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Rooks: Spending alone can’t rebuild Maine s capabilities
Douglas Rooks
The long-awaited, $1 billion American Rescue Plan package submitted by Gov. Janet Mills to the Legislature has something for just about everyone.
Mills would pump $50 million into fishing, farming and forest products. She’d replenish the depleted unemployment insurance fund by $80 million.
Another $80 million would “jumpstart innovation,” though we could use some details. There’s a lot more money for broadband, everyone’s favorite cause – $150 million – plus $50 million for the successful Efficiency Maine programs for homeowners, schools, municipalities and businesses. And so on.
In the absence of competing proposals – so far, none – it’s likely Mills’s plan will be adopted largely intact.
The Maine Idea: Spending alone can’t rebuild Maine’s capabilities
By Douglas RooksThe Maine Idea
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The long-awaited, $1 billion American Rescue Plan package submitted by Gov. Janet Mills to the Legislature has something for just about everyone.
Mills would pump $50 million into fishing, farming and forest products. She’d replenish the depleted unemployment insurance fund by $80 million.
Another $80 million would “jumpstart innovation,” though we could use some details. There’s a lot more money for broadband, everyone’s favorite cause – $150 million – plus $50 million for the successful Efficiency Maine programs for homeowners, schools, municipalities and businesses. And so on.
In the absence of competing proposals – so far, none – it’s likely Mills’ plan will be adopted largely intact.
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
New England Clean Energy Connect approved in Wilton sunjournal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sunjournal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.