AUGUSTA – Critics of corporate tax subsidies in Maine pressed their attack Tuesday, issuing a report that challenges the job-creating impact of state programs offering financial incentives for business.

Pegging Maine’s corporate subsidies in 1998 and 1999 at $94.2 million, the Northeast Action study released by the Maine Citizen Leadership Fund asserted that “there was no relationship between the size of subsidies received and the amount of job gain or loss – as subsidies rose, job gains did not.”

Surveying seven state programs, the study found that two – the Business Equipment Tax Reimbursement and Municipal Tax Increment Financing programs – accounted for 90 percent of total taxpayer cost but were associated with a net gain of only 443 new full-time jobs.

“While overall employment (full and part time) in Maine rose 5.4 percent in 1998-99, employment at firms whose subsidies came primarily from tax credits rose only 2 percent,” the report said.

“Although these firms had 7.3 percent of all employees in Maine as of December 1999, their job growth accounted for only 2.8 percent of the state’s 29,800 person overall increase during 1998-99.”

Under the BETR program, the state reimburses companies for local taxes on new equipment. The TIF program lets communities cut property taxes on new or expanding businesses.

The new study said the combined per-job cost of the BETR and TIF programs was $144,000 while two state job training programs – the Governor’s Training Initiative and Maine Quality Centers – were associated with nearly twice as many new jobs at a per-job cost of $1,400.

According to the study, 43 percent of subsidized corporations in Maine lost jobs or had no job gains in 1998 and 1999.

“These findings call into question the state’s current economic development strategy,” Arn Pearson, the executive director of the Maine Citizen Leadership Fund, said in a statement.

Business advocates defend tax incentive programs as, among other things, a foundation for job retention.