The WEX move to Scarborough is a great step forward for the town. Hats off to Downs developer Crossroads Holdings, Town Manager Tom Hall, Council Chairman Paul Johnson and others for successfully making the pitch to WEX to establish a 1,200- worker operations center in the Downs area.

This will serve as a catalyst for other businesses to follow the WEX lead and create even more local jobs. Young Scarborough residents will have the sort of job opportunities that will keep them in their town or bring them home after college.

The town’s tax base will be enhanced by WEX and other new businesses serving the needs of WEX employees and act to potentially stabilize the property tax burden on current residents.

Many other towns competed for the WEX development and most offered more generous tax incentive packages than Scarborough, but other intangibles balanced the WEX decision in our favor. The modest tax incentive package contained in the tentative Scarborough-WEX agreement should be supported by the taxpayers and the town council. The benefits of WEX coming to Scarborough are all positive in the long term.

Steve Hendrickson
Scarborough