Tax incentive program gets big response

WATERVILLE – The 80 applications to Maine’s 3-month-old tax incentive program to promote business development in economically lagging parts of the state are more than double what organizers said they expected.

“It’s been very encouraging,” said Jack Cashman, commissioner of economic and community development. “The application level is higher than we thought. Initially, we thought that it would be good if we got 10 applications a month.”

Many of the applications across Maine’s eight Pine Tree Zones are in technology and forest products, Cashman said.

Downeast Woodcrafters in Skowhegan, Tex-Tech Industries in Monmouth, Morgan Lumber in Bingham and Walpole Woodworkers in Pittsfield will be part of the Kennebec Valley Pine Tree Zone, which includes Somerset County, said Kenneth Young, executive director of the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments.

Firms that apply for the Pine Tree Zone tax benefits must convince the department of economic and community development that they would not undertake the investments they are proposing only for the zone benefits and that they will create at least one net new job.

The four approved expansions in the Kennebec Valley zone could create up to 130 new jobs.

Pittsfield’s Walpole Woodworkers, which has headquarters in Massachusetts, is about to add up to 45 new jobs, mostly in Pittsfield and the rest in Mattawamkeag, company President Louis Maglio Jr. said.

“We are going to transfer some of our jobs in Massachusetts, where we do some manufacturing, to the Pittsfield area,” Maglio said.

Cashman and Young said marketing efforts so far have been by word of mouth. But formal marketing is in the works and some preparation is completed already, according to Nancy Marshall Communications, which was paid $100,000 to market the program.

Cashman said he expected the current surge of interest to slow, but he is counting on the Pine Tree Zones to lift business interest in parts of Maine where jobs are needed most.

“There’s a number of different things going on,” Cashman said. “I think the Pine Tree Zones are the kind of thing that pushes them over the edge when making a decision.”