OK I’ve held myself back as long as I can about me bailing out first the banks and now the domestic auto makers. The banks made bad loans used bad judgment and because of that we all must pay. Of course no one was fired for that lapse in judgment and of course loans for a small business like Maine Outdoors were difficult to get during the good times and are now impossible. If banks are not interested in helping me I need a better reason to want to help them.
As you may remember I was appointed by Governor Baldacci to the task force to on Maine’s Natural Resource Agencies. We met throughout the summer and fall and completed a variety of tasks outside of meetings. At the end of the process there was only one proposal with much support. The proposal put forward by the Natural Resource Network had the support of more than half of the task force members. But because we were operating under consensus rules voting on various proposals was not done.
I was interested to read that a legislative committee has held hearings on whether it is difficult for Maine small businesses to get loans in the current environment. Here is the article in Tuesday’s Portland Press Herald.