Despite secrecy, technology grant program protects taxpayer funds, experts say

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 22, 2022

The Maine Technology Asset Fund, a grant program paid for with a state bond, has paid out tens of millions of dollars to almost 30 Maine companies since 2019. However, confidentiality built into the program administrator, the quasi-government nonprofit Maine Technology Institute, leaves scant public information about the program’s outcome. Fewer than 1,000 direct jobs have been created so far from the investment, far less than the 5,340 jobs projected from a confidential economic impact analysis in 2018 that also predicted the program would stimulate $1.4 billion in economic growth within three years. The Technology Institute and state authorities say the program is due for an evaluation, but that it has also resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars of high-tech investment, innovation and hundreds of jobs.