BDN Maine brought together a well-spoken group of individuals to discuss Solutions for Maine’s Economy last week. It was our first MaineFocus event on Growing Maine’s Economy and was held at the University of Maine’s Abromson Center. We plan to have other such events, which as part of the MaineFocus project are based on solutions, […]
Archive | Growing Maine’s Economy
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Training ME: Hard questions about the University of Maine are being asked amid another budget crisis. The community college system is successful, but even so, the state still lacks the workforce it needs. What must change about higher education in Maine to be sustainable and develop the workers of tomorrow?
Do Maine’s foreign immigrants provide untapped economic potential?
Growing Maine's Economy Maine FocusOver the weekend, the Bangor Daily News published an article by freelancer Kirsten Sylvain that raises an important question: Does Maine’s immigrant community hold untapped economic potential? The job of the MaineFocus project is to consider solutions for Maine’s economic challenges, and this article addressed a solution that to my knowledge hasn’t received much attention. […]
Why per capita income matters
Growing Maine's Economy Maine FocusThe health of an economy is measured by the prosperity of its people. One way to measure prosperity is to look at per capita income, which takes the total income in a given region, be it a county or state, and divides it by the total population. There are other metrics, such as median income […]
Will a bottom-up approach to statewide economic development planning succeed where past efforts have failed?
Growing Maine's Economy Maine FocusAs part of the Bangor Daily News’ coverage of Maine’s changing economy, we’ve discussed the state’s lack of a long-term economic development strategy. Past attempts created and funded from Augusta, such as the Maine Development Foundation and Maine & Co., while still doing good work, have not been given the resources to follow through on […]
Is being tax-free key to economic growth?
Growing Maine's Economy Maine FocusTo what extent does tax policy alone cause an economy to grow — or keep it from growing? Maine could soon have a laboratory of sorts to answer that question. Under a new initiative being pushed by the Maine Heritage Policy Center, called Free ME, the state would stop levying income and sales taxes in […]
MaineFocus highlighted as unique effort in ‘solutions journalism’
Domestic and Sexual Violence Drug Abuse Growing Maine's Economy Maine FocusA few week ago, Natalie Feulner, Erin Rhoda and I spoke with Keith Hammonds, chief operating officer of the Solutions Journalism network, about MaineFocus and its mission. SoJo, as it’s known, is a new nonprofit pushing news organizations to introduce “solutions” based reporting, as well as support solutions-based journalism and journalists across the country. Keith’s […]
Exports: Economic bright spot or imperative?
Growing Maine's Economy Maine FocusThe statistics point to exports from Maine businesses as a growth area for Maine’s economy. In 2012, Maine companies exported $3.1 billion in goods, up 72 percent from the $1.8 billion in goods they exported in 2000. Maine exports reached a high of $3.42 billion in 2011. The Business Roundtable estimates that the share of […]
New Balance fights to retain shoe manufacturing jobs in Maine
Growing Maine's Economy Maine FocusNew Balance has been in the news a lot recently. It continues to make headlines as it fights for federal legislation that would force the U.S. military to buy athletic shoes manufactured in the United States (as the only athletic shoe manufacturer still producing sneakers in the country, New Balance would have that contract sewed […]
A state role for growing Maine’s economy
Growing Maine's Economy Maine FocusIt’s a constant debate at the state and national levels: What role does government properly play in growing our economy? Does government simply put into place the policies that are hospitable to economic growth, or does the state do something more? The state has an important role to play in making funds available for research […]
No ‘one size fits all’ economic strategy for Maine?
Growing Maine's Economy Maine FocusWhat’s the best way to plan for Maine’s economic future? Leave it to the regions, argues Michael Aube, president of Eastern Maine Development Corporation in Bangor. In an OpEd published this week in the Bangor Daily News, the former commissioner of economic and community development argues that a statewide economic development strategy is ill-suited to […]