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October 6, 2008 Charting the Course

Making the brand | Maine's greatest asset is its uniqueness. Here's how we can protect it.

By Alan Caron

“Charting the Course” is written by GrowSmart Maine, a Yarmouth nonprofit with a mission to promote and encourage new ideas and new ways of thinking about Maine’s future. This issue’s column is written by Alan Caron, GrowSmart’s president.

David McCullough, noted historian and now a resident of coastal Maine, has often said that people rarely understand the revolution they are living through. So it was with the Industrial Revolution, and more recently, the information age. Today, revolutions seem to come faster and with less warning, as Maine and the world accelerate into an era of heightened global competition, natural resource constraints, rising energy costs and an increasingly unsettled outlook for the global economy and environment.

This is a time that compels us to re-examine many time-worn assumptions, structures and approaches, to rethink old ideas and to explore new ones, in almost every facet of the economy. In the era we’re now entering, having a strong economy — a largely unattained goal, here, during my lifetime — won’t be good enough. In order to compete and prosper, we’ll also need to have a sustainable, highly nimble and renewable economy.

How do we do that? For starters, we have to move beyond the old paradigm of growth at almost any cost, or growth without undue harm to the environment, and replace those with a vision of growth that appreciates and protects the essence of Maine’s character and environment — our brand — as essential elements in future prosperity.

People power

One of the key insights of our 2006 GrowSmart-Brookings Institution report was that the health of our economy and our environment are now entirely interwoven. That is true not only where it seems obvious, in our historic natural resource industries like fishing, farming, forestry and tourism, but even more so in our emerging innovation sectors that rely on the state’s friendly and safe communities and our famously scenic landscapes to attract and retain top students, skilled entrepreneurs and talented workers.

The Brookings Institution eloquently reminded us that Maine’s legendary brand is one of our greatest economic assets. Our brand isn’t just rock-bound coasts and expansive forests; it’s also our small towns, rural areas, our sense of community, and the openness and hard work of Maine people. Maine’s brand is justifiably world famous, and powerful enough to attract not only millions of tourists each year, but also new households, new ideas, cultural assets, philanthropic dollars, and businesses from all over the nation and the world. Furthermore, companies like L.L.Bean, Poland Spring, Tom’s of Maine and hundreds of smaller businesses use Maine’s brand — our reputation for environmental purity, hard work and quality craftsmanship — to sell their products worldwide.

It turns out that our brand may be the key to the future, and arguably the most valuable asset that we will ever have.

Tourist taxes

Where can we find the resources to invest in Maine’s brand, to reinvigorate our communities and protect the landscape in a time of annual budget deficits, Wall Street meltdowns and a sinking economy? First, we’ve got to streamline and reinvent government to free up scarce resources for what matters. Growing the economy and creating better jobs will also help. But ultimately, we’ve got to find some additional new resources that don’t add to the burdens that already afflict Mainers and their businesses.

Brookings recommended that Maine invest in its quality places by raising the state lodging tax to the New England average, from our seven percent to their 10%. This would effectively export much of the tax burden to out-of-state visitors, who come to Maine because of our stewardship of our communities and landscapes. If those new dollars were rededicated into investments in Maine’s quality places, it would enhance the value of a Maine vacation and grow Maine’s economy over time so that the benefits would far outweigh the costs of a three-point lodging tax increase.

Some have said raising the lodging tax would force tourists to stop at the Maine border. There’s no evidence that has happened anywhere else, of course, but nonetheless we try to plod along as the low-cost tourism destination while struggling with inadequate resources to protect and revitalize Maine and grow the tourism industry.

But disagreements over how to pay for these investments shouldn’t obscure the fact that they need to be made and they should be made sooner rather than later. In the next few months, as we gear up to work with the new Legislature in the State House, we hope to engage people across the state in this conversation about funding quality places.

The cost of not doing that is too great.

Alan Caron can be reached at acaron@growsmartmaine.org.

 

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