AUGUSTA, Maine — Communities that reduce red tape and work cooperatively with businesses could apply to be certified as “business friendly” under a new program unveiled Tuesday by Gov. Paul LePage. State officials hope the new effort will help align state and local government, making it easier for companies to locate and expand in Maine.
“What a business looks for is stability, reliability and consistency. That’s what we need to bring to the forefront,” said LePage at a Blaine House press conference. “Businesses face many obstacles. They do not need — nor should they be focusing on — dealing with local, state and federal government.”
The proposal is an outgrowth of a series of sessions LePage held around the state last fall with business leaders. John Butera, the governor’s senior economic adviser, said businesses told administration officials that state agencies were becoming more business friendly, but challenges still existed in many local communities.
At first, LePage floated the idea of reducing revenue sharing with towns that didn’t align with state efforts. But officials said Tuesday that there’s no plan to go down that road, and the administration seems to be taking a carrot, rather than a stick, approach.
“Our focus is trying to challenge communities to reduce red tape and promote job creation, and we are looking to partner with them in their efforts to accomplish this,” said George Gervais, commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development.
In the Certified Business Friendly Community program, communities, chambers of commerce, trade organizations and others can apply to be registered. Any application has to have a community’s imprimatur.
A review team of seven people will look at the applications quarterly, with the first review scheduled for May. They will look at criteria such as customer service, collaboration between communities and the business community, licensing, permitting and other areas. Reference letters from local businesses will be part of the process. And the community will have to post public notices notifying people that it is applying for the certification and noting that the state is looking for public comment.
Gervais said the state may look at other ways to dig into what the community is actually doing in regards to being business friendly — possibly using online surveys of local businesses.
“The program is not a competition between communities,” he said.
Gervais said that if a community applies but doesn’t make the cut, state staff will offer to help that town or city to streamline processes and become more business friendly.
Communities in the program can use the “Business Friendly” designation in its marketing efforts, will be recognized on the state DECD website, will get a “Open for Business” road sign and will be a “key part of Maine’s business attraction strategy,” according to a release on the program. Certification is for two years.
Gervais said the state is also looking at giving communities in the program extra points in the competition for federal community development block grants, which are funneled through the state.
Dana Connors, president of the Maine State Chamber, said he thought the program was a good opportunity to promote collaboration and communication.
“We will do better when we work together better,” he said.
D’arcy Main-Boyington, economic development director for Brewer, said communities always have to walk the line between being business friendly and enforcing rules and regulations that are in place. Those local rules must always be reviewed, she said, to ensure they’re not overly burdensome.
She said Brewer would be applying for the program, and added that she hoped the best practices of communities are touted across the state.
“By working together and sharing each others successes, we can all be strong,” she said.
Maine & Co. President Peter DelGreco, who will be one of the reviewers, said the program could be important for business attraction efforts.
“The world of economic development can get very competitive,” said DelGreco. “All companies are very interested in minimizing risk.”
Companies increasingly view predictability in local approvals, and speed to a decision, as parts of incentive packages, he said.
More and more companies seeking to site new operations demand an answer within 10-14 days, he said.
“That seems to be the industry standard now,” he said.
Communities that have discussions about what sort of businesses they will accept can move quickly when opportunities arise, he noted.
“It’s about knowing as a community what’s important to you,” he said. “It requires vision, it requires planning — two things communities should be already doing.”
Besides DelGreco, others on the review committee include Gervais, Butera, Andrea Smith of the DECD, Christopher Steele of CWS Consulting Group, Amy Downing of the Maine State Chamber and Charles Graceffa of Pierce Atwood.
Brilliant!
More signs ,
Signmakers rejoice !
Why!! He buys the signs out of state. More business for Texas!!!
Will all the taxpayers that live in these communities get “Open for Business” bumper stickers also?? And those communities that do not make the “tagging” requirements, what kind of a sign do they get??
“And those communities that do not make the “tagging” requirements, what kind of a sign do they get??”
A Green Community, award ?
