welcoming home Mainers to live and work here again, and rebuilding our rural communities. I look forward to implementing these strategies within my first year in office because Maine needs change, not simply more of the same."

At the press conference, Mills was joined by Wick Johnson, the President of Kennebec Technologies, and John Dorrer, an economist and the former Director of the Center for Workforce Research and Information at the Maine Department of Labor. Both of them enthusiastically endorsed Mills' proposal.

"As a small business owner, I am excited to endorse this proposal," said Johnson, the President of Kennebec Technologies. "It will bring people together to energize Maine's economy, and it will support small business growth by streamlining government bureaucracy, improving access to much-needed capital, and helping businesses find trained workers. Janet has shown real vision with this plan."

"This is exactly the concrete, positive, and forward-looking vision that Maine needs right now and has lacked for too long," said Dorrer, former Director of the Center for Workforce Research and Information at the Maine DOL. "We know what Maine's challenges are -- and step by step, this proposal takes a head-on approach to addressing them. With this action plan, I am confident that Maine can grow and thrive in the years to come."

The economic action plan -- which is the result of months of collaboration with people ranging from small business owners, innovators and entrepreneurs, to economists, to every day, hard-working Mainers -- is broken down into three distinct sections: 1) Laying the Foundation for Economic Growth; 2) Supporting Small Business; and 3) and Growing Our Workforce; and it features four particularly transformative proposals:

Create the Small Business Accelerator. Entrepreneurs and small business owners don't have the time to navigate their way through the complexities of state financing and regulations. The Small Business Accelerator will serve as a "one-stop shop" for Maine businesses and start-ups who need help accessing financing, training workers, or handling state regulation.

Launch the Job Growth Loans Program. Every entrepreneur and small business owner knows how they would grow their business, if only they had the money. This loan program will provide 18 months of no-interest loans up to $25,000 for small businesses to finance adding a new employee.

Establish the Welcome Home Program. With the ease of remote work, many workers can stay connected to their responsibilities without ever going to an office, and when combined with the fact that there are many people who have wanted to return or move to Maine, there is opportunity ripe for growth. The Welcome Home Program will kick start the process of attracting and welcoming people to Maine by protecting companies from tax implications of workers moving to Maine to work remotely, and by providing personal income tax credits of up to $500 after a worker moves to and lives in Maine for a year.

Provide the Rural Workplace Grant. Maine's rural communities have suffered substantially over the past several decades, but they are some of the best places to live and work -- which is why we should make it as easy as possible for people to move their careers to rural communities throughout Maine. The Rural Remote Workplace Grant will create a competitive grant program to help communities convert a downtown building into a co-working space with high-speed broadband for small businesses and remote workers.

Importantly, the economic action plan doesn't create a single task force, working group, or any new web of bureaucracy -- in fact, it significantly reduces the complicated and often confusing web of programs and agencies that the current administration forces people to wade through in order to get help.

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