Dear Editor:

Many of us are convinced that the roundabout will not improve traffic safety, and we have all seen the damage to historical structures in Boothbay, but the notion that it and other projects that Mr. Coloumbe has on the drawing board will produce economic growth leaves me skeptical. We'll gain a few jobs in the sales and services industries but are these the kind of jobs that will keep our young people in the area or attract them from elsewhere?

You have probably heard about the process of inversion where large companies have been relocating to other countries where the corporate tax rate is much lower and using accounting wizardry to declare that most of their profits were made outside of the USA while their losses occurred here. It seems like many companies, like Pfizer, have been heading to Ireland to pull this off.

In 1979, I visited Ireland, a dirt poor country that had been losing population for over 100 years. At the time the Irish government decided to allow those that derived most of their income from the arts to live there tax free since they thought by attracting people who would make Ireland a center of culture would also make it attractive to big business. Well, that didn't work and Ireland already had a good population of artists. One small town even started to build an international airport to attract business but that project was halted after the government was presented bills for its construction. Lowering the corporate tax rate to one of the lowest in the world did work and now Ireland has a pretty robust economy and its population is once again growing at a good rate — possibly the highest in Europe while many countries are losing population.

So, what would be better for Boothbay, taxpayers footing most of the bills for a developer’s project and creating a few low paying retail and service jobs or keeping taxes affordable for our citizens and maybe even attracting some real jobs? Well, lowering the corporate tax rate to grow business here and create jobs is in Congress's hands but I still like the second option for Boothbay.

Edward and Nicole Banning
Boothbay