AUGUSTA – The number of business lobbyists has increased dramatically at the State House as the Appropriations Committee works to fill a nearly $200 million budget hole and considers cuts to programs that benefit the business community.

“I have had many conversations with members of the Appropriations Committee,” said Dana Connors, president of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce. “They ask where is our pound of flesh in all of this, and are we going to participate in finding a solution.”

Connors said lawmakers from both parties have told him they expect that some programs which help businesses will be cut to help balance the budget. He said they want the business community to tell them which ones to cut, but he and others are resisting that request.

“We have told them this must be solved without new taxes and fees and without cutting programs that are helping to create the jobs that grow the economy,” he said.

House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven, blasted Connors and other business lobbyists Wednesday for not providing any suggestions.

“Last week, 1,000 Maine people – seniors, people with disabilities, children’s advocates – scraped together what they had and came to the State House in fear of losing services that they need to survive,” she said in a statement. “Today, two dozen business executives and lobbyists in expensive suits delivered a poll that they had paid for by a cigarette company and said they didn’t want to share the pain.”

Rep. Jeremy Fischer, D-Presque Isle, House chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said he has told members of the business community that lawmakers are not going to cut programs that aid the poorest of Mainers and not touch business subsidy programs. He said the budget solution must have an impact on all areas of state spending and programs to gain the broad support needed to pass.

“Everybody has to feel the pain,” he said.

The Democrats have a large majority in the House and a one-vote margin in the Senate. For any budget package to take effect immediately, it needs a two-thirds majority of both chambers. That set of political realities is putting pressure on lawmakers to compromise, but so far the goal of finding a plan that can achieve that level of support has been elusive.

Late Wednesday afternoon panel members indicated they still need to identify further cuts or revenue sources of about $35 million to bring the budget into balance.

One of the major criticisms of Gov. John Baldacci’s proposed supplemental budget – and the changes he submitted after revenues were re-projected downward for a second time in three months – was that the Business Equipment Tax Reimbursement program and other tax incentives for business were not touched.

“My approach in all of this was to not cut or reduce programs that help create the new jobs we need to grow our economy now and in the future,” Baldacci said in an interview.

The governor’s goal has the support of the business community.

David Clough, state director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, said his members want the budget crisis solved by cutting spending.

“Some legislators believe that business tax incentives should be cut,” he said. “NFIB members would view any such cuts as back-door tax increases.”

Tony Payne, executive director of the Alliance for Maine’s Future, said his group has launched an advertising campaign to urge lawmakers to avoid tax or fee increases as part of the budget.

“Whatever you call them, they will add to a tax burden that is already too high,” he said. “We have a spending problem, not a taxing problem.”

While the business community wants no tax or fee increases, the governor proposed three fee increases to fund budget needs of the state police and the Air Quality Bureau in the Department of Environmental Protection – and the Appropriations Committee has others under consideration.

On the list of tax options are reducing BETR reimbursement to 95 percent, a move that was adopted in the last two-year budget. Another option would be to eliminate the “double-dip,” whereby a local government provides a property tax break to encourage a business to locate in its community, and then the business is reimbursed by the state for property taxes on equipment that it did not pay.

In an extraordinary meeting earlier this month, members of the Appropriations Committee, the Business Research and Economic Development Committee and the Taxation Committee met to discuss the wide range of business incentive programs. They decided to establish a review process to assess whether a tax break or other business incentive program actually provides new jobs or economic growth.

“It is very important that we find which programs are effective and fund them and not continue those that are not effective,” said Sen. Karl Turner, R-Cumberland. “As I have said many times, there is going to be more red ink next year that the next Legislature will have to deal with.”

That could provide a list of less effective programs that could be eliminated or reduced, but that process will take months, and lawmakers have only weeks to pass a budget. Lawmakers have enough money in the budget to meet through the third week of April.