Maine taxpayers will be picking up the tab for some $16 million in payments to out-of-state investors over the next four years, after they took advantage of a state program aimed at creating jobs in economically depressed communities.
The complicated story of how those investors got hold of these payments from a deal involving the now-defunct Great Northern Paper mill in East Millinocket is laid out in a two-part story by Whit Richardson of the Portland Press Herald.
The investors tapped into something called the Maine New Markets Capital Investment program - and used what are called "one day loans" to make it look like they were spending a lot more than they were to revitalize the financially-troubled mill.
And, as Richardson explains, it was all completely legal. Richardson spent five months investigating the story. Nora Flaherty asked him how all this happened.
Richardson says that in light of these events, the state is looking at closing the loophole that allowed the one-day loans.
Part one of Whit Richardson's two-part investigation "Payday at the Mill" appeared in this last week's Maine Sunday Telegram, and other papers of Maine Today Media. The second part will appear this coming Sunday, Apr. 26.
