But who’s counting?

After feeling unduly pressured in its decision to forgive Bath Iron Works $60 million in state taxes over 20 years, legislators in 1998 passed the Corporate Accountability Act, a law that provides the public with information about which private businesses get state aid and how well they treat their employees. The law allows Maine to make better decisions about its tax money, but it cannot work if state agencies fail to cooperate completely.

That appears to be the problem now with the Department of Economic and Community Development. Along with the Department of Labor and the Technical College System, DECD was charged under the law with reporting annually on how much corporate aid it distributes. The reports are due May 1, and all three organizations will be late this year, but both the DOL and the technical colleges are making real efforts to comply. Given that the program is in its first full year, being late isn’t so surprising.

DECD, however, has filed a chart with a mere 110 of the more than 1,800 businesses it may have supported and called it good enough. The law doesn’t consider it good enough and neither should the public. The statute on corporate aid is straightforward: “The department (DECD) shall report by May 1 annually to the Legislature and the commission on the amount of public funds spent for the direct benefit of businesses in the State of Maine” under several support programs. “The report must identify the amount of economic development incentives under the jurisdiction of the department received by each by each employer and the public benefit resulting from those economic development incentives.”

Opponents of these programs often refer to them as “corporate welfare,” and always manage to say it with a sneer. But the state need not apologize for helping homegrown businesses thrive. The corporate-law, which creates the commission to oversee the reporting, highlights just how important these businesses are to Maine — a thorough accounting is great advertisement for businesses wondering whether to transfer here. At the same time, the intent behind the law is unmistakable: Maine wants to encourage high-quality jobs that offer fair wages and benefits.

The Maine Citizen Leadership Fund sought to get further information from DECD and was told by its director of policy, planning and administration, Alan Brigham, that, “While statutes are clear with respect to the information sought, they provide no mechanism for compelling qualified incentive recipients to submit such reports.”

This response is puzzling because it suggests that without the employer response DECD would not know who it sent state tax money to or for what reason. It is difficult to believe the state does not have records of these transactions. Didn’t it at least keep the check stubs?

Businesses obviously have a responsibility to answer questions about their use of the public money. If most haven’t, than DECD must find a way to help the businesses comply. Nevertheless, the department still should be able to file a comprehensive list of where it has spent taxpayers’ money. Even Santa keeps a list.