Brunswick Naval Air Station Update

Please provide an accounting of the $162 million. Perhaps you are correct, so this should not be a problem.

The first is the date of the grant, the second from whom it was obtained, the third the purpose or agency. Sorry about the array but this is how an Excel spread sheet copies. As you can see I have been tracking this since the inception of the MRRA and been trying to shut off this faucet for even longer.
2008 State of Maine Information Tech Grant $4,000
2008 State of Maine DECD $347,000
2008 State of Maine Gov Contingent Acct. $14,500
2008 Dept. of Defe. Econ Dev. Plan $85,000
2008 Dept. of Def. Office of Econ. Adj. $1,250,000
Dept. of Defense OEA $2,370,667
State of Maine CDBG Small Cities $231,185
State of Maine Maine Housing Authority $10,000
2009 State of Maine SMCC Improvements $4,750,000
State of Maine Redevelpment $3,250,000
2009 State of Maine Bond Issue HPO539 LD718 $20,000,000
2009 EDA & Maine Tech Inst. Renewable Energy Feasibility $400,000
2010 Topsham Marketing $7,500
2010 Bath Marketing $7,000
2010 Brunswick Matching Grant $5,000
2010 Bamk of America Private Grant $5,000
2010 DECD Via Brunswick State Grant $125,000
2010 Dept Labor, Health & Human Serv. Tech. Training SMCC $425,000
2010 Navy Department Instrument Landing System $1,500,000
2010 FAA Airport Renewal Program $270,000
2010 Town of Brunswick-Grant Appl. Maine Tool & Machine $200,000
2010 Town of Brunswick-Grant Appl. Kestrel Paint Booth $800,000
2011 State of Maine-Tourism Bureau Air Show Publicity $56,000
2011 U. S. Navy Purchase of own land $3,000,000
2011 U. S. Gov. Training $5,000,000
2011 Blackstone Charitable Fdn. ME Ctr, for Econ. Grth. $3,000,000
2012 Federal Aviation Admnistation Airport Improvements $20,000,000
2012 U.S. Dept. of Transportation Change Markings to Civilian $600,000
2012 Coastal Enterprises New Markets Tax Credits U.S. Treas. $95,000,000
2012 FAA National Plan for Integrated Airport Systems $150,000

Total $162,862,852

With
the exception of a bond which requires payback,has there been an analysis of what the economic activity will generate over the next 20 years?
I do not use Loring as an example because it is hampered by just the location geographically ! I believe brunswick is in a better position in that way.

While sharing some concerns and realizing it is apparent the long view just might be better than the short view!
I note the resistance to all challenges just might be based in that very thing.

The free enterprise system is based on private ownership of the means of production. When government subsidizes enterprises that cannot stand on their own two feet without support it is moving toward fascism. The businesses that are being attracted to Brunswick Landing are going there to take advantage of all the tax credits and direct handouts the MRRA has access to. While accomplishing this sordid task the MRRA staff and its minions are skimming theirs right off the top. They have already spent more than would have been necessary to level the place and return it to what it was and then allowed legitimate business to set up if they chose to do so without inducements.

Maybe Alex Cornell Du Houx gets to decide how to spend the money? It's in his district.

This is over twice the amount already wasted at Loring Air Force Base in Presque Isle for the same objective

They must have moved Loring since I have have been there last. It is many times the amount of money you claim was wasted at Loring, since very little money has been "wasted" there.

Once again, as in many of your posts, your info on Loring is a little light on facts but big on hyperbole.

pmconusa thank you but I understand that and it doesn't answer my question.
Which I didn't expect.
I would not use the word skimming as it has a conatation which while you may think you can not prove!
We get it you do not like it, yes they could have flattened it and returned it original state,I suspec tthat would have been not to your liking also and a total waste.

you have listed items that were never funded. there has not been a @20,000,00 bond, nor has CEI provided MRRA with $90,000,000 in new market tax credits. I have not researched further, but expect that there are other misrepresentations. btw, mrra has refunded bath and topsham.

as usual with your posts, more fiction than fact.

