Maine Infants Receive $500 College Nest Egg
If you give birth in the state of Maine, your infant will get $500 in a tax-advantaged college savings account, announced the Harold Alfond College Challenge in December. The program will start next month at two hospitals in central Maine and expand throughout the state by Jan. 1, 2009.
This initiative will cost more than $7 million annually, according to the Harold Alfond Foundation. Alfond founded Dexter Shoe Co. and sold it for $420 million 14 years ago. He died in November at age 93. A spokesman for the foundation said the money is intended as “a hook” to get parents to set up the accounts and remove college costs as a barrier to higher education for thousands of the state’s residents.
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