The corporatist boss will stick the fireworks store in one, then live the other.
Towns not cooperating will get, “Town in Forclosure” signs…
Wonderful !! Just wonderful isn’t it? Is this just the The Governor’s newest attempt to deflect the blame for his total and complete failure to do what he promised all of us when he was traveling around The State of Maine in 2010 promising that if we elected him Governor that he would bring JOBS, JOBS, JOBS to the State of Maine? It has been well over a year since Paul Richard LePage has taken office and in that period of time Maine, unlike the majority of States in America, has seen more and more jobs disappear. Now he has come up with a new and I am sure improved way, sounds like a Tide commercial, to bring jobs to Maine. He is going to spend time and of course State money, money he has told us over and over again that we don’t have, to identify business friendly communities. Those lucky communities that receive the honor of being designated as a Certified Business Friendly Community will get not only an “Open for Business” sign , but if they also send in two box tops they will also be eligible to receive a magic decoder ring so that they can decode secret messages from the Governor as well.
Reinventing Pine Tree Zones!
Call the Dem’s incompetant during the recession, and when the next buisness cycle wave returns rename their policy as your own, and declare it a succes!
No effort, just spin.
Brilliant Deception!
Apparently, he did not read, for one, the recent findings of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting regarding the Pine Tree Zones, which delinate their failure to accomplish what they were create to accomplish. http://pinetreewatchdog.org/2012/02/22/state-lacks-proof-that-46m-in-pine-tree-zone-tax-breaks-created-jobs/
A key part of any business getting started is having the State have sufficient personnel to advance paperwork and inspections. Until then, forward movement is greatly thwarted.
I would suggest, too, that the State needs to offer some type of rent/lease cost control so that a business is able to find a building in which to conduct business.
Towns that don’t qualify get a ” Kiss my butt and go to Hell ” sign
Key statement to take note of. “Gervais said the state is also looking at giving communities in the program extra points in the competition for federal community development block grants, which are funneled through the state.” i.e. We’re right back to Mr. LePage and crew “Using A Stick” on communities that don’t “bend over” to any and all demands placed upon them by a whole host of businesses they may want no part of. What might those be? Casinos, polluters, or simply businesses with very poor reputations like DeCoster. Don’t want to play ball with nasty businesses, woops you get no points and no block grants. NICE, if you’re a slimy business. Guess we know who’s in those folks corner.
Everyone wants businesses and manufacturing to return but now saying no even to the worse of them will likely result in further penalties to communities. Is that what the voters voted for? Really? We can change this hostility against us by voting correctly next November.
There is ample room for corruption with this one. Nebulous criteria, a panel that shares LePage’s ideology…I bet this ends up in court, hopefully before too much damage is done
Lepage is handing out certificates for butt kissing.
This seems to be a flip flop for a regime that has promoted less state government. If a community wants to be ” certified” by the state they will have to meet the criteria as established by the State. So much for local control unless previously approved by Mr LePage and crew.
Most local governments have attempted to develope regulations and plans that promote the direction they want to grow which is not necessarily the same way some businesses think they should. By promoting this concept it would appear that Mr LePage and crew are more concerned with what business wants than what the local cummunties want.
” This program is not a competition between communities” ??? Of course it is a competition … a community that is not certified will not be promoted by the State and will not receive extra points on their community developement block grant applications. Those who conform more to the standards set by the state will receive more attention from the state.
Oh yeah and let’s not forget the communities that become certified will receive one of the ” Open for
Business ” signs built by an out of state business.
Let’s have local government take care of local concerns …. I think the State has their hands full trying to take care of State issues. Like balance the budget.
I bet Waterville will be certified “Business Friendly” first….
Oh, we’re gaining… just give him a few more terms….
He’s moving from pitting citizen against citizen and schools against schools with his policies to pitting community against community. Can’t wait until November when it ends!!!
