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Kim Lindlof is the president and CEO of the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce.
For nearly 24 years, I have had the privilege of supporting Maine’s small business community — the business owners who have poured their lives, hearts, savings, and innumerable hours into building the storefronts Maine takes pride in.
As the president and CEO of the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce representing approximately 650 businesses and 23 communities, I have seen firsthand what it takes to grow a business and our state and how faulty policymaking, however well-intended, developed in our capital can prevent them from thriving.
Business owners operate on thin margins in Maine. Our state government levies one of the highest corporate tax rates of any state, putting our businesses at a competitive disadvantage relative to other states in the region. Competing in this environment is already difficult enough.
However, lawmakers in Augusta have continued to add to these difficulties by advancing regulations that add to a mountain of red tape that has skyrocketed compliance costs.
For small businesses, the combined expenses of the tax burden and complying with federal and state regulations can be overbearing.
With that in mind, one might think that our state’s lawmakers would make every effort to ease these costs and obstacles. However, the legislation currently being debated in the State House is far from a reprieve.
Last year, we saw the introduction and eventual failure of a wide-reaching data privacy bill, serving as another clear case of good intentions matched by poor execution. The bill would have introduced some of the strictest measures on businesses of every size, severely damaging their ability to market online and compete with larger corporations while opening them up to costly lawsuits.
While a host of dedicated data privacy bills are moving toward introduction this session, in the meantime lawmakers have instead advanced a damaging standalone element — a private right of action. Should it pass, LD 194 would leave business owners liable to lawsuits filed under the Maine Unfair Trade Practices Act. While seemingly innocuous, it could empower future data privacy legislation to put a new strain on small business owners to endure drawn-out legal battles over their digital marketing and advertising practices.
Maine’s business community already struggles with the financial burdens of compliance. Adding a private right to action could force them to divert more resources away from innovating and improving operations for our state’s consumers while harming their ability to compete.
Rather than pass another piece of legislation that may shutter doors and force businesses, talent, and capital out of the state, we must use this legislative session to find ways to ease the costs and regulatory roadblocks placed in their way. Only then can we build the diversified and option-rich economy Mainers can enjoy for generations to come.