AUGUSTA, Maine — After years of giving legislative sessions a poor grade — occasionally failing — several business leaders are ranking this session a B, with some giving it an A-minus.
“I would have to say that overall I would give this session a B-plus,” said Dana Connors, president of the Maine Chamber of Commerce. “This is a session marked by some real progress when often, in the past, we were always playing defense. We had some real gains this year.”
He said the state budget, with its package of tax cuts and reduction of the state’s long- term pension obligations, showed strong bipartisan cooperation. He said the $153 million in tax cuts will have a direct and positive impact on small businesses and are “historic” for Maine.
“Most small business owners pay their taxes through their personal income tax, and this tax reduction, of the top rate, will be a great help to small business,” he said. The top tax rate will drop from 8.5 percent to 7.95 percent.
“For a number of years we measured success in a session by what we avoided,” said David Clough, Maine director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses. “We saw some real improvements this year.”
He agreed that the tax reductions are important. In addition to the lowering of the top personal income tax rate, the law allows businesses to deduct the cost of new equipment in the same year it’s purchased instead of being depreciated over a period of years. Maine had limited the Section 179 deduction to $25,000 a year and the new law allows the same deduction as federal law, $250,000.
“That is very important to small businesses,” Clough said. “We have heard complaints for years, with companies having to keep two sets of books for depreciation.”
Clough gives the session an overall grade of B.
John Porter, president of the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce, said most encouraging to business is the change in attitude among lawmakers. He said LD 1 is a good start to needed regulatory reform.
“There is no such thing as a perfect regulatory scheme,” he said.”I think LD 1 is an excellent first step forward.”
He said many were concerned that politics would derail efforts, and that despite the rocky start to the process that was not the case. He said it is important that the members of the Legislature approached the legislation in a bipartisan manner and achieved some significant improvements.
“I think that shows there is a real consensus in the state around the notion that the interests of business matter to the state,” Porter said.
He also said it will take time to see if some of the sections in the bill are successfully implemented. He said while the small-business advocate sounds like a good idea, how that position is implemented is crucial to its success.
Porter gives the session an overall grade of B-plus.
“I think LD 1 will definitely improve the regulatory climate,” said Chris Hall, vice president of the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce. “But, there is no silver bullet. Regulatory reform means changing a mindset in Augusta and that will take time.”
Hall said the tax cuts and the start of regulatory reform is good news for the business sector. He said after years of fighting to keep anti-business policies from being adopted, it was good to see some pro-business policies adopted. He gave the session an A-minus.
“We didn’t get everything we wanted, nor should we expect that,” he said. “But I think this session was overall a plus for business and a plus for Maine.”
Hall said the Governor’s pledge to propose more regulatory reforms in January is a good sign that leaders realize more needs to be done. But, he said, the business community was not happy with all of the legislation approved by lawmakers.
“We have a lot of members upset that they cannot control whether an employee can bring a gun on to company grounds, even if it is just the parking lot,” he said.
Hall was referring to legislation signed by Gov. LePage allowing a person to keep a rifle or other weapon stored in their car or truck. Employers opposed the bill because many have policies banning weapons from company property.