Mainebiz

V O L . X X I I I N O. I V F E B R UA R Y 2 0 , 2 0 1 7 6 Hall steps down at Portland chamber Chris Hall resigned Feb. 8 as CEO of the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce. Hall, 59, had been CEO of the chamber since early 2013. "I've been doing chamber work for 27 years straight. I was at the state chamber for 17 years and came to Portland in 2007," he told Mainebiz. "But 10 years is a long time in one place … I'd like to write another chapter." Quincy Hentzel will serve as interim CEO and step down as president of the Portland Community Chamber, a volunteer position. Benchmark expansion reflects hot Portland market Benchmark Residential & Investment Real Estate added nine people and a second office in Portland, reflect- ing a hot real estate market. Founder and designated broker Tom Landry started the firm 14 years ago and now has 32 agents. Benchmark's statewide sales are up 11%, but the Portland market is particularly strong. e firm added a primary location in Portland's West End, at 72 Pine St., and increased capacity at its Old Port location at 305 Commercial St. e firm also has a location at 100 Congress St. N O T E W O R T H Y S O U T H E R N The New England Eating Disorders program, the only comprehensive eat- ing disorders treatment program in the state, recently became a part of Sweetser, a nonprofit in Saco that deals with critical behavioral health issues. The program was most recently affiliated and housed at Mercy Hospital. Caleb Johnson, an architecture firm, relocated from Biddeford to 110 Exchange St. in Portland's Old Port. Legacy Properties Sotheby's International Realty, a luxury property company in Portland, announced it achieved record sales of $408.8 mil- lion in 2016, a gain of 20%. Morrison Center, a nonprofit in Scarborough that provides sup- port services to individuals with and without developmental disabilities, received $10,900 as the beneficiary Businesses rally against 3% tax surcharge Representatives from a statewide, bipartisan coalition of Maine busi- nesses held a press conference Feb. 9 urging legislators to repeal the recently passed 3% tax surcharge, also known as Question 2. e 3% surcharge on families and businesses earning more than $200,000 annu- ally was approved by referendum in November. Revenue from the surcharge will fund public educa- tion. e "Keep Maine Competitive" coalition, led by the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, businesses urged state legislators to scrap the surcharge. e surcharge puts Maine's income tax rate at 10.15%, the second highest in the coun- try. "is tax will add yet another reason for talent in Maine to leave the state of Maine for opportunities outside," said Giovani Twigge, chief human resources officer at IDEXX Laboratories Inc., which employs over 2,500 people in Westbrook. "is tax will exacerbate the chal- lenges we already face for bringing talent into the state." L.L.Bean to offer employee buyouts L.L.Bean said it will offer volun- tary early retirements make other changes in order to cut costs. e Portland Press Herald reports that the Freeport-based outdoors retailer is also rethinking policies that affect shoppers, most notably its free shipping and satisfaction-guaran- teed return policies. L.L.Bean will freeze its defined-benefit pension plan and boost its 401(k) savings contributions to all 5,000 workers, including 1,000 out-of-state store employees who were not previously eligible for the full pension, the Press Herald reported. N O T E W O R T H Y S T A T E W I D E The U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Maine at Orono signed a letter of intent expressing their commitment to establishing a collaborative model that brings together the laboratory's expertise in additive manufacturing and com- posites with the university's focus on forest bio-based composites and other composite structures to advanced and support the state's forest products sector. 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 S O U T H E R N Report: Nonprofits mean $11B a year to Maine economy B Y R E N E E C O R D E S Statewide — One of out of six Maine workers is employed in the nonprofit sector, nearly 14 times those working in agriculture and three times as many as in construction, according to a report published earlier this month. The report was released by the Maine Association of Nonprofits, whose Executive Director Jennifer Hutchins would like to see nonprofits, business and state legislators work together to address workplace shortages and other chal- lenges facing the sector. Using data from the Quarterly Census for Employment and Wages for 2015, the study found that nonprofits contribute $11 billion a year to Maine's economy through wages paid, retail and wholesale purchases and professional services contracts. Maine nonprofits paid over $4.3 billion in wages in 2015, or 17.5% of the state's total payroll. The wages translated into an estimated $264 million in personal income tax rev- enue for Maine's state and local governments and $679 million in federal tax revenues. The nonprofit sector is now the third-largest employer in the United States. "Nonprofits are continually under pressure to do more with less, so I would just simply encourage our policy makers and our elected officials to have open, frank discussions [to ensure that groups providing vital community services] have the resources they need to hire the people they need," she said. "The challenge is to make sure that business, govern- ment and nonprofit leaders work together early and often on how best to allocate our limited resources in ways that will ensure the prosperity of all Maine," she added. In its latest biennial industry snapshot, the association notes that nonprofits employ more than 95,000 people in the state. That breaks down to one out of every six workers, exceeding the national average of one out of 10 workers. The report looks at nonprofits classified by the Internal Revenue Association as 501(c) (3) organizations, of which 6,468 are registered in Maine. The bulk of these — 5,994 — are public charities such as schools, hospitals, social service agencies and environmental agencies. Another 474 are private foundations. Most Maine nonprofits are very small, with three-quarters taking in less than $100,000 year in income — and rely heavily on volunteers. The report was funded with support from the Maine Community Foundation, the Maine Health Access Foundation and the Unity Foundation. MANP, founded in 1994, represents 800 nonprofits and 140 for-profit organizations. It is based in Portland. B R I E F Nonprofits contribute $11 billion a year to Maine's economy, according to a report by the Maine Association of Nonprofits. At the same time, Executive Director Jennifer Hutchins says "nonprofits are continually under pressure to do more with less." P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY

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