Janet Mills seems to reverse strategy to tax federal small business loans as cash flow

AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Janet Mills directed her administration to come across $100 million in federal revenue to forgive state taxes on coronavirus relief cash to organizations in a Wednesday reversal of a budget prepare that prompted an outcry from Republicans and company teams.

It arrived two times after the Democratic governor set forward a tax conformity proposal that would need Maine modest corporations to claim loans acquired through the federal Paycheck Defense software as money for condition tax uses but would allow them to deduct vital fees. The federal government moved last month to exempt the loans from taxes.

Kirsten Figueroa, the state’s spending budget commissioner, stated granting the same profit to companies would value $100 million this calendar year, a sum that Maine could not quickly afford to pay for absent immediate congressional support to the states. The offer proposed by the administration would rather go through only a sliver of the federal tax breaks, costing $11 million via mid-2023.