Nearly 10% of Maine's GDP comes from defense-related projects and products.
Midcoast Citizens for Sustainable Economies (MCSE) wants to change that.
On Friday morning six of their Bath-based members met with U.S. Senator King and his regional representative Gail Kezer to talk about reallocating economic initiative in sectors other than defense.
Here are notes from the meeting.
We're overly dependent, in Bath especially and in Maine generally, on defense spending. Given likely future cuts in defense spending, the Maine economy has too many eggs in the defense basket- a cut in spending would take a serious bite out of Maine's economic momentum.
MCSE spent the meeting advocating that the Senator work to prepare Maine for a transition into a non-defense economy before the cuts occur.
The Senator knew how important a message it was. When he was Governor of Maine, he recalled at the meeting, he had presided over a successful retraining and reorientation of several industrial locations in Maine. But a healthy, growing economy had been the oil that greased the transition process. When we are struggling with low employment and shrinking demand, the reallocation of resources is much more reluctant.
"Let's act," said Leslie Manning, member of the committee and of Durham Friends Meeting, "rather than react like we did after the base closure (in Brunswick, ME) and NAFTA."
King listened well, spoke sympathetically, and enthusiastically received the literature the committee had prepared for him. He also had a neat idea about repurposing Bath Iron Works, mega-employer in the Bath area and in Maine (each county in the state has BIW employees working in it).
"We should be building ice-breakers," he said. "We have one ice breaker ship; the Soviet Union has seven up in the arctic now." King pointed out the increasing importance of the arctic as a trade route (and a MCSE member mentioned oil-access as a U.S. interest in the Arctic). We could be building ice-breakers at BIW.
One consideration I had never thought of regarding building war-ships versus doing other manufacturing work is that battle ships are extremely complex and require many workers, and many skilled workers, to construct. That makes the whole in Bath's economy left by a shrinking defense contract account a difficult one to fill. The determined members of MCSE are committed to finding ways, and King seems to be too.
Midcoast Citizens for Sustainable Economies (MCSE) wants to change that.
On Friday morning six of their Bath-based members met with U.S. Senator King and his regional representative Gail Kezer to talk about reallocating economic initiative in sectors other than defense.
Here are notes from the meeting.
We're overly dependent, in Bath especially and in Maine generally, on defense spending. Given likely future cuts in defense spending, the Maine economy has too many eggs in the defense basket- a cut in spending would take a serious bite out of Maine's economic momentum.
MCSE spent the meeting advocating that the Senator work to prepare Maine for a transition into a non-defense economy before the cuts occur.
The Senator knew how important a message it was. When he was Governor of Maine, he recalled at the meeting, he had presided over a successful retraining and reorientation of several industrial locations in Maine. But a healthy, growing economy had been the oil that greased the transition process. When we are struggling with low employment and shrinking demand, the reallocation of resources is much more reluctant.
"Let's act," said Leslie Manning, member of the committee and of Durham Friends Meeting, "rather than react like we did after the base closure (in Brunswick, ME) and NAFTA."
King listened well, spoke sympathetically, and enthusiastically received the literature the committee had prepared for him. He also had a neat idea about repurposing Bath Iron Works, mega-employer in the Bath area and in Maine (each county in the state has BIW employees working in it).
"We should be building ice-breakers," he said. "We have one ice breaker ship; the Soviet Union has seven up in the arctic now." King pointed out the increasing importance of the arctic as a trade route (and a MCSE member mentioned oil-access as a U.S. interest in the Arctic). We could be building ice-breakers at BIW.
One consideration I had never thought of regarding building war-ships versus doing other manufacturing work is that battle ships are extremely complex and require many workers, and many skilled workers, to construct. That makes the whole in Bath's economy left by a shrinking defense contract account a difficult one to fill. The determined members of MCSE are committed to finding ways, and King seems to be too.
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