Those entrepreneurs’ top needs, said Mark Delisle, the centers’ state director, are guidance and coaching - to refine business ideas and develop business plans - and access to capital. The Maine Small Business Development Centers assist about 2,000 entrepreneurs annually with starting new businesses or growing existing enterprises. Once it’s open in 2016, Hyde said, The Jackson Laboratory would add 150-200 to its 1,300-member Maine staff, and the total effect statewide - from additional business with Maine vendors - would be the equivalent of 800 full-time jobs. The facility’s construction would generate 300 jobs, according to an analysis commissioned by The Jackson Laboratory. The ability to make these measurements to deliver this kind of data to people is a very rare thing.” “It is driving the research community these days. “The ability to measure changes down at the cellular level is a fairly new technology,” he said. The Jackson Laboratory, and Maine by extension, has the chance to become an international center for this type of research, said Mike Hyde, The Jackson Laboratory’s vice president for external affairs and strategic partnerships. The Jackson Laboratory would match the state funding with $16 million from other sources.Ī specially outfitted biometric analysis lab would have equipment that allows researchers to identify changes in individual cells that signal the presence of disease. The bond would set aside $15 million so the nonprofit research organization can build a biometric analysis lab, which would be the first of its kind in the world. One of the larger organizations that would benefit is The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor. “What we’re hoping is there’s something for everybody” in the bond package, she said, “from the small company that needs a FAME loan, or an economic development loan to a company that is developing a patent, to larger companies that are well established.” “We need to recapitalize these programs, especially successful programs that have a track record,” said Valentino. And the Maine Technology Asset Fund, administered by the Maine Technology Institute, offers competitive awards to businesses to pay product research, development and commercialization expenses. FAME’s Regional Economic Development Revolving Loan Program offers financing to help businesses with 50 or fewer employees or less than $5 million in sales expand. The Finance Authority of Maine’s loan insurance program, for example, guarantees bank loans to small businesses, making it easier for small businesses to access bank financing. The bond package would restore funding for some state programs that haven’t recently received a state funds infusion. “It was extremely important to actually show people that this is going to help everybody in the state of Maine and not only a few targeted people.” Linda Valentino, D-Saco, who chairs the Workforce and Economic Future Committee. “Our focus was on jobs and private money and leverage coming into the state of Maine,” said Sen. The package would also fund new initiatives, such as a biometric analysis lab at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, a biotechnology workforce training program at Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, and a lab for agriculture and forestry research at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. The borrowing would benefit a handful of existing state programs that help small businesses gain access to capital and fund the development and commercialization of new products. Now, it’s up to members of the Legislature’s budget-writing Appropriations Committee to determine whether to send it to the full House and Senate. The $73 million bond package cleared a 13-2 vote Monday in the Legislature’s Workforce and Economic Future Committee. Meanwhile, a legislative committee gave its approval to another borrowing proposal that could end up on the ballot later this year, this one aimed at small-business job creation. Paul LePage and Democratic lawmakers continued their salvo this week over the governor’s refusal to issue voter-approved bonds.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |