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Patrick Woodcock
June 30, 2025
Maine State Chamber urges congressional delegation to prioritize economy
Calling the outlook for Maine's economy "concerning," the Maine State Chamber of Commerce is urging elected officials to help reduce the burden on businesses.
In a letter to the state's congressional leaders, the chamber suggests specific steps that could help boost Maine's economy in coming years.
"While Maine experienced solid economic growth and in-migration from 2021-23, the economic projections for the next two years suggest limited economic growth," the chamber letter says in its letter, signed by President and CEO Patrick Woodcock.
The letter was addressed to U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Angus King, I-Maine, and U.S. Reps. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine 1st District, and Jared Golden, D-Maine 2nd District.
The letter cited one of the lowest rates of population growth in the country combined with a projected lack of employment growth in the next two years.
"There should be a renewed focus on providing businesses certainty, extending pro-growth policies, and creating an environment for capital investment in Maine," the chamber notes in the letter.
Priorities
The Chamber laid out several key programs or policies that would help Maine businesses.
The group calls for an extension of policies enacted under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which dates to 2017 and reduced the corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%. The measure also reduced tax rates for individuals, though those changes are set to expire at the end of 2025. It also doubled child tax credits, to $2,000 per child, in a benefit set to expire at year's end.
"These tax provisions have played a key role in growing Maine’s economy, keeping Maine businesses competitive and ensuring retention and growth of Maine jobs," the Chamber says in its letter.
"Specifically," the letter continues, "Maine’s business community fully supports maintaining the corporate tax rate at 21%, reinstating immediate expensing for research and development (R&D), permanently extending the provision that allows full expensing of depreciation, allowing the 20% pass-through deduction and retaining existing income tax rates."
The Chamber also calls attention to the burden of high health care costs.
"Ultimately, the state of Maine must drive economic and population growth in these regions to improve the underlying challenged economics of health care, but at this point exacerbating these health care challenges with sharp reductions in Medicaid payments will exacerbate a fragile rural health care system," the Chamber said.
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