Training Funds, Tax Changes Sought in Maine : New Jobs Lead Governor’s Priority List

Maine Gov. John R. McKernan Jr. says his top priority is to bring jobs to those parts of his state left out of the boom that has made much of New England an economic showcase.

Maine is the physical giant of New England, its land mass almost the size of the other five states together. But it is also the most remote and the most sparsely populated, a region of pristine forests, rushing rivers, spectacular coastline--and grinding poverty.

Settled briefly by the English in the 1620s and a part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony until 1820, Maine has always been viewed as “the end of the pipeline,” away from raw materials and major markets, McKernan said.

The state’s major industries by their nature provide only seasonal work--logging, farming, fishing and tourism.

State Planners’ Aims

State planners hope to attract light industries and telecommunications businesses.

“I believe more can be done,” McKernan, a Republican in office only since January, said in a telephone interview.

McKernan said he has asked the Legislature for an additional $2 million for job training over the next two years on top of $34 million in federal, state and local funds that Maine spends each year for training.

The governor said he wants to make sure that Maine has trained workers ready if businesses move into the state because of labor shortages growing acute in the Northeast, especially around Boston’s high-tech beltway.

The administration has also proposed legislation that would give tax credits for starting or expanding a business and for creating new jobs in “enterprise zones,” or areas of significantly high unemployment.

Seeks Tax Changes

McKernan said he also plans to introduce legislation next year to overhaul the state’s tax code to make sure that Maine is competitive for new businesses.

Unemployment ranges from as low as 2.3% in the Greater Portland area of southern Maine to as high as 10% in Calais on the Canadian border. Other pockets of poverty lie in the eastern and western parts of the state. Roughly two-thirds of Maine’s 1.1 million population lives along a 100-mile stretch of Atlantic coast.

Officials estimate that from 1980 to 1985, about 11,000 more people ages 18 to 44 left the state than moved in, most of them under 25. For those over 65, about 8,000 more moved into the state than left.

“We think it’s because those who are seeking opportunities have been forced to look elsewhere by the economic condition of the state while those who are retiring are attracted by the low cost of living and by the beauty of the state,” said Richard Silkman, director of the State Planning Office.