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State Budget Writers Reject Governor's Plan to Reorganize AG Department

AUGUSTA, Maine - A plan by Gov. Paul LePage to reorganize the recently-created Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry has run into bipartisan opposition among lawmakers. Members of the budget-writing Appropriations Committee unanimously rejected most of the proposal, including the most controversial part.

Hundreds of lines in the proposed two-year state budget are devoted to the reorganization proposal. But what drew the most concern by lawmakers was moving the Bureau of Public Lands under the umbrella of the Maine Forest Service.

Turner Republican Jeff Timberlake serves on Appropriations, but has previously served on the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee. "Public land was designed to be part of Parks, and is just what it says it is," Timberlake said. "Even though forest land is public land, public land tends to be where there are some hiking trails and such. So, I think cutting should be done in a much more finite manner."

Rep. John Martin, a Democrat from Eagle Lake, worked with Timberlake and members of the ACF committee on the proposal. He helped create the Bureau of Public Lands years ago in the aftermath of a landmark state Supreme Court decision on public land ownership.

"We won the ownership to 1/36th of every township in the unorganized territory and plantations," Martin says. "And so there has been a long history of what was intended at the time and what we intended for the future."

ACF Commissioner Walt Whitcomb is not surprised by the committee's action. He once served as the House Republican leader. But, he wishes lawmakers had spent more time considering the proposal. Whitcomb says the agency spent considerable time and effort on a plan to make the department more efficient.

"There were a lot of initiatives, and in one sense I don't think people spent a lot of time addressing that on the merits," Whitcomb says. "Some interest groups got very heavily involved, some folks that were very protectionist."

He says, as far as he knows, none of the language adopted by the committee will limit his administrative ability to streamline bureaus in the department. He was a bit surprised that lawmakers agreed to go along with a plan to arm rangers. Last year it was the subject of legislation and lengthy debate by lawmakers.

"If anybody that works with us is to have a weapon, that they be without question, fully trained," Whitcomb says. "And I think at least the Appropriations Committee is agreeing with us on that. "

Martin says the new language gives the commissioner the discretion to arm rangers, as well as how many rangers to arm. It also provides funding for weapons and bullet-proof vests for rangers.

Timberlake says the panel wants to make sure any ranger that does carry a firearm meets the basic qualifications required of all other law enforcement officers. "We want them on the same training level. And we know it is very important that they have the same psychiatric evaluation everything the same so that when they get to a scene."

While the vote of the Appropriations Committee was preliminary and could be reconsidered, Whitcomb says he believes it will stand, and he says he can live with it.
 

Journalist Mal Leary spearheads Maine Public's news coverage of politics and government and is based at the State House.