FORT KENT – Along with their ages, the major differences between the Democrat incumbent and Republican hopeful in Maine’s House District 1 during their debate Wednesday night were their positions on loggers’ rights, laptops in schools and helping small business increase in the state.

Democrat freshman state Rep. Troy Jackson is opposed by Republican retired businessman Paul Berube, both of Fort Kent. The district includes Fort Kent and areas south and west.

The two men debated in front of about 75 people in the University of Maine at Fort Kent’s Nadeau Hall Conference Room. Sponsored by UMFK and the Fort Kent Business and Professional Women, the debate is part of the American Democracy Project aimed at engaging college students in the political arena.

Berube is a native of St. Francis who left the area to make a living. He retired and returned to live in northern Maine two years ago. Since returning he has been involved in the biathlon project and a fledgling muskie-fishing derby in Fort Kent. He is a member of the Lions Club and secretary of the Northern Maine Regional Airport Authority.

Jackson, a native of Allagash, lives in Fort Kent. A logger, he is completing his first term in the Maine House of Representatives. In the Legislature he is a member of the Labor Committee and was appointed to the Governor’s Task Force on the Sustainability of Maine’s Forest Products Industry.

Berube, a former banker and real estate owner in New Hampshire and Maine, believes the state simply has to stay “out of business” to help business.

“Get the state out of the way,” he said. “The business environment in Maine stinks.

“It cost me 9 percent more to run a business in southern Maine than it did before that in New Hampshire, while I paid workers the same wages,” he said. “It’s a nightmare doing business here because of things like workers’ comp and unemployment insurance.”

On the other hand Jackson, who attended college and acquired two degrees, believes the state has been trying to help business with programs such as the Pine Tree Zone initiative.

“Aroostook County can participate in this program and it encourages people to come here,” he said. “We have a good work force, and a good work ethic.

“Business wanting to establish here can also take advantage of those and other programs,” he said. “There are programs like BETR [Business and Equipment Tax Reimbursement] and TIF [tax increment financing].”

Berube also said he was against a laptop program in schools, and that the state should focus on problems already in the schools before taking others on.

“Technology changes so fast, the computers will be antiquated in a year,” Berube said. “It’s not a good investment.”

“I was a supporter of the laptop program, and now I’m convinced it’s a good program,” Jackson said. “It’s hard to find the money to expand it, but the governor is trying to find private money.

“It gives a chance to all children with technology,” he said.

Then came the loggers’ rights legislation backed extensively by Jackson earlier this year.

“It devastated a small business, a small store, in St. Francis,” Berube said. “Their logging traffic stopped because Irving was not cutting wood.

“In the short term it may help loggers,” he said. “In the long run, if Irving leaves the area the effect would be the same as Fraser [paper mill] shutting down in Madawaska.”

“The legislation laid the groundwork for loggers,” Jackson said. “Something needed to be done because the company was not talking to their contractors.”

“The original bill was for all major landowners, but it got cut to just Irving,” he said. “I fought for this because loggers asked me to.”

They basically agreed on many other topics, including both being opposed to the tax cap initiative, the support of teachers instead of government initiatives in education, their opposition to the University of Maine Strategic Plan, their opposition to cuts in home-based health programs, their dislike of state Sen. Chris Hall’s take on northern versus southern Maine, their support for wind power plans in Mars Hill, and their opposition to the bear hunting initiative.