2000-01

APPROPRIATIONS/ALLOCATIONS

General Fund $1,873,000

This bill includes a General Fund appropriation of $1,690,000 in fiscal year 2000-01 for the Department of Economic and Community Development to enhance economic development in the state of Maine. This amount includes $1,000,000 for the Maine Microenterprise Initiative Fund, $500,000 for the Regional Economic Development Assistance Fund for grants to nonprofit local or regional community organizations, $60,000 to contract for field representative services and $130,000 for one Information Technology Manager position and related expenses. A General Fund appropriation of $125,000 in fiscal year 2000-01 for the Maine Rural Development Council is also included for development of community capacity building projects. A General Fund appropriation of $58,000 in fiscal year 2000-01 for the Maine Technical College System for the Aroostook County Machine Tool Program is also included in this bill.

The additional costs associated with adopting rules, reporting and administering the Maine Microenterprise Initiative Fund and the Regional Economic Development Assistance Fund can be absorbed by the Department of Economic and Community Development utilizing existing budgeted resources.

The Finance Authority of Maine will incur some minor additional costs to serve on the Agricultural Products Utilization Commission. These costs can be absorbed within the authority's existing budgeted resources.

SUMMARY

Part A modifies the Economic Recovery Program administered by the Finance Authority of Maine by making the programs more flexible to meet the needs of Maine businesses.

The modifications allow the Finance Authority of Maine to establish repayment terms reflective of the risk of a particular loan by allowing the authority to use financing techniques such as obtaining repayment based on the performance of the company through royalty payments, repayment tied to actual cash flow or