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Opportunity Maine going to the voters

By Michael Dabrieo

Posted on Thursday, March 1st, 2007, 12:00 am

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AUGUSTA – The student-led campaign “Opportunity Maine” steamrolled through autumn gathering support, and announced at the State House in Augusta on Monday that it was successful in collecting enough signatures to present their initiative to the Maine legislature. It will either be passed outright or left to the voters in November.

Volunteers for the initiative, which, if passed, will create a tax credit for resident Maine students who stay to work in the state, collected 63,000 viable signatures in support of its cause – 8,000 more than the minimum requirement.

“We did it,” said Andrew Bossie, president of Opportunity Maine PAC and a student at the University of Southern Maine.

If the bipartisan initiative becomes law, students who graduate from a Maine college or university and stay to work and live in the state afterward will be eligible for a tax credit to assist in repaying student loans. It will not be retroactive, meaning it will only apply to students who graduate from college after it is approved.

The credit could be claimed on personal tax claims or through potential employers, who would pay back the debt to the state.

“We know that a lot of people need to leave Maine after they graduate because they can’t afford to pay their student loans,” Bossie said, standing at the podium in the Hall of Flags with a group of volunteers standing behind him holding Opportunity Maine signs. “The new graduates that OM creates will continue living in Maine, earning higher incomes and producing higher tax revenues.”

According to a press release, the state will have to provide funds for the measure for the first four to five years, but the initiative should begin to pay for itself by 2014. Assuming that 13.4 percent of additional income from the higher-paying jobs is paid in state and local taxes, the net benefit will grow to more than $20 million by 2018.

After the first ten years, the cost of the tax credit will plateau but the revenue boost will continue to grow, according to the release. In 2018, the first graduating class that would be affected will stop claiming credit. From then on, each new class claming the credit will be offset by an earlier class ending loan repayments.

“Sixty one percent of students pursuing associate’s and bachelor’s degrees in Maine have student loans,” he said.

According to Bossie, the average debt for a student pursuing a bachelor’s degree with loans is estimated to be more than $18,000. “That debt that I have and so many other people have greatly impact[s] this state.”

According to Opportunity Maine, of the 39 percent of high school diploma earners who go on to earn college degrees in the state, 53.6 percent leave. Maine also has 30 percent fewer degree holders than the rest of New England, and average incomes are also 30 percent less.

“This initiative addressed a need, it didn’t create one,” said Diane Russell, Student Committee Member for Opportunity Maine.

The campaign was operated through a network of more than 500 student and resident volunteers throughout the state.

“The student involvement was critical,” said Russell, who worked closely with students at UMaine throughout the campaign.

“This has been a blending of community and students in a way that has never been done before,” she said. “UMaine rocked the house, we got 3,000 signatures just on election day.”

Campaign Director Rob Brown agreed.

“There was no generational divide. We had a woman in her eighties that was one of our best volunteers. She bundled up in the cold and the rain to stand in front of the supermarket and the post office. Then we had college kids driving all over the state to collect signatures, and most of them won’t directly benefit from it.”

The initiative is getting support from both sides of the political aisle.

“It is a great thing for the state of Maine,” said Rep. Gary Moore, R-Standish, who stood holding a sign as Bossie spoke.

Rep. Emily Cain, D-Orono, agreed, saying that this was a step in the right direction for Maine education.