FREEPORT

Gov. Paul LePage won’t be signing off on voter-approved bonds totaling $11.35 million for the Land For Maine’s Future program, and that may stymy conservation efforts in the Mid-coast and throughout Maine.

LMF’s board met Tuesday where, to the ire of many conservation groups, it was announced that bond authorization, approved by voters as far back as 2010, is contingent on whether the Legislature allows timber harvesting on state-owned lands.

Freeport Conservation Trust had been hoping to get $105,000 of LMF funding in order to preserve 38 acres of Winterwood Farm, a roughly 45-acre horse farm owned by Robert and Simone Rodgers.

LMF funding for an easement at Winterwood and about 30 other projects were announced last year, but it’s now unknown when that money will become available.

“It is politics that’s holding up the funding,” said Katrina Van Dusen, executive director of the Freeport trust.

LMF isn’t the only funding source for the Winterwood project, but it’s a significant piece of the estimated $265,000 project.

LMF has $2.2 million cash on hand, which would only cover the cost of a small number of 36 active projects, totaling $11.35 million.

The $2.2 million in LMF’s coffers includes a limited amount dedicated to farmland conservation.

“It would be impossible to fund our project,” Van Dusen said.

Also affected by the governor’s decision is the Brunswick Topsham Land Trust. BTLT, working in collaboration with Maine Coast Heritage Trust, is trying to purchase 20 acres off Gurnett Road in Brunswick used by shellfish and bloodworm harvesters to access the mudflats at Woodward Cove.

The Woodward Cove project was recently awarded $68,000 in federal funds, and BTLT’s $65,000 application for Land for Maine’s Future funding is considered a finalist in the competitive grant process.

“I remain hopeful that, yes, Land for Maine’s Future funds will be available,” said BTLT Director Angela Twitchell.

Maine Coast Heritage Trust had been promised $262,500 to help defray the cost of purchasing the Goslings Islands in Harpswell. Having already agreed to purchase the Goslings, the trust will now have to use reserve funds, of which there may now be a shortfall.

The Gardiner Pond project in Wiscasset and Dresden may also be impacted.

The LMF funding process “has always been non-political,” said Van Dusen, though that appears to have changed in recent years.

“A couple of years ago, the governor already played politics with this program,” said Van Dusen.

In 2013, LePage held up bond funding, including LMF money, until the Legislature agreed to repay the state’s hospital debt.

After the Legislature acquiesced, LePage announced he would direct the state treasurer to prepare the bonds for his signature, noted Richard Knox of Maine Coast Heritage Trust.

However, LePage may have been emboldened by that legislative victory and is using similar tactics to push through his timber harvesting plans.

“It feels like double jeopardy,” said Van Dusen.

The administration is making a push to “help Mainers upgrade their heating systems, by using money from timber harvesting,” said LePage press secretary Adrienne Bennett.

“LMