The governor toured the area’s biggest private employer as it gets ready to grow.
Auburn – Eight months ago executives from Tambrands made the trek to Augusta to testify in support of a tax break program for manufacturers. On Friday, Gov. John Baldacci got to see the fruits of those labors.
The tampon manufacturer is expanding its capacity to produce a new line of tampons which its parent company, Procter & Gamble, launched last year. Pearl tampons have already gained 7 percent of the market share, according to Dennis Rogers, storeroom manager for the Auburn plant. But they came as the result of millions of dollars in capital and other investment, for which Maine’s Business Equipment Tax Reimbursement program offers credit. A proposal last year would have eliminated the program.
“We’ve been pushing the BETR program and held the line on taxes to help Maine maintain its competitiveness in a global market,” said Baldacci. “You can see those efforts translated here with Tambrand’s construction, its new line and more jobs. It’s nice to see that.”
Over the faint hum of machinery, Baldacci addressed an assembly of Tambrand workers, who took a break from manufacturing the plant’s 10 million tampons per day to listen. He spoke of the need for government to create an environment that allows business to flourish… and not at the expense of increased taxes.
“We have to allow Yankee ingenuity to work,” he told the crowd. “Government has to deliver services better and more affordably.”
The governor also seized the chance to stump against two ballot questions this November. Question 1A, which would require the state to pay for 55 percent of education costs, and the casino referendum are both bad ideas for Maine, he said. Question 1A is just shifting tax money from one pocket to the other, without effecting real change in how the state spends it. And the casino referendum’s language removes state oversight and control from that gambling operation, he said.
He also made a pitch for more collaboration among local governments to save taxes, a concept that Lewiston and Auburn has embraced for years.
“The collaboration we see here needs to happen all over the state,” said Baldacci. “We can’t have all these separate administrations. That’s what is driving the costs.”
Baldacci made his remarks – peppered with references to the imminent success of the Red Sox – after taking a tour of the 445,000 square-foot-facility on Hotel Road. Tambrands is the largest local private employer with 625 workers, and the only manufacturer of Tampax products in North America.
The company made room for its expansion by eliminating its warehousing functions.
“Now everything goes out the door within 24 hours,” said Rogers.
The company has invested more than $106 million in capital improvements at the plant since it was bought by Procter & Gamble in 1997. Over the next three years, it expects to invest an additional $103 million.
It contributes $45 million a year to the Maine economy, less than 1 percent of which originates in Maine, said Rogers. Tambrands supplies tampons to the the U.S. and Canadian markets. Another plant in Budapest supplies to other world markets.
“It’s money coming from outside the state, a gift that keeps on giving,” Rogers said.
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