Aroostook 'empowerment zone' incentives on hold
The fiscal cliff deal inked in January extended a program giving some Aroostook County businesses incentives for hiring local workers, but county officials say the extension has not made funds immediately available.
Over 20 municipalities throughout the St. John Valley are designated as empowerment zones, a program to help distressed areas and which provides Aroostook County businesses a tax credit of up to $3,000 for every local resident hired.
The Northern Maine Development Commission reported in a press release that the extension approved on Dec. 31, 2012, does not go into effect immediately, meaning that qualifying businesses will not be able to apply or reapply for the program until the full program rules are known.
Mike Eisensmith director of regional planning at NMDC, said in the release that the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Housing and Urban Development are still crafting those rules for the program extended through December 2013.
Though applications for the program this year remain in limbo, Eisensmith said approved businesses would receive benefits back-dated to the beginning of this calendar year.
The program, originally set to expire Dec. 31, 2011, also was extended last year, according to the Bangor Daily News, as a part of the Middle Class Tax Relief Act.
Aroostook County is one of just 10 rural empowerment zones in the country.
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