Natural Resource Agency Merger

This merger proposal was part of the Governors Budget last year. Keep in mind that the budgets of all the natural resources agencies combined amount to 2.75% of the state budget. Clearly we are tinkering at the margins!

There was a large turnout at the last hearing and everyone opposed the idea except the administration. A task force was formed with over 40 members. I served on that task force and wrote about some of the meetings last summer and fall. The group was told that we would use consensus; we were not allowed to vote on proposals and you can imagine the result. The report arrived with little that we could all agree on, except that this idea carried costs and not savings while not worsening service.

So today there is a bill to do same thing before the legislature’s state and local government committee. The supposed facts supporting the bill are presented in a brochure that I saw presented as the results of the task force.

I am disappointed!

First the Governor clearly did not listen to his own panel of experts. Second that this would be presented as the work of a group that did not support the ideas, and finally that my time and out of pocket expense attending task force meetings was wasted. Unlike most on the task force I was not on someone else’s payroll every meeting took time away from my business and cash out of my pocket. Only to be ignored in the end.

I urge you to defeat an idea that is still wrong. It does not save any money in the short term and is in fact pretty expensive. The net effect of this proposal is only to further marginalize the Maine citizens most closely tied to our natural resources and lower the level of service that they receive from state government.