The LePage administration is proposing a bill that it says is aimed at bringing greater accountability to the state’s Tree Growth protection law.
The law currently provides tax breaks for landowners harvest timber on parcels of 10 acres or more. The LePage plan would eliminate those breaks for properties of less than 25 acres, or for those located within 10 miles of the ocean.
Maine’s Tree Growth protection program offers significant municipal tax breaks on properties of 10 acres or more that are regulated by an approved forest management plan. But some critics of the program say those exemptions have been abused in the past, and at the expense of other local taxpayers.
“The governor is supportive of the Tree Growth program, but he believes that improvements to the law should be made,” says Lance Libby, a senior policy advisor to the LePage administration.
In presenting the governor’s bill to the Legislature’s Taxation Committee, Libby cited a provision that authorizes the Maine Forest Service to audit parcels of land within the program to ensure that the plans are being followed.
And Libby says the governor’s proposal would remove current protections for many small landowners, by upping the eligibility threshold from 10 acres up to 25 acres, while grandfathering smaller lots that are already enrolled.
“The bill also prohibits land within 10 miles of the Atlantic Ocean from remaining in the program,” Libby says. “Parcels that would be affected by this provision would have the option to transfer the land to open space or pay the penalty.”
Those changes present a problem for some lawmakers on the panel, including Rep. Bruce Bickford, an Auburn Republican, who questioned Libby on why landowners within 10 miles of the ocean who want to continue in the tree growth program should be made to either designate their property as an open space — which requires that the land be preserved to provide a public benefit — or pay a penalty equal to five years in back taxes.
“If they choose not to, they would have to pay a penalty, correct?” Libby says.
“We’re going to make them pay a penalty for following the law — I don’t understand that,” Bickford says.
Other lawmakers on the panel, such as Rep. Diane Russell of Portland, questioned why the governor’s bill was introduced so late in the legislative session, with the scheduled adjournment date less than two weeks away.
“With such a short amount of time, I’m having a hard time understanding why we would make such broad-brush changes to the tax code as it relates to the Tree Growth tax credit on such short notice,” Russell says.
Eleven of the committee members present voted unanimously against the bill.