The zones will offer tax breaks to new and expanding businesses.
By Gail Geraghty
Staff Writer

NORWAY – A total of 783 areas in four Oxford Hills towns are included in the final list of Pine Tree Development Zones.

The towns of Oxford, Paris, Norway and Waterford are part of 15 subzones that make up the 5,000 acres of the Androscoggin Valley Pine Tree Zone. Other towns include Lewiston, Auburn, Greene, Lisbon, Dixfield, Mexico, Canton, Rumford, Kingfield, Jay and Wilton.

The list has been sent to the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development for official certification. The business incentive program is a key element of Gov. John Baldacci’s economic development strategy. The governor and the Legislature created the Pine Tree Zone program last spring.

The subzones will offer significant tax advantages to new or expanding businesses that locate there, including 100 percent state corporate income tax credit for the first five years, followed by 50 percent credit for years six through 10.

Other benefits include Employment Tax Increment Financing equal to 80 percent of net new employees’ state income tax withholdings for 10 years beginning in January 2004, and 100 percent sales tax exemption for building materials and for all tangible personal property, beginning in July of 2005. A municipal tax increment financing district may also be established.

The Androscoggin Valley region, defined as Oxford, Franklin and Androscoggin counties and two census tracts in Lewiston, has been deemed eligible because its unemployment is higher and its wages are lower than the state average.

When the program was announced last fall, the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments coordinated with local growth councils to decide where to locate the zones, which cannot exceed 5,000 acres.

The Growth Council of Oxford Hills worked with selectmen in the four towns to come up with the following sites for Pine Tree Zones:

• Norway – The office park overlooking Norway Lake, C.B. Cummings mill property, New Balance property on Cottage Street, and Grover Gundrilling off Alpine Street. The total usable acreage in the Norway subzone is 81 acres.

• Paris – A total of 134 usable acres on Route 26 north of Market Square.

• Oxford – The Oxford Business Park and the area around routes 26 and 121, as well as the Robinson Manufacturing mill property. The Oxford subzone has 232 usable acres.

• Waterford – The Sanborn Machine property, with 10 usable acres.

Businesses in a Pine Tree Zone seeking to be qualified must demonstrate that without the benefits of the zone, they would not expand or establish operations within the state.