Bonds, natural gas pact and a recession report
As the summer wound down, lawmakers returned to the capital in late August for a special session to take on a transportation bond long in the planning and a surprise challenge to federal funding for a state psychiatric hospital. Lawmakers approved an emergency bill that adds 14 mental health workers to a 32-bed unit at the state prison in Warren in an effort to help the Riverview Psychiatric Center satisfy federal regulators, who found during an inspection in March that patients had been improperly subdued.
Gearing up
After lawmakers approved a $150 million transportation and education bond package, its supporters started a campaign urging voters to support the borrowing plan at the polls in November. The Maine Chamber of Commerce has come out in support of all five parts of the borrowing proposal, which includes around $100 million in transportation projects, $35.5 million for higher education institutions and $14 million to upgrade armories in the state. Maine Public Broadcasting Network reported higher education institutions, especially, are gearing up campaigns to push support of the bond measure, because they are still feeling the sting of an $11.3 million bond that voters rejected last year.
Ideal gas
After the award of a natural gas contract for state buildings elicited a series of appeals from two bidders, the state this month found a solution suited for King Solomon. Maine Natural Gas and Summit Natural Gas of Maine will split the state's business through awards that will have MNG connect 19 of 30 state buildings to natural gas as Summit connects the other 11. The agreements with Maine Natural Gas amount to $965,464 and the deals with Summit total $765,451.
Weathering recession
A study by the Maine Department of Labor found that Maine businesses started in 2008 fared better through the following five years than the national average, according to the Bangor Daily News. The study found about 2,360 new businesses were launched in Maine in 2008 and 1,314, or 56%, of those were still operating in 2012. Nationally, the number of businesses that cleared the five-year mark was nearly 50%. While the state lost 44% of the businesses started in 2008 by 2012, the study found that the number of employees hired by the 2008 cohort decreased only by 3.7% over the five years, suggesting that the businesses that survived continued to grow.
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