Small Business

The Maine Legislature has a committee to review workforce development this spring. A laudable goal but one that completely misses the mark. Here is a news flash there are no big businesses dying to come here and employ hundreds of our workers. To compete for those will take tax incentives and spending we simply can’t afford. How about supporting the small independent businesses that are our current reality and best hope for the future? Farmers, artists, programmers, wood cutters, café and shop owners even guides.

We have lost our focus here in Maine, we pretend that economic development involves getting some big business to come and provide jobs for our workers. Today any large business shows up with a long list of demands; from training workers to tax breaks. That scenario is limited in its success and we have the empty commercial property and homes to prove it, I can only guess about the cost of those breaks after the business leaves.

I have been writing about how fortunate I am to work as a guide and what I see as a real need for guides in the future. There is another side that needs to be considered and that is what will the guide of the future need to know besides “how to” and “where to” outdoors.