The rest of the nation may be in a credit crunch, but here in Maine some bankers say the greatest obstacle to getting a loan is a negative attitude. “Don’t not go into a bank, whether you’re a consumer or a business because of what you’ve read in the paper as far as the lack of credit availability.” Kathy Keneborus, of the Maine Association of Community Banks, joined other financial representatives who gave the Legislature's Business, Research and Economic Development Committee a fairly positive outlook on credit availability in the state. She and others say the state's banks and credit unions are well-capitalized and actively writing mortgages and other types of loans, despite widespread negativity in other sectors of the national economy. But some business owners told lawmakers that, most of the time, they feel like a number when they try to get a loan, and that number is their credit score.

 

“I’ll tell you what, if I could shoot one industry in this country, or absolve it or burn it, or blow it up, it would be the credit rating industry.” James Monroe is a Gray entrepreneur with expertise in precision manufacturing. He says that if the banks are doing so well, they should be willing to work with companies that need capital, but may have sustained a lower credit rating due to circumstances beyond their control. “The banks and so forth can say everything is wonderful, in their regard at their business. Well, all that’s great. But their business is to re-circulate money and produce so-called more money, so people put more money in their banks. And I think that’s not what’s happening. It’s a bumpy road out there and some of that comes to people you’ve done business with who maybe weren’t so reliable along the way. And you end up getting hammered but you really didn’t do anything, but this banker’s got this number. Well, sorry.”

 

Catherine Esty relocated to Caribou from Florida to start a reception center business in Central Aroostook County. She believed she would have ready access to business loans, but says her inability to secure financing has left her nearly a half million dollars in debt. Although she has received some support from the Caribou Chamber of Commerce, she's still surviving from week-to-week. “I’ve worked my whole life. My mother’s worked her whole life to have credit, to believe in the American dream and ultimately, I’m sitting in a garage opposed to a beautiful three-bedroom home I have in Florida. I don’t really belong to Maine. I don’t really belong to Florida. And it’s very frustrating.”

 

Representatives of the lobster industry also turned out to tell lawmakers that now would be the wrong time for banks to freeze up their credit lines. David Hill, of the Small Business Development Center in Wiscasset says most fishermen will be fine over the winter -- but next spring could be different. “What would normally have funded the new traps, improvements to the boat, repairs, etc. they’re looking to fund through debt. And their fear is that they’re not going to able to do that.”

 

Representative Chris Rector of Knox County is the lead Republican on the business panel and he says it's clear that credit poses different challenges to different businesses. The best strategy, he says, is for businesses to maintain the lines of communication with their lenders. “I think if there’s one underlying message out here it is that businesses, small business people and large business people need to be talking to their bankers on a regular basis. And be sure that if they’re finding themselves in difficulty or finding themselves facing potential difficulty, that they’re talking to their banker in advance of that time that difficulty might arise.”

 

Rector says information from the meeting could be useful for those lawmakers returning to the State House next month in the effort to assist struggling Maine businesses.