Officials say new companies on their way to Bangor area Gov. Baldacci, his brother say it’s too soon to reveal names

DEDHAM – Gov. John Baldacci said Friday that new businesses are interested in locating in the Bangor area, but he would not disclose any of their names.

Neither would his brother Robert, a member of the Bangor Region Development Alliance and host to the governor at the group’s annual meeting.

Bangor Region Development Alliance is a partnership of eastern Maine towns working to attract business investment in the area. The alliance performs outside the parameters of established economic development groups, but then seeks assistance from them when financing or other issues need attention.

The businesses were not named because the deals are not completed, Robert Baldacci said, but announcements should come in the next few months.

Among the companies mentioned Friday were a Quebec forest products business wanting to expand in Bangor, a New Brunswick modular home manufacturer looking at both Bangor and Portland, a German company partnering with a Brewer business to develop a new product, and a Canadian engineering firm linking with a metal products company in Bangor.

Growth sectors mentioned included wood composites and biotechnology through partnerships with the University of Maine.

The governor said that if the deals are solidified, the new businesses would be the result of an aggressive stance to look for opportunities instead of waiting for them to come knocking.

“Sometimes in our business we wait until they walk through the front door and then we take care of them,” Gov. Baldacci said. “What we’ve learned in our business is that we have to get up and move around.”

Today, the governor leaves for his second trade mission, this time to Germany and Italy. While in Germany, he will meet with 100 businesses that want to expand in the United States but haven’t decided where.

“When a governor goes over, or a high-level trade mission goes over, it gives [businesses] a chance to seal the deal,” Baldacci said. “We need to get into the international game because it’s part of our economic program.”

Maine is ranked nationally as the eighth fastest-growing exporter of goods and services, and Italy is the state’s 10th-highest export destination. In 2003, Maine exported $40.2 million in goods to Italy, up 33 percent from 2002. Germany, however, is ranked 15, receiving $17.3 million in Maine goods in 2003, down 20 percent from 2002.

While meeting with the Bangor Region Development Alliance, Baldacci touted his Dirigo Health Plan as a success of the first half of his term as governor as well as the return of 1,300 jobs at Millinocket, East Millinocket and Lincoln paper mills.

Gov. Baldacci said that in the first week of December, he would release to the state Legislature his plan for reforming Maine’s tax structure and providing tax relief to property owners. He said it would include many of the prongs in the Maine State Chamber of Commerce’s tax reform plan, which would limit the growth of state spending and cap property taxes at 6 percent of income for all but the top tax bracket.

Baldacci said he is working on a jobs bond package that he hopes will get approved by the Legislature and placed on the ballot.

He said he wanted the Legislature to know that it could not end the next legislative session until tax reform was accomplished.

“I said to somebody that it may not be pretty but it’s going to get done and no one is going to leave until it’s done,” Baldacci said.