Why doesn’t the state support Maine businesses?

To the Editor,
    For the past three or four years I have been supplying United States flags and Maine flags to the state of Maine because I was awarded the bid. My bid has been the same each year … and I even threw in free shipping.  Last December I was requested by the State to submit a bid for 2009. After the bids were closed I called to see if, once again, I had been awarded the bid only to find out that I had not. I lost the bid to a company in Pennsylvania. I believe that the difference between my bid and Quinn Flag Company’s bid was about 20 cents a flag.
    My concern: Why does Maine not have a buffer of between 3 and 5 percent, as some states do, to allow Maine businesses a better opportunity to be awarded bids when the amounts are close. When my state representative was contacted, he told me that a bill was in the works in the legislature that would address this issue. However, in mid-June I was informed that the bill had been voted down.
    My point: I am a local businessman trying to eke out a retirement living here in what appears to me now to be the most anti-business climate that exists in the nation. My company, although small, generates a few thousand dollars in sales tax revenue each year, where out-of-state vendors don’t pay a cent in tax revenues to Maine. We all should wonder how a bid with a difference that small could have been rejected by our own state in favor of an out-of-state company.
    If you agree with me, I suggest you contact your representatives in Augusta and ask them to re-address buffer legislation.
Walter Lougee
World of Flags USA
Milo