While I’m sure there are state agencies that should be more business friendly, some agencies are there to enforce laws and regulations that exist for more for the good of all citizens, not just the businesses they regulate. The most notable examples I can think of would be those that deal with environmental and labor law enforcement. If “stream-lining redtape” means enforcement agencies making the process of businesses following the rules easier, fine. If it means bending the rules to accommodate business convenience, we may have a problem.
“What a voter looks for is stability, reliability and consistency. That’s what we need to bring to the forefront. Voters face many obstacles. They do not need — nor should they be focusing on — dealing with local, state and federal government.”
I don’t care how much Chanel # 5 you put on the ‘pile’, it’s still a ‘pile’ ! LePage knows dammed well that he has absolutely no control over the Fed’s business reg’s as far as start-up’s are concerned. That is almost exclusively between IRS and Commerce. That the Fed’s are dumb enough to allow the State to disburse the Community Development Block Grant’s is something that Maine’s Congressional Delegation needs to answer for since they have a huge amount of ‘say’ in where they are aimed and spent. And his idea of using a financial penalty for those communities that don’t go along with ‘his’ Program is not a big surprise either. You can imagine the voter recoil of having a Town’s Revenue Sharing cut simply because the Town doesn’t think the Program is worth it and not applying. How many GOP Rep’s and State Senator’s are up for re-election this November ? Yeah, that writing on the wall is already seen as not a pretty picture. Even the DECD folks aren’t that dumb ! But in the face of the Kestrel fiasco it’s also a smart move.
If the DECD people really wanted to make the Program simpler and more business friendly they’ed go and make the entire application process easier by putting the application format on-line, as a RTF or WORD document, and have the Town’s fill it out using that form. As much as some people hate it, a uniform application form and process makes it easier for ALL TOWN’S to apply using the same criteria and makes the review process, and the inevitable appeal process (yes, that is more than foreseeable) a whole lot faster and with a lot less problem’s developing. This type process would also require the same information from all the Town’s applying and identify those Town’s that have a problem qualifying, providing a starting point for help to be targeted to those Town’s. Now if the Town in question doesn’t want any help in qualifying, fine. The DECD has done it’s required, and legally documented, Due Dilligence and it doesn’t have to spend any more time on a municipality that want’s to ‘die on the vine’. This is one idea that, if applied properly, could really do a lot of good for a lot of Town’s and Municipality’s. And it’s about time !
This is just a beginning. In the next stage he will assign a Republican gauleiter to each town in order to enforce adherance to the party agenda.
“A review team of seven people will look at the applications quarterly,
with the first review scheduled for May. They will look at criteria such
as customer service, collaboration between communities and the business
community, licensing, permitting and other areas. Reference letters
from local businesses will be part of the process. And the community
will have to post public notices…”
It’s funny how much bureaucracy and red tape you need to “certify” the absence of bureaucracy and red tape.
I’m the Penguin Pope of Maine. Canonizing worthy communities is my game.
There will only be uniformity in approval processes when applicants begin the planning process with equal financial capacity. State and Federal requirements for things like storm water management plans and traffic movement plans are straightforward – the variation comes in applicants ability to fund the engineering work that is required for planning staffs and planning boards to review. Some applicants (companies) can afford to hire an entire wing of an engineering firm to go through the process in a few weeks – smaller businesses might take months to aquire the same body of work on a pay-as-they go basis. As long as typical applicants cannot complete all required documentation on their own, there will be wide variations in the time that it takes to approve a project.
Wow, this coming from a State that promulgated the Site Location of Development Law, Natural Resources Protection Act, Mandatory Shoreland Zoning, Informed Growth Act, Growth Management Act, Traffic Movement Permit, and many, many others. They now will determine which communities are business friendly, OMG!
All laws passed under Liberal Leadership in the Blaine House.
MAINE WAS A BETTER STATE —-BEFORE—- LEPAGE TOOK OFFICE
LIKE THIS POST IF YOU AGREE
Maine was not a better State before, we now have lower unemployment, less regulation,finding fraud in State agency’s, bringing our financial house in order, tax cuts for all Maine citizens. This Governor has done more good in one year to move Maine in a positive direction then the last two Governors combined. We look forward to the next three years as Maine will be a better place so our young people will not have to leave looking for a good job. Go Lepage !!
