While you may expect reduced health care costs when you fund and implement wellness programs, recent studies suggest that is not always the case and employers shouldn’t expect an immediate cost-savings return on investment (ROI) as the measure of success. In fact, some lifestyle management components to promote healthy lifestyles do not deliver returns that were higher than costs.1 Instead, think of value on investment, (VOI), the long-term savings potential in broader sense.

Airing live at 10:00 a.m. on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month, The Bottom Line podcast features a wide variety of guests and presents interviews relevant to public policy priorities both in state and nationally, to economic recovery efforts of the pandemic, and to other significant issues of interest to Maine’s business community. In May, the show will host the following guests discussing these pertinent topics:

On Tuesday, May 4, the Taxation committee voted unanimously to table LD 798, An Act to Improve the Educational Opportunity Tax Credit, sponsored by Sen. Matthew Pouliot (R-Kennebec). The committee pledged to work to meld parts of four other bills into this one, in an attempt to simplify the credit. The committee voted “ought not to pass” on four other bills dealing with the Maine Educational Opportunity Tax Credit:

On Tuesday, May 4, the Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs held a work session on LD 1329, An Act To Establish the Career Advancement and Navigation Initiative in the Department of Education To Lower Barriers to Career Advancement. Committee members voted “ought to pass.”

On Monday, May 3, Ben Gilman, general counsel for the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, delivered the following testimony before the Joint Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology in support of LD 1619, An Act To Establish a Moratorium on Offshore Wind Power Projects in Maine’s Territorial Waters, and in opposition to LD 101, An Act To Prohibit Offshore Wind Energy Development.