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V O L . X X I N O. X V I J U LY 2 7 , 2 0 1 5 6 Maine GOP seeks to end state income tax e Maine Republican Party is plan- ning to push for a 2016 statewide ballot question that would ask voters if they want to phase out the state income tax. e Bangor Daily News reported that the party needs to collect tens of thou- sands of signatures by January if it wants the question placed on the November 2016 ballot. GOP Chairman Rick Bennett told the newspaper that while details of the proposal are still being worked out, it would likely involve phas- ing out the income tax over time. UMaine System projects $16M shortfall e cost of severance and retirement has contributed to a projected $16 million shortfall in the University of Maine System's budget for the fi s- cal year that just ended. e Bangor Daily News reported that UMaine System offi cials expect severance and retirement to account for about $11 million of total operating losses. e expenses stem from staff reductions that were made across the system's campuses in the past year. Maine employment rate stays fl at at 4.7% Maine's unemployment rate in June was 4.7%, the same as the previous month and 1% less than it was a year ago. e Maine Department of Labor reported that an estimated 32,800 people were unemployed in June, 6,900 less than a year ago. e national unemployment rate in June was 5.3%, a slight increase from the previous month and a decrease from 6.1% one year ago. Maine's unemployment rate remained under the average of 4.8% for the New England states. e state's unemployment rate was lower than Rhode Island (5.9%) and Connecticut (5.7%), and higher than Massachusetts (4.6%), New Hampshire (3.8%) and Vermont (3.6%). Irving: No more Maine crude oil shipments by rail Irving Oil is no longer shipping crude oil on railroads through Maine, though the Canadian company says the deci- sion is not related to the 2013 Lac- Megantic rail disaster. e company confi rmed the news to the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting in a June 30 email. Mark Sherman, who is now Irving's chief operating offi cer, told the publication that the policy change was the result of global oil-supply-and-demand issues. N O T E W O R T H Y S T A T E W I D E The Maine Offi ce of Tourism an- nounced it awarded $74,967 in Tourism Enterprise Marketing Grants to 11 recipients to support projects planned for 2016. Morris Yachts in Trenton partnered with Handy Boat in Falmouth Foreside to provide a service yard for its Casco Bay-area customers. The Department of Veterans Affairs awarded $861,232 to the Northern Maine Veterans' Cemetery in Caribou to continue to provide service for vet- erans and their families in Northern Maine and $671,957 to the Southern Maine Veterans Cemetery in Springvale for expansion. The People's United Community Foundation, the philanthropic arm of People's United Bank in Portland, announced it awarded a total of $44,500 to six Maine nonprofi t or- ganizations. Recipients are Goodwill Industries of Northern New England, Portland; Maine Housing and Building Materials Exchange, Lisbon; Genesis B U S I N E S S M A I N E Business news from around the state S T A T E W I D E 1-800-640-5323 www.EnviroVantage.com Demolition & Clean Up Using Cutting Edge Technology Servicing the East Coast for over 30 years in: Asbestos, Lead & PCB's Removal • Demolition Mold Remediation • Duct Cleaning Disaster Recovery • Environmental Clean-up Servicing the East Coast for over 30 years in: Now Using The BROKK 100 Robotic Demolition Machine We Helped Turn This... Into This We Can Do The Same For You Providing solutions for diverse hiring needs for Maine companies 207-854-2422 directpersonnel.net 1-800-639-8802 mainestaff.com • Finance/ accounting professionals • Skilled laborers • Flaggers • Administrative experts • Health Care professionals • Engineers Call us today! A corporate division of Maine Staffing Group Cerahelix's $200K only Q2 Maine venture deal Biotechnology company Cerahelix Inc. raised $200,000 in venture funding, a new study found, with the fi nancing coming from the Maine Venture Fund along with Portland and Bangor angel investors in the second quarter of 2015. It was the only venture capital deal The MoneyTree Report cited in Maine in the second quarter. Susan MacKay, CEO and founder of the Orono-based maker of ceramic water fi lters, characterized the money as bridge funding toward a $5 million Series A fund raise that she's hopes will close in the third quarter. Cerahelix had fi led a Form D with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on March 12 to raise $500,000 in debt or other promissory notes, and to date has raised $275,000 of that, including the $200,000 cited in the study. All of it is in the form of convertible notes that will turn into equity when the Series A round closes, she told Mainebiz. The company makes a nano-ceramic, fast fi ltration system to clean water for commercial users, and is initially targeting production in the oil and gas industries. "We will use the money for validating a commercial-scale pilot project in Alberta, in the tar sands," she said of the bridge and Series A fund raises. She said the company is scaling up its smaller pilot project to have the commercial version for the Alberta pilot done in six to nine months. The $200,000 raised in Maine is much less than the bountiful $17.8 mil- lion raised in the fi rst quarter by six Maine companies, including CashStar Inc., which led the pack with $9.5 million from undisclosed investors, according to The MoneyTree Report released July 17 by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. The report is based on data from Thomson Reuters. In the second quarter of 2014, two companies raised $16,086,000. The total for the fi rst half of the year is $17,988,000, including companies in information technology services, software, telecommunications, biotechnology and consumer products, telecommunications and services. — L o r i V a l i g r A Visit mainebiz.biz/VCQ215 to read more about The MoneyTree Report. @

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