Lawmakers pledge aggressive action to address Maine s affordable housing, eviction crisis mainebeacon.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mainebeacon.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Eye on Augusta: Legislature Passes Tax Breaks for 28,000 Businesses and 160,000 Unemployed Workers
by Andy OâBrien (Photo: Dan Kirchoff)
Andy O’Brien is communications director at Maine AFL-CIO. He is a former managing editor of The Free Press and a former state legislator. His Eye on Augusta column appears every other week in The Free Press. Last Thursday, the Maine Legislature passed a supplemental budget package that will provide a full state tax exemption to federal Paycheck Protection (PPP) grants for 28,000 profitable businesses as well as tax breaks on the first $10,200 of federal unemployment benefits for 160,000 unemployed workers.
Republicans initially blocked the two-thirds votes necessary to pass the spending package in order to demand another $32 million in additional business tax cuts, including foreign-derived intangible income, to mirror the federal tax code. However, during floor debate, Republican leaders could not ex
Maine senator calls for crackdown on ‘snake oil and fine print’ payday loans
State Sen. Rick Bennett of Oxford calls for limits on how much lenders can charge for short-term loans to hard-pressed Mainers.
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The effective U.S. payday loan interest rates, by state, for a $300 loan. In Maine, it’s 217%, the second highest in New England.
Center for Responsible Lending
Desperate for cash and unable to access traditional lenders for all sorts of reasons, some Mainers turn to financial outfits that give out payday loans with terms that are sometimes impossible to pay back.
In a bid to offer better protection, state Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, told a legislative committee this week that too many Mainers are “misinformed, bilked, conned and abused by unscrupulous predator lenders, often when they are in dire personal circumstances as well and most vulnerable to snake oil and fine print.”
Maine senator calls for crackdown on snake oil and fine print payday loans centralmaine.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from centralmaine.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.