Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine Joins the Coalition
The Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine (SAM) Board of Directors voted last month to endorse the Plum Creek conservation and development plan for its lands around Moosehead Lake. Plum Creek provided the SAM Board with tentative details of their revised plan and they were impressed with the changes in the plan, including conservation measures that will provide permanent public access – open to hunting and other traditional outdoor activities - and no development on a large portion of these lands. The SAM Board was pleased at how Plum Creek is listening to concerns about moving development away from remote lakes and closer to the established communities of Greenville, Jackman and Rockwood.

The SAM Board also voted to join the Coalition and to actively participate in the campaign to educate sportsmen and the public about the merits of the conservation and public access elements of the plan.

The Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine represents 14,000 members; for more information click here

Coalition Leaders To Meet With Rural Caucus
Coalition leaders will be meeting at the State House with the Legislature’s Rural Caucus on March 14th to discuss the problems facing winter-related businesses in northern Maine who have been devastated by the lack of snow this year. Please continue to contact Jim Batey with any relevant data regarding this issue.

Proposed Bill Would Cancel Business Equipment Tax
Speaker of the House John Richardson and House Minority Leader David Bowles have proposed a bill that would eliminate the locally assessed tax on business machinery and equipment that the State reimburses to businesses as part of the Business Equipment Tax Reimbursement (BETR) program.

Repeal of the business equipment tax has been a priority for the business community for many years. A one-year reduction in the reimbursement from 100% to 90% in order to balance the budget last year was interpreted in the business community to mean that BETR could no longer be relied upon. Businesses need to be certain that they can rely upon the program in order to build long-term business plans.

Municipalities are worried about losing a significant source of funds but the legislators sponsoring the bill believe that their legislation would protect town budgets (the legislation may include provisions to shield communities - such as Jay- that would be particularly hard hit by the repeal) while removing a disincentive for business investment and job creation.

The BETR program costs the State approximately $80 million per year. The State Constitution requires that towns receive a 50% reimbursement from the State for revenue lost if the tax were eliminated. This proposal would gradually phase out the tax and the State reimbursements and keep the tax on equipment currently in the BETR program. Only equipment placed in service after April 1, 2007 would be exempt.

A public hearing for this proposed bill will likely be scheduled for next week.

Piscataquis County Officials Discuss Rural Services Issues
Maine’s Unorganized Territory has no municipal government. Services such as fire protection, septic waste, solid waste and road maintenance are provided by either the State or county government, funded by property taxes in the Unorganized Territory. In most instances, counties contract with the closest town to provide these services.

The Unorganized Territory has traditionally been populated with seasonal camps owned by local people who neither wanted nor expected municipal services. That traditional, local use has shifted over the years as properties have changed ownership. Many of those remote camps have been replaced in some areas by vacation homes whose out-of-state owners expect road maintenance, solid waste disposal and other services for their investments.

As that trend continues and more land is subdivided into house lots, the demand for services will be even greater, which has prompted the Legislature to appoint a commission to study the cost and funding of those services to cushion the impact. This commission met last week in Dover-Foxcroft where the following issues were raised:

• The difficulty in providing services to an unorganized territory that is large enough to be a town (i.e., Rockwood has no local government but has more than 500 landowners and about 300 voters, as well as a million-dollar school for eight children).
• The difficulty in finding contractors to provide services such as plowing and sanding because counties do not have pools of contractors from which to select and so are obliged to pay the asking price.
• The need for State guidelines for new requests for services and whether this was practicable in a state where challenges are vastly different from one county to the next.
• The potential for regionalization among counties.
• The removal of municipal government to be replaced with county government (instead of having several town managers, there would be one manager for the entire population in the county).
• The creation of legislation to allow the Unorganized Territory to impose impact fees for regional infrastructure.
• Clarify State laws to affirm that the Unorganized Territory can participate in tax increment finance districts or development districts.
• Provide for the State Planning Office to assist in the creation of regional councils of governments.
• The need for potential property owners to know the level of services available before they make a purchase.
• The possibility of implementing assessment fees on new development.

