Nestlé Waters has built five plants in the U.S. in the past five years, all pursuing LEED certification with the U.S. Green Building Council: One each in Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, California and Texas. Lazgin takes pains to point out Maine's absolute positives for making it the next in line.
      Not only does the state have great quality of life and a legendary work ethic, but labor and utility rates are relatively low, Lazgin says. She lauds Maine's various incentive programs and calls the regulatory and permitting process "thorough" but "fair and workable." Finally, in direct counterpoint to the personal taxation burden characterized by the Tax Foundation, she has compliments for the state's business taxation scheme.
      "Maine's tax system is seen as one of the fairest in the country and the state has the most favorable overall tax environment in New England according to the CFO Magazine State Tax Survey," Lazgin says.
      To some, the leak in the proposed referendum was its applicability to outgoing water, rather than water withdrawal, an especially significant point in a state with considerable investment by semiconductor companies.
      "This tax was an outrageous proportion to anything we've seen applied to any manufacturing facility," says Lazgin. "We can be empathetic, because people don't look at a computer or tire and say 'Gee, they really use a lot of water."
      But the empathy only extends so far. Now the company has to wait to see if something happens legislatively, or if the Maine Water Tax supporters collect the requisite 51,000 signatures needed for a ballot referendum by the September 2005 deadline for such measures.
      "Until we know it's not going to happen, we won't expand," says Lazgin.