Business is hurting

It seems like there is a major assault on small business or any business in Maine this year. There are more bills in the Legislature this year to hurt business in Maine.

I just returned from a visit to the sourthern part of this country and could not believe the amount of construction going on. New buildings, which mean new jobs. In Richmond, Virgin Motorola-Siemens is building a manufacturing facility where phase one will employ 2,000 people. Here in Maine we get front-page coverage for employment of 36 people in Fort Kent.

I was in Orlando 10 years ago and there was a boom in construction and employment. When I was down there this last trip it had not slowed at all. We get all excited if we get 18 good months with no downturn in employment.

We have a great quality of life but no jobs and no good wages. My daughter and son-in-law just moved to Richmond because there are no real opportunities in Maine. We as a state have to work so hard to get anyone who could offer employment’s attention, and then what do we have to offer them? A strong work ethic which is moving out of state with our children.

I was just involved with licensing changes for electricians that is still not dead and now there are 30 bills to change Workers’ Compensation. I wonder what the cost will be to Maine taxpayers for these hearings, notices and lost work time of the people who have to attend these hearings? We are paying the bill through taxes and product cost. It’s not just legislators and lobbyist who are involved.

The point of this letter is that now the people who are the most affected by the change in workers’ comp laws resulting from the Blue Ribbin Panel in 1992 are not the injured workers. It is the industry members whose livelihood was dependent on the injured workers: lawyers for one and a very vocal self-interest motivated contingency.

Now that we have workers’ comp under control we want to go back to fewer job opportunities and higher costs of doing business. I have yet to see any of the proposals to have been thought through for the good of the state of Maine or both worker and employer.

Somehow, once the laws are passed, the bills need to be paid. Will the price be jobs? R. Scott Jellison Hermon