Trump budget eliminates agency that brought $5M to rural Maine
The Northern Border Regional Commission, a federal-state agency that has provided $5.4 million in funding to rural Maine projects since 2010, is targeted for elimination in President Trump’s proposed budget.
The Bangor Daily News reported that the agency, whose mission is to aid “distressed” communities in 36 rural counties of Maine, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont, is one of three regional economic commissions that have been zeroed out in Trump’s proposed budget.
Andrea Smith, NBRC program manager at the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development, told the newspaper that the agency probably won’t know until the federal budget passes later this year whether the agency will receive funding for the next federal fiscal year that starts on Oct. 1. In the meantime, she said, the agency will continue meeting with prospective applicants who are putting together proposals for funding if Congress overrides the Trump administration and continues its funding.
Impact in Maine
Created by Congress under the 2008 Farm Bill, the NRBC funded eight projects in Maine totalling almost $2 million and leveraging almost $6.7 million in matching funds. Since 2010, the NRBC has provided $5.4 million in grants to Maine projects that received more than $20 million in matching funds.
Maine projects funded in 2016 included a $250,000 grant to Presque Isle Regional Airport that leveraged a $795,000 matching grant to construct a five-unit heated hangar for medical evacuation aircraft and to “attract business aviation clients. Another airport project involved a $250,000 grant to Eastern Slope Airport in Fryeburg, which leveraged a $750,000 matching grant, for build a new aircraft hangar “to attract new seasonal visitors and outside investors.”
Previous years’ funded Maine projects include a 2015 Lincolnville Sewer District project that received $250,000 and a $2.61 million matching grant, a $250,000 grant in 2014 to the Passamaquoddy Tribe of Indian Township to build a maple-processing facility in Jackman and a $200,000 grant awarded in 2013 to Dover-Foxcroft to refurbish a hydroelectric plant at the former Mayo Mill.
In 2016 the commission issued 43 grants totaling $7.4 million across the four states, according to its annual report.
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