BANGOR, Maine — Rising health care and energy costs are slowly squeezing the profits from Irv Marsters’ business.
In the 12 years he has owned Bangor Letter Shop, Marsters’ electricity costs have risen about 50 percent and his health care costs for him and his 10 workers have about doubled, he said.
And the profit pinch comes with new work harder to find for his printing and direct mail shop.
“We’re struggling to keep our workforce employed,” Marsters said Wednesday. “We haven’t hired anybody new in 10 years and two [workers] have left.”
Close to a dozen other Bangor businessmen told 2nd Congressional District candidate Kevin Raye during a campaign stop Wednesday that they, too, are pressed by health care and energy costs plus government overregulation.
A Republican and president of the Maine Senate, Raye touted some of his successes in the Legislature as indications of the job he would do in Congress. They included helping pass legislation that broadened tax credits given to transportation companies to help Cyr Bus Lines use more new buses in-state, Raye said.
“Maine is all about small businesses,” said Raye, who who co-owns Raye’s Mustard Mill in Eastport with his wife, Karen. “If small businesses in Maine are going to succeed, we have to reduce the tax burdens they face and give them confidence to reinvest in themselves.”
Raye contrasted the 100 percent approval rating he received from the National Federation of Independent Business, which claims more than 3,500 members in Maine, with the zero percent rating the group gave incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, Raye’s opponent in the 2nd District.
Michaud spokesman Dan Cashman dismissed NFIB as “interested in partisan wrangling rather than representing small businesses.”
“Their agenda has become decidedly more partisan with the likes of Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS funding the group to the tune of $3.7 million,” Cashman said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. “Over the past fifteen years, 90 percent of NFIB support has gone to Republicans. NFIB members have been made plainly aware of this fact which explains why their membership of actual small businesses has plummeted, from 600,000 members in 2006 to just 350,000 today.”
Several small-business-friendly bills that Michaud supported, including efforts to streamline public investment in private business and to improve trade with China, were not ranked by the NFIB evaluation, Cashman said.
Meanwhile, Congress passed a provision that Michaud advocated to update Small Business Administration loans while cutting loan application fees, which dramatically boosted loans in Maine, Cashman said.
Michaud and Raye are both making Maine business a priority this week. Raye, who was named one of the GOP’s Young Guns in July, met with NFIB members in Bangor at Marster’s shop and in Auburn as part of a campaign swing through the district on Wednesday.
Michaud, a Democrat from East Millinocket, plans to meet with businesspeople in Lewiston and Auburn on Thursday and in Oxford on Friday.
Raye will be making campaign stops the rest of the week and attending legislative sessions, he said.
No interest in hearing from these men We need people in office who represent us and they do not. I’d especially like to hear from Mr. Raye what he thinks of the criminality that happened in the Maine Republican Party during a. caucuses and b. convention? Until then I am boycotting the very good product that helps feed his family while he participates in harming mine.
I agree, it’s pretty disgraceful how the state’s GOP establishment has acted recently concerning the voter fraud at the caucuses and then the poor sportsmanship by the Romney status quo crowd after democracy prevailed and Ron Paul secured the majority of the delegates at the state convention. You’re right, it was bold criminality and unapologeticly so.
please vote. vote for a write in, but do vote. we need your participation.
i may not always agree with you, but I value your vote very much.
Hip hip—who? Raye!
Glad to see Kevin running, we need someone honest and business friendly in this State!
Raye is another Lepage stooge.
FYI, Raye worked exclusively with Sen Snowe for many years in DC before Governor LePage was on the horizon. He is well versed in business and the politics of give and take in order to accomplish goals. He is not however a biased candidate who dismisses certain people as his opponent has stated he does in the preceding article. I have known Kevin since high school (a long time ago) and believe him to be a significant change (and welcome) from some of Mikes personal beliefs & practices.
Ask the seniors and small business people who have seen their health insurance rates climb since he rubber stamped LePage Care.
While Michaud is campaigning at small businesses he will run into a lot of NFIB stickers in the doors of these shops. Maybe when he is there he can explain to these businesses that they are just partisan hacks. Michaud has gotten out of touch! Kevin Raye is who we need in DC.
Mike Michaud has squandered more opportunity to make a difference in D.C. for Maine than perhaps any other member of Congress. Contrasted with such champions of Maine as Snowe and Collins, Michaud is neither known nor respected in the Capitol. What has he done besides cut ribbons? Kevin Raye has done more for Maine in two years as Senate President than Mike Michaud has done in 10 years as a congressman. Northern Maine needs a hard worker and a true leader, not an honorary congressman.
tell that to a veteran
Raye will represent veterans and everybody else in the district.
Do you mean his helping Governor LePage pushing through legislation that has cost most of his constituents more for their health insurance?
If things don’t go your way, just pretend they don’t matter. Great life lessons from the Michaud campaign.
Raye’s mustard tastes like battery acid.
Typical liberal media bias! Raye gets NFIB endorsement and the headline is “Raye, Michaud targeting small business with campaign stops”? It talks about what Raye HAS done for small biz, but then throws in some mention about how Michaud PLANS TO make stops, along with a generous quote from Michaud blasting the NFIB. BDN (D-ME) apparently doesn’t need Sussman to buy it for its coverage to get skewed!