Maine is doing better despite Lepage. If not for him we could be doing much better. Sorry to say that the other New England States are way ahead of us economically.
How so?
He inherited a physically bankrupt and morrally corrupt state run into the ground by 40 years of inept failed leadership.
Look at some of the novel ideas he has had, like listening to the average Joe at the Red Tape Reduction Meetings where citizens, business people and community folks could get their voices heard. OR how about anyone who wants to visit him on Saturdays can book an appointment with him for 15 minutes of his time to speak with him face to face. Or his Capital for a day meetings.
No we have a smart Gov who listens to people rather than the prior ones who were arrogant know it alls who have run the state into the ground!
Remember last year, when he announced the ” Red Tape Hotline”? I envisioned him sitting by the phone with his XXXXL Captain America costume on !!
Energy costs taxes and infrastructure have nothing to do with why jobs don’t come to Maine?many states give huge bribes to company’s to bring their plants to their states.Maine can’t possibly compete with these bribes so we gotta offer something else like the gas line,the east westhighway ,better high speed internet access throughout the state, a reduced tax package and even this might not compete with the massive bribes other states are offering with these same things I mentioned.
The problem in Maine is that nobody wants to pay for offering those incentives.
Just politics as usual for LePage. Nothing new here.
Better make that sign out of plastic….with the total lack of jobs in the State the value of scrap metal will make them too valuable to hang anywhere…..
It is quite evident that people will complain about the guy regardless of what he does. I get it, you don’t like him, but how is this something to complain about?
LaPlague is setting up the competition for Maine’s “Race to the Bottom”.
This is the type of policy that divides communities, and has a great potential for abuse and favoritism.
For instance, perhaps as a political favor, the community of a favored legislator gets the nod where one who is less favored does not.
The state government should be working to make ALL towns “business friendly.”
If a town or city does not make the governors “list” the inference is that it’s not a good place to do business, which may not be true.
Let’s not tie a communities chances for economic advancement to a likely arbitrary political “list”.
The effect of this additional screen – besides taking tax dollars we are told we don’t have for the administration of such a new state government program – will be to further disadvantage rural areas with smaller communities who can not afford any but the barest of town budgets. With many such communities in the so-called “Rim Counties” (those counties bordering Canada & NH…except York Cty) lacking professional staff, they will likely fall further behind the larger, more southern population centers who do not have the same wretched demographics in terms of economic/business development, infrastucture, access to capital, lower educational levels, high percentage of elderly & (related) outmigration of younger residents, etc…
And I agree with other posters that such a system is ripe for political misuse and favoritism.
I suspect most communities in Maine would be business friendly. It is the State that is failing at that. Do I need to list the businesses and the number of jobs that have left the state since LePage has taken the helm???
It took the DOT 5 years to put in a crosswalk on route One that had been forgotten and paid for. In another example: We’re trying to build a public walkway in Belfast…. first they want a study, AFTER that it’s on to the next step, then they send FIVE full time employees to Belfast to a meeting to review it: bottom line project delayed by a year thanks to DOT. The Gov needs to turn his gaze 180 degrees and stop blaming towns.
Probably correct, but when LePage does that Liberals say he is Union busting per your comment about 5 DOT hacks needed for a meeting, and they say he hates the environment when he doesnt want 8 zillion impact studies done.
Remember, Liberals do not want rules/laws that create value/wealth/jobs and benifit for people, they want barriers put in place and rules created for crony capitalism which benefits themselves and their 1% liberal peers.
It’s nice to finally have a Governor who realizes that businesses (job creators) are not the enemy. For all too long, the Baldacci/King regimes created red tape, just for the sake of creating red tape, which in turn forced many manufacturing jobs to leave Maine. Bravo, Governor LePage for putting the Maine people first, once again.