Business and Economy

AUGUSTA, Maine - A plan to invest up to $75 million a year into storing and distributing natural gas in liquid form is receiving criticism.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission's staff is urging regulators to rule that none of the storage proposals it's received serve the public interest.

Maine legislators last year passed a law saying regulators could execute a contract that's commercially reasonable, among other things.

The idea is to reserve space in yet-to-be-built liquefied natural gas tanks and then convert the liquid back to gas in winter when prices spike.

Both business and labor interests are supporting legislation that would give Maine companies a preference in any state contract for goods or services.

State Sen. Troy Jackson, a Democrat from Allagash who sponsored the bill, says he wants any tax dollars spent by the state to have maximum economic effect by staying in Maine.

“It’s all state contracts, construction, professional services, labor services. Maine companies would have preference,” he says.

BANGOR, Maine - Maine restaurants and inns are reporting a banner year for 2016, with more than $3.6 billion in total sales.

Steve Hewins, president and CEO of the Maine Restaurant Association and the Maine Innkeepers Association, said lodging and restaurant sales rose 7 percent over 2015, with total sales generating $300 million in state tax revenue.

Hewins says the industry hopes that the two past highly successful tourist seasons are the beginning of a trend.

Maine’s unemployment rate fell by .3 percentage points between January and February to reach 3.2 percent.

State labor economist Glenn Mills says 13 of the last 16 months surveyed show an unemployment rate below 4 percent.

“So all the indicators of a fairly tight labor market are there. There are certainly pockets of weakness — in much of Northern Maine, the challenges in the forest economy and the like — but certainly from central Maine south it’s a fairly tight labor market,” he says.

Mills says there’s nothing very surprising in the latest numbers.

There’s a sales agreement in place between the Scarborough Downs harness racing track in southern Maine and a prospective buyer.

Scarborough Downs spokesman Mike Sweeney says the prospective buyer, whom he was not authorized to name, is doing due diligence and nothing has been finalized.

Meanwhile, harness racing is set to continue in Scarborough.

“We are opening up our live racing season tomorrow so Saturday, we’re racing Saturday and Sunday with a 1:30 post time,” Sweeney says.

State regulators are asking a biomass electricity company to explain why it’s not paying loggers for fuel, even though it received a state subsidy for that purpose.

Last year Maine lawmakers and Gov. Paul LePage authorized state utility regulators to award biomass electricity companies more than $13 million to boost payments for power generated in Maine. The goal was to assist Maine’s beleaguered forest products industry in the wake of multiple mill closures.

But loggers say one company that won a bid for the subsidy isn’t paying its debts.

February saw a hike in real estate values in Maine compared to the year before, but a decline in the number of homes sold.

The Maine Association of Realtors says the statewide median was up 12.5 percent to $180,000 during the month of February. However, sales eased almost 13 percent.

Association President Greg Gosselin says stormy weather last month had an effect on sales numbers, as did this not being a leap year. He says a major contributor to the price increase is tight inventory.