You can bury your head in the sand an not see them and you are entitled to your own opinion. You are not entitled to your own facts. I can substantiate every one of my supposed claims with published reports, many of them from the MRRA itself.

For those Loring supporters I suggest you read the Loring annual reports which I can assure you no legislator has actually read, to see they have spent over $70 million since 1995 and can show slighly over 150 private sector jobs and these exist because the company that employs them is enjoying a sweetheart lease arrangement. The only reason they are not in Brunswick is that they have already exhausted their Pine Tree Zone tax benefits.

The actual number of laws that have been broken by those who enacted the legislation that created the MRRA and the MRRA itself have been noted to the Attorney General. The Governor and his Economic Advisor have all been kept in the loop and all have chosen to do nothing. The ballot box is not sufficient to overcome this complacency when those who are complacent benefit directly from their malfeasance.

Everone is wrong, both in the past Administration and the current Administration. Only you see things as they really are.

Right............................

My head may be in the sand, that beats where your head is.

I refuse to stoop low enough to get down to your level. This forum has been great because it is populated, for the most part, by people who appreciate a good debate, are willing to listen and make up their minds on the basis of the facts. A closed mind is a very sad thing because it wastes the one thing that differentiates us from the other animals.

Latest Update from the MRRA seen on my Face Book Page are photos of LED Lights being installed at the MRRA

I asked who is pays for it?

And the MRRA responded

Good question! MRRA has entered into an agreement with Pemco & Co., LLC (Pemco) whereby Pemco will replace existing street and area lighting at Brunswick Landing with a new energy efficient lighting system. Pemco will design, finance, install, maintain and operate the new lighting system. MRRA will share the resulting energy and maintenance cost savings with Pemco and will reimburse Pemco from MRRA’s share of the cost savings.

so I said:

The MRRA is chartered at once as a municipal corporation and a corporate instrumentality of the state. The municipal corporation side of the MRRA- is consistent with the lights being installed locally at the geographical area of the former navy base as you are indicated_ but the instrumentality of the state side of the MRRA would indicate that the lights should be installed through out the state- everywhere equally. One would normally expect that the municipal government would pay for the former with local taxpayer money and the latter would be paid for by taxpayer money from all the Maine tax payers, which would require a bond, voted upon by the taxpayers of this state. Since the MRRA , in its identity as a local form of governance ( municipal corporation) can vote on its own to spend money on this project- but I have never head that the MRRA has actually instituted a local system of governance- elected by and for the "inhabitants of the municipality" as the Home Rule Amendment to the Maine state constitution states is a process that it is the constitutional duty of the legislature to provide.

Did the "inhabitants of the municipality" known as the MRRA vote for this expenditure- or did the unelected board make the decision for them?

Since Governor LePage just froze other bonds- how does the MRRA, which promotes itself as a "non-local system of government" manage to get tax payer money- either local or state- to pay for these new lights? Is it right that all Maine taxpayers should pay for what is normally a local government cost?

Or does the MRRA actually create its own wealth? Normally the operating expenses of a municipality come from the taxpayers within that municipality. Last I looked at the annual report, the MRRA was financed 80% by federal taxpayer money.and the rest by a state bond and contributions. It even said that there was a budget shortfall caused by "uncompensated absences" ( vacation pay?), which the MRRA would cover whenever they had some "un-restricted income" ( income derived from actually creating wealth as opposed to redistributing tax-payer money)

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I am not holding my breath in anticipation of being answered by the MRRA, whoever that might be.

Another issue is that the MRRA is implicating that they will be paying for ongoing maintenance costs- which falls under operating expenses. It is my understanding that bond money is not supposed to be used for operating expenses- although it is also true that the bond money is being used to cover salaries and consultant fees which are also on-going operating expenses.

I would love to obtain the actual language on the ballot where in the 8 million dollar bond for the MRRA was voted upon.

I looked up Pemco & Co., LLC and also just Pemco & Co at the Maine Bureau of Corporations.

I received this :

Your search - Pemco & Co site:www.maine.gov/sos - did not match any documents.
No pages were found containing "Pemco & Co site:www.maine.gov/sos".