New Coalition Member
Please welcome Dick Curtis from Dennistown Plantation to the Coalition. Dick is Superintendent of Schools at Maine School District 12 in Jackman.

Work Sessions on Katahdin Lake Deal
The Legislature's Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry held two of at least three work sessions this week attempting to draft a compromise and salvage L.D. 2015, the land deal for 6,000-plus acres surrounding Katahdin Lake. The challenge facing the committee is to win the support of two-thirds of the Legislature without unraveling a fragile deal three years in the making.

The current plan calls for the Baxter State Park Authority to assume ownership of the 6,015-acre parcel after a complicated exchange of state and private lands to the current owner, Lincoln-based Gardner Land Company. The deal, which involves the sale of 7,400 acres of state-owned forests, would be financed entirely by private money raised by a nonprofit land conservation organization.

The Baxter State Park Authority considers the property part of former Governor Percival Baxter's original vision of a state-owned wildlife sanctuary and where the land would be off-limits to hunting, trapping and snowmobiling. The Sportsmen’s Alliance of Maine and the Maine Snowmobile Association oppose the bill in its current form and are advocating for continued hunting, snowmobiling and other traditional uses on the annexed land, noting that 51,000 out of the 200,000-plus acres of Baxter State Park are already open for traditional users.

The Committee will hold another work session on Monday and could vote on the bill next week.

Newport Man Selected to Head Maine Agriculture
Governor Baldacci announced the nomination of Seth Bradstreet of Newport to be the commissioner of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources. Bradstreet is the owner-operator of Bradstreet Farms, specializing in early generation and certified seed potatoes. He currently serves on the Maine Potato Board and the Maine Board of Pesticides Control.

Maine farmers control more than 1.2 million acres and the agriculture industry has a $1.2 billion impact on the Maine economy. Maine is the largest producer of brown eggs and wild blueberries in the world and ranks eighth nationally in potato production and second for maple syrup. In New England, Maine ranks second in milk and livestock production.

The nomination goes before the Legislature's Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee and is subject to legislative review and Senate confirmation. If confirmed, Bradstreet would succeed Robert Spear, who stepped down in November.

Upcoming Events of Interest
March 18th: The 2nd annual Greenville-to-Brownville 100-mile Wilderness Dog Sled Race has been rescheduled and will begin on Moosehead Lake at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 18th. Over twenty teams of mushers will travel through the “100-mile wilderness” on an “out and back” trail. Volunteers are needed to handle the dog teams before the race! For more information, contact Amy Dugan or Terry Knowles, or contact the Towns of Brownville or Greenville, or the Moosehead Lake Region Chamber of Commerce. For race rules and more information, go to the Three Rivers Community Web Site.

March 28th: A topic for the Quarterly meeting of the Economic Development Council of Maine will be, “The North Maine Woods Project” and will be held at the Augusta Country Club in Manchester. Jim Lehner, General Manager of the Northeast Region and Luke Muzzy, Senior Land Asset Manager will be speaking about Plum Creek’s plan for its lands in the Moosehead Lake region. Cathy Johnson, Northwoods Project Director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine will also be speaking.

March 31st through April 2nd: The Coalition will host a booth at the 26th annual State of Maine Sportsman's Show at the Augusta Civic Center.

March 31st and April 1st: The Southern Piscataquis County Chamber of Commerce is hosting the annual Penquis Valley Regional Expo at Piscataquis Community High School in Guilford. Expo hours will be as follows:

Friday, March 31st from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Saturday, April 1st from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

For more information, please visit the SPCCC web site.

April 8th and 9th: The Presque Isle Fish and Game Sportsman’s Spring Show at the University of Maine at Presque Isle. The Coalition will be hosting an informational booth at this Show. For more information, please visit the Presque Isle Fish and Game web site.

email: info@preservegrowme.org
phone: 888-702-7466
web: http://www.preservegrowme.org