From Senator Mills’ Maine Legislative Report.

Small businesses in Maine have a crying need for venture capital — investments of a million dollars or more that will permit a small business to grow, prosper and produce jobs here in Maine. In order to find such capital, entrepreneurs are too often forced to migrate out of state to where the money is.

The Maine Public Employees Retirement System (MePERS) has about $10 billion on deposit to meet pension obligations for teachers and public employees. MePERS is charged by law to invest that money wherever in the world they can find the best and safest return. Until now, they have had no special incentive to invest in Maine.

That will change. I sponsored and wrote a “Fund of Funds” bill that was signed into law this spring by Governor Baldacci. By guaranteeing part of the return, the state supplies a powerful incentive for MePERS to attract venture capital into Maine to link up with our targeted technologies, such as composite materials, precision manufacturing, and advanced technologies for forestry and agriculture.

The idea for the bill was provided to me by Joe Kumiszcza, the executive director of TechMaine, an organization of Maine software developers in Westbrook. The bill was strongly promoted by Catherine Renault in the Office of Innovation at the Department of Economic & Community Development.