LePage may reconsider nonprofit bonds
Gov. Paul LePage said he will consider restarting a nonprofit bond program he essentially shut down three years ago that left many nonprofits without more affordable financing options.
Adrienne Bennett, the governor’s spokeswoman, told the Sun Journal that he was willing to start the program again last fall. But his past statements never explicitly indicated that.
LePage essentially ended the nonprofit bond program in 2011 after he refused to sign a pool bond package for eight colleges, hospitals and other nonprofits without the $31 million in financing they were expecting to receive. At the time, the governor said he was concerned about the impact a loan default could have on Maine’s bond rating.
The decision left many nonprofits without lower-interest financing that could have helped them save millions of dollars. MaineGeneral Health alone is expected to pay an extra $42 million on a loan to build a 192-bed hospital in Augusta because it was unable to utilize the program.
Michael Goodwin, executive director of the Maine Health and Higher Education Faciltiies Authority, which runs the nonprofit bond program, told the Sun Journal that he hadn’t been informed of LePage’s decision to reconsider the program.
Bennett said LePage is considering ways of lowering the risk of applying for a nonprofit bond, which takes time and money to help prepare. "Can we get to a point where the application doesn't necessarily have to be completed? Maybe we can get a summary of the projects and the governor can take a look at those. That's a possibility,” she said.
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