LEWISTON – Maintaining personal property tax exemptions for Maine’s industries will help keep the state’s businesses competitive with other states.
That was the message voiced by John Williams, president of the Maine Pulp and Paper Association, and Dana Connors, president of the Maine Chamber of Commerce, at an editorial board meeting Thursday afternoon at the Sun Journal.
Those exemptions, offered under the state’s Business Equipment Tax Reimbursement program and individual tax incentive financing packages offered by some municipalities, provide incentives for industries to update aging equipment, a critical step for increasing productivity.
“The BETR program brings us even with Wisconsin,” said Williams. “If we don’t get continued investment in our mills, we’ll lose competition. The single key to being competitive is to keep investing.”
Wisconsin is the nation’s largest paper producer. Maine is second.
The BETR program, in force since 1995, reimburses municipalities for personal property tax revenue that businesses with industrial equipment do not have to pay. It is a substantial part of the state’s program to try to draw new business and industry into the state and to encourage the growth of existing companies.
But some businesses are concerned that it may end, and if does, Maine’s business climate may be hurt.
Dennis Rogers, spokesman for Tambrands, said the BETR program and Auburn’s TIF package were crucial to the $150 million investment that Tambrands’ parent company, Procter and Gamble, made in the local manufacturing facility a few years ago.
The two programs also helped the company decide to stay in the area.
“It’s hard to believe we’d still be in Maine if not for BETR and the TIF,” he said, adding that it costs 10 percent more to do business in Maine than in many other states that have Procter and Gamble plants.
The question of whether the BETR program will continue will affect expansion decisions by existing businesses, and decisions by new businesses on whether to move into the state.
Connors said the issue of possibly eliminating the BETR program comes up so often that there are fears it may go away entirely.
“If we don’t have the capital investment that technology provides, we’ll fall behind,” said Connors.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.