Waste of the Day: Maine Dam Never Built
Topline: Maine’s largest ski resort has yet to pay back $153,000 in taxpayer money it received years ago to build a dam that never materialized. Franklin County officials recently voted to “lawyer up” and "aggressively" pursue repayment, according to the Maine Monitor.
Key facts: The Sugarloaf Mountain Hotel started building a dam and reservoir at the Carrabassett River in 2018. During winters with little natural snowfall, the reservoir could be used to create snow and keep the resort’s skiing business going.
Franklin County agreed to finance the project in 2020 to help promote tourism. Sugarloaf Mountain is one of the county’s largest employers, and visitors often support other local businesses and restaurants.
The project was halted in 2023 after the hotel decided the river was too difficult and expensive to access. The dam would have also intersected with the Appalachian Trail, a protected hiking trail that runs from Maine to Georgia.
But the hotel kept billing Franklin County for construction-related invoices anyway until late 2024. The county eventually realized and asked the hotel to repay the full $222,000 they had received. Only $69,000 has been paid back.
The county also found that the hotel had been billing them for expenses first incurred in 2018, before the county agreed to finance the dam.
The money came from the state’s Tax Increment Financing program. Instead of sending all collected property taxes directly to the state’s general fund, counties can use a portion of the revenue on local infrastructure and job creation.
The State of Maine has given another $100,000+ to the Sugarloaf Mountain Hotel since 2018, according to records obtained by Open the Books.
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Summary: Maine is far from the first state to pay for a construction project that was never completed, and now Franklin County must recoup the flood of taxpayer dollars that went to Sugarloaf.
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