I found Pemco & Co by googling it. I found it on GreenEnergyMaine.com where I found the link to the Pemco web page. There is is stated "Entity: Pemco & Co, LLC is a Maine Corporation" Founded in 2009.

I already know that the MRRA is also not listed at the Maine State Bureau of Corporations- as is the case,it seems , with all corporations that are chartered by special act of legislation to serve as instrumentalities of the state.

But Pemco does not appear to be a corporation chartered by special act of legislation so why is it getting the special treatment from our Secretary Of State?

The Legislature broke the law when it established the MRRA and the MRRA has been breaking it ever since. We are powerless when the government itself must prosecute itself, which it is never going to do.

pmcon writes - For those Loring supporters I suggest you read the Loring annual reports which I can assure you no legislator has actually read

Please provide proof to back up your assurance that no legislator has read the report?

pmcon - Just how is it possible for the legislature to break the law?? The legislature often passes laws that are inconsistent with other laws, they usually get cleaned up at some point, but it isn't breaking the law to do so. Another option they have is to simply put this language in front of a new law, "Notwithstanding MRSA Title xxxxxx, we're going to do whatever the heck we want in this new law." Simple.

Welcom to his world. Everything is as he see it, facts be damned.

Article IV Part Third Section 16 of the Maine Constitution reads, "An emergency bill bill shall include only such measures as are immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health or safety; and shall not include (1) an infringement of the right of home rule for municipalities, (2) a franchise or a license to a corporation or an individual to extend longer than one year, or (3) provision for the sale or purchase or renting for more than 5 years of real estate."

The emergency preamble of the act that created the MRRA and Brunswick Landing reads, "Whereas, acts and resolves of the Legislature do not become effective until 90 days after adjournment unless enacted as emergencies; and
Whereas, the imminent closure of the Brunswick Naval Air Station will result in the redution of state, regional and local tax base; and
Whereas, the closure is estimated to negatively affect the State by $140,00,000; and Whereas, in the judgment of the Legislature, these facts create an emergency within the meaning of the Constitution of Maine and require the following legislation as immediatley necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety; now therefore:."

The closure of the Brunswick Naval Air Station was never emminent. It was annouced in 2005 and was planned to take 6 years to fully implement the closure. A far cry from emminent.

The military on the base paid no state income tax or city property tax and the 600 or so civilian employes were predominately service dependents and those who weren't either got other jobs, left the area or otherwise collected unemployment insurance which does not add to the tax base but detracts from it. The service dependents who attended Brunswick or Topsham schools were funded by those communities and not the federal government. State law requires communities to fund at their expense, the education of service dependents. Their loss is actually a blessing to the towns who no longer have to pay to educate them.

The $140,000,000 is a number derived from the payroll of the base including the 600 civilians. The base was self contained with no need for the military to buy anything or take any advantage of the local community. Since the military did not have to pay sales tax and the government supposedly sold everything at cost, nearly everything was cheaper from base stores and commissaries. Retired military, of which there are many in the towns surrounding the base also shopped on the base. The result is they now have to purchase their goods from local merchants and pay sales tax. If push came to shove it can probably be demonstrated that the loss of the base was a positive for the local communities.

The emergency legislation prohibits two things, establishing a corporation for more than 1 year and from leasing real estate for more than 5 years. The MRRA is by law a public municipal corportation and has already been in existence for 7 years. Having obtained copies of its leases, they extend for as many as 30 years.

I leave it to your judgement as to whether or not the Legislature disobeyed the Constitution of Maine which is the supreme law of the state.

Like the Obamacare bill, the people who vote on these voluminous pieces of legislation do not read them. Their staff may. The law requires the report to be submitted to the Governor, the Executive Director of the Legislative Council and the joint standing commitee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over housing and development matters. I leave you to decide whther anyone ever read this legislation and the reports or, read them and did nothing to stop this fleecing of the taxpayers of Maine.

I am not the villian here. If you want to do something constructive complain to your legislator and the Attorney General. Like Sgt. Friday all I want are the facts and based on them I see ourpolticians and their cronies getting fat on the taxpayer's dollar. I'm one of those taxpayers and I don't like it.