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Reports and Testimony Hearings and Work Sessions Archives-George's News

How a Bill becomes a Law in Maine

George’s State House News

May 13, 2009

This is one of those days when I have to be in three committee work sessions at the same time. The Ag Committee is working on LURC and CLUP bills, Marine Resources on the bills calling for either a saltwater angler’s license or registry, State and Local on the three bills to consolidate or reorganize natural resource agencies.

I’m starting out at Marine Resources because SAM has many allies in the two other work sessions to keep us informed. All the work sessions are on the same floor of the Cross Office Building, so I’ll do my best to cover all three committees as the afternoon progresses. Yes, you can be in three places at once!

The Marine Resources Committee work session convened at 1:30 pm, a half hour late because the Senate remained in session until 1 pm. LD 1331 was submitted by the Baldacci Administration and would create a saltwater license and fee. LD 1432 is Senator Dave Trahan’s bill, created in partnership with SAM, to create a free saltwater anglers’ registry. Both bills are designed to meet a new federal mandate to build a database of all anglers who fish saltwater to assist federal agencies in conducting surveys.

Bruce Joule of DMR made a presentation on how federal surveys are conducted today, and explained that the federal mandate was driven by a desire to improve the surveys.

At 1:45 pm I trotted over to the State and Local Committee and discovered their work session has not yet started, and they have two other issues to work before they get to the consolidation bills, so I’m back at Marine Resources. Committee analyst Curtis Bentley is presenting his summary of the public hearing on each bill.

DMR officials then paraded to the podium to offer information about their work, partnerships and shared responsibilities with federal agencies, potential for saltwater angler license sales, and more. Some of the information they offered, particularly when they were talking about the division of federal fisheries money between DIF&W and DMR, was inaccurate. I talked with federal officials to get an accounting of this issue and presented that in my testimony at the hearing. At one point today, it occurred to the committee that one potential issue is that DIF&W could lose money if a saltwater license results in DMR getting a greater percentage of federal funds.

Finally, Senator Trahan was invited to speak. He presented an amendment that addressed the concerns of Marine Resource Committee members at the hearing. His amendment prohibits the state from ever charging a fee to register as a saltwater angler. He added language about how anglers would find out about the registration requirement (mostly an aggressive public campaign through sportsmen’s groups and publications). He also beefed up the enforcement provisions to meet federal concerns that Sen. Trahan’s bill was not clear on how the registry requirement would be enforced. This change gave DMR, not DIF&W, the major enforcement responsibilities. And he added DMR to the registry section of the law to create a partnership between DMR and DIF&W in the creation and management of the registry.

Not in the amendment, but offered by Senator Trahan today, were a few ideas that would raise the $12,000 expense of creating the maintaining the registry.

Committee members peppered Senator Trahan with questions, and he did a superb job with his answers, straightening out much of the incorrect information offered both at the hearing and at today’s work session.

At 3 pm, I learned that the State and Local Govt. Committee just started working on the consolidation bills. I’ll try to slide over there and see what’s happening.

There was quite an exploration of the fact that in the license bill saltwater anglers who fish with guides will not have to purchase the license.

Committee members were also concerned that DIF&W would be using its agents and websites to register saltwater anglers. They wanted that authority and responsibility to reside at DMR, another good example of the mistrust between the agencies and even between the legislative committees of jurisdiction. Bill Swan, Director of Licensing, is here at the work session and he reported that DMR could simply contract for the registry service with DIF&W and accomplish the goal very easily while maintaining control of the list.

Legislative leadership requires the committee,, to complete work on all of its bills today so it’s time to kick this football somewhere. Some committee members would like to carry over the bills to next session, but that is too late to prevent the feds from implementing their own system.

LD 1331, motion ought-not-to-pass (by Rep. McDonald and seconded by Rep. Prescott). Eight committee members present voted yes, in favor of the motion. The two committee chairs, Senator Dennis Damon and Rep. Leila Percy, voted no.

Percy offered her own version of the bill that included a license requirement and reciprocity with New Hampshire.

LD 1432, motion ought-to-pass as amended, by Rep. McKane. This got eight votes in favor, with the two chairs opposed.

The amendment is Senator Trahan’s amendment and a couple of other minor changes that the committee created – putting DMR in charge of the registry and directing DMR to prepare a memorandum of agreement with DIF&W to use its MOSES and on-line system to create and maintain the registry.

This is a serious problem, putting our no-fee registry in jeopardy, especially knowing that the two departments do not cooperate very well. It looks to me like this version of the bill will generate a large fiscal note, for the costs of DMR

Rep. Windol Weaver expressed his dismay that the two department’s can’t work together and the committee is spending a lot of time trying to figure this out.

The committee got hung up on whether or not to exempt smelt anglers from the registry requirement.

Rep. McDonald said the folks in his district were telling him it is not the time to increase their costs. At least two committee members indicated the registry eventually could turn into a license and fee, something they seemed interested in achieving! It’s clear that, if the registry is created, we’ll have to be vigilant in preventing it from turning into a license and fee.

Consolidation

OK, it’s 3:48 pm and I made it back to the State and Local Govt. Committee’s work session on consolidation bills. I am told that the committee already killed LD 538 that would have consolidated the Departments of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and Marine Resources.

The committee is currently discussing a new proposal from the Governor asking that the seven recommendations agreed upon by the Natural Resources Task Force, but some committee members disagree with some of the recommendations. Others noted that the governor has authority to do achieve most of the recommendations without legislative action.

LD 1453, the Governor’s bill to consolidate the four departments into a super agency, is now up for a vote, and this is the bill that the governor’s staff is now here trying to get the committee to amend. There is a technical problem with this, because the bill is an act and the amendment would require a resolve because in addition to authorizing the governor to achieve the 8 Task Force recommendations it also calls for a study committee to continue working on the other consolidation issues. All studies must be resolves and would end up on the Appropriations Committee for funding. Hence, a dilemma!

An ought-not-to-pass motion got 8 committee votes with 3 opposed. Rep. Beaudette’s minority report will be ought-to-pass as amended, using the amendment proposed by the governor.

LD 1270, the proposal from our Natural Resource Network, had more interest from committee members, and some suggested that it be carried over to the next session for more careful consideration.

MOTION: to carry LD 1270 over to the next legislative session, won the unanimous vote of the committee.

A great day for us! Got a vote against the saltwater license and a vote for our saltwater registry. Killed the two consolidation bills and got some momentum for our bill by carrying it over to the next session.

Of course, all of these bills will now go to the full House and Senate, so we shall remain vigilant.

Ag Committee

At 4:30 pm, I finally arrived at the Ag Committee just as it was wrapping up its afternoon’s discussion of LURC issues. The two bills of interest to me were tabled for more information, so I guess I didn’t miss too much here. So we’ll hit the road and consider this a very good day for the sportsmen of Maine.

Bob Meyers of the Maine Snowmobile Association opened up testimony by opponents, speaking on behalf of the Natural Resource Network (including SAM). He did an exceptional job of outlining the serious problems with consolidation.

Next up was Sebastian Belle of the Maine Aquaculture Association, another member of the NRN.

I testified third, followed by Don Kleiner, a coastal guide, who noted he didn’t hear any testimony by proponents that would result in better customer service. He also spoke about differences in management of commercial and recreational species in the two departments.

LD 1270

This is the reorganization bill supported by SAM, created by the Natural Resources Network and sponsored on our behalf by Rep. Wendy Pieh who presented the bill. Rep. Pieh explained the elements of the reorganization plan in the bill.

Many groups testified for this bill, including Julie Marie Bickford for the Maine Dairy Industry, Jon Olson of the Maine Farm Bureau, Bob Meyers of the Maine Snowmobile Association, Patrick Strauch of the Maine Forest Products Council, Dan Riley for the Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine, Skip Trask of the Maine Professional Guides Association and Maine Trappers Association, Dave Bell of the Maine Wild Blueberry Commission, Don Flannery of the Maine Potato Board, and Sebastian Belle of the Maine Aquaculture Association. I also testified for SAM.

The first opponent of Ld 1270 was Maine Audubon Society. Jenn Gray presented the testimony. Their opposition seemed to be focused on landscape based management, and their doubt that this reorganization “simply moves pieces of the puzzle around without improving management of our natural resources.”

Maine Audubon doesn’t like the creation of a stand-alone public lands department, something that surprised me. They favor a large super agency that allows the landscaped based natural resources management favored by Audubon. They also spoke of benefits from managing all fisheries in one department.

The Natural Resources Council of Maine, in the person of Pete Didisheim, dittoed Gray’s testimony against the bill. He called the changes in LD 1270 “fairly small.” NRCM wants something much bigger.

George Lapointe, Commissioner of the Department of Marine Resources Department, speaking on behalf of the Baldacci administration, raised only one issue in his testimony against LD 1270: that the bill was not the substantial restructuring favored by the governor. He also said the other agencies would present information at the work session countering the points that proponents of the bill made in their testimony.

Russell Libby of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association testified “neither for nor against” stating there is little gain by failing to provide more funding to these critically-underfunded agencies. He offered a memo he wrote many years ago as a staffer at Department of Agriculture about consolidating licensing functions in all agencies and it has yet to be accomplished. Russ also cautioned the committee to look carefully at the regulatory and management systems in the agencies.

LD 1453

Senator Stan Gerzofsky presented this bill on behalf of Governor John Baldacci. It is similar to a proposal the Governor made last session that failed to win any support from the Appropriations Committee. The Governor put the consolidation of natural resource agencies in his budget that year, but took a different path this year, presenting it as a bill divorced from the budget.

The Senator presented a letter from Professor David Vail of Bowdoin College supporting consolidation of these agencies.

Commissioner George Lapointe testified in support of the bill for the administration and commissioners of the four agencies governed by the bill. He spoke at length, offering a thoughtful justification of consolidation, focused on a perception that these agencies could command more public funding if they were together in a single super agency. Our testimony will counter that with research from super agencies around the country.

Chris Jackson on behalf of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce spoke in favor of the bill, outlining what they see as potential benefits to the business community.

Nicholas Barth, retired conservationist from Boothbay, spoke in favor of the bill, citing a long-overdue need to consolidation state resource agencies and program to set better priorities and offer better natural resource management and protection, implementing “holistic” management systems.

That was it for proponents, so I popped up to offer the lead testimony against the Governor’s bill. You can read my remarks in “Testimony” on this website.

Jon Olson of the Maine Farm Bureau testified that after writing extensively about consolidation he had not received one call from someone supporting the Governor’s proposal.

In addition to Jon and me, lots of other members of the Natural Resources Network stepped up to speak, including Julie Marie Bickford for the Maine Dairy Industry, Bob Meyers of the Maine Snowmobile Association, Patrick Strauch of the Maine Forest Products Council, Dan Riley for the Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine, Skip Trask of the Maine Professional Guides Association and Maine Trappers Association, Dave Bell of the Maine Wild Blueberry Commission, Don Flannery of the Maine Potato Board, and Sebastian Belle of the Maine Aquaculture Association.

“I find it difficult to accept the Governor’s proposal when he knows the people it will affect don’t want it,” testified Skip Trask, noting that the NRN represents 65,000 members. He also quoted the Governor’s promise to SAM in 2006 not to consolidate DIF&W into a super agency.

Rep. Bob Duchesne surprised everyone by popping up as an opponent, stating he preferred to speak “neither for nor against” but couldn’t wait until that opportunity came up so he got up in the opposition category.

He did actually express opposition to the consolidation offered in this bill, and gave his reaction as a member of the Natural Resources Task Force. He recognized the shortcomings of the bill, but spoke forcefully for better coordination and cooperation among the agencies, and a stronger holistic system that managed our resources on a more coherent basis.

Wendy Pelletier of Hope echoed my comments that she referred to in her testimony. She has a business on the coast that draws lots of nonresidents who come here “for the way Maine is.” She said the agencies should remain “in control” of the people they serve. Pelletier and Barth were the only private citizens to testify on any of these bills.

A ton of good arguments and compelling testimony against LD 1453 was offered, although many committee members were absent for large portions of the hearing for a variety of reasons. The committee skipped lunch, and as the hearing approached 3 pm, I was hungry!

Although I am confident that consolidation will not win favor either in this committee or in the greater legislature, we shall remain vigilant in making sure LD 1453 and 538 are defeated.

The fate of our bill, LD 1270, is dictated by the legislative schedule. All bills must emerge from committees by Friday, and it just isn’t reasonable or possible to tackle an issue of this complexity in just a few days.

I believe the value of our proposal is that it will be available for consideration by the next Governor and administration in 2011. And SAM, as well as our allies in the NRN, will continue to support and promote our proposal toward that goal.