Thursday, September 21, 2006

Opportunity Maine

Orono, ME: Another day, another innovative student-led initative to conquer loan debt. Tonight I spoke to a, let's say, selective audience at the University of Maine and had the privilege to eat dinner with Andrew Bossie, a student at the University of Southern Maine and, I was told, the major architect of the Opportunity Maine ballot initiative.

If this initiative is passed, graduates of Maine's public colleges and universities will receive tax credits to offset the full amount of their student loan payments for every year that they remain in the state. Their employer can also take on the student loan and get the tax credit.

They did careful polling to shape this policy, drafted with the help of the Secretary of State, which includes no new taxes and combats brain drain. They need 60,000 signatures before the vote in November 2007. Good luck, guys!

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