I don' see a whole hell of a lot of Aroostook County there. What about Presque Isle, Caribou, Ashland, Houlton , Fort Kent , Madawaska, ETC.

Its good for BSB that is. Did "THE COUNTY" get left out?

As a businessman who has repeatedly tried to seek startup funds for manufacturing here in Maine, I am sceptical as to whether this program will actrually benefit any businesses here in Maine. When applying for a business loan, All the banks seem interested in is how much cash you have. I have also found the SBA as being little to no help. Strange as it sounds, a solid business plan with products to be sold on international markets has scant interest. I have found that if I had the cash on hand to meet their loan requirments, I could get by without the bank anyway.

This may be another program that only benefits those businesses that don't really need it in the first place. There are so many programs out there that are empty in terms of what benefit it may have in actually helping a start up or expansion. There are a lot opf hoops to jump through with some off-beat requirements that sometimes ar impracticable to meet. Personally, I have found EMDC, MDC and other "agencies" effectively useless in helping startups that have any sort of solid foundation in terms of ideas and innovation. It seems they exist to toot their own horns or to provide "Incubators", and crumbs of financing that don't lead to much in the way of spawning new business. See-more, and talk and attend "lunch and learns! Give me a break!

Aroostook is listed at the bottom of the article:

In the following counties: Washington, Aroostook, Piscataquis, Franklin, Somerset and Oxford.

Come on now, mainbad, anybody with any brains knows that EMDC, MDC, SBA and all those other agencies exist solely to provide make-work jobs for relatives of politicians. This is just another $9.5-million from the taxpayer to be stolen by people with connections in Augusta.

To say that I am highly, highly, highly skeptical of programs such as this is an understatement. We have learned over the decades that "the fix is in," with so many of our public and quasi-public institutions, such as CES. And al though we used to think that we COULD trust private institutions, such as Bangor Savings, the recent fiascos have shown us that's pretty foolish too. (And then add the fact that downtown PORTLAND, BIDDEFORD, and BRUNSWICK qualify under these programs as "disadvantaged", and you have the makings of a HUGE fiasco.....)

Typical garbage. You go in with a good b plan, some assets to pledge and a market waiting for you to expand. The bankers and the politicians put on these dog and pony shows but little, if any, capital is made available.. Our company learned a long time ago not to waste time with Maine banks and state or regional "economic development" agencies. You spend all your time submitting forms and waiting for answers that never come--just request for more information. Unless you have some cash on hand to back the loan 100% you can forget about seeing any additional capital. Small wonder Maine is ranked number 48 in the nation for business climate.

Our solution--simple. First, we moved our principal operations out of Maine next door to New Hampshire. That greatly lowered our taxes, fees and costs, allowing us to expand and hire more people. Second, we found progressive banks in the South that would loan money and grant lines of credit without an endless, self-serving bureaucratic adventure in never getting to "yes".

The Governor of Maine never answered our correspondence when we asked some basic questions when assessing where to expand and relocate. The Governor of New Hampshire took us to lunch. Need I say more?

Actually, my accountant asked that I correct my post. The Governor of Maine, did, in fact, answer our correspondence. He had an assistant send us a form letter that did not address the specific questions asked. Who elected that clown? Who elected him twice? Have you noticed that the state is tops in taxes and at the bottom in economic development climate? Might there possibly be a connection?

In my experience, I cannot say that I have seen any real interest in economic development in Bangor. In fact, my experience was disinterest, rudeness and lack of cooperation.

i have to agree with JWBooth and mainbad, *MDC what ever part of the state you are in, are nothing more than a sham. i have a friend when into the NMDC(nothern maine dev. commision) and pitched his buisness idea, the guy sat behind the desk looking like he was stupid or something, so my friend aksed him what he needed to get the buisness off the ground and the NMDC rep. said quote "well guess you are going to need some capital and and office space". Well who would have thought that, my friend went there looking for low interest loans or them to direct him where he can get anything like that. The rep was less than helpful, but you pull into this place and the parkinglot is full of BMW's and LEXUS cars and SUV's. what do we pay these fools that kind of money to do?????? i think we sould lower our taxes by axing the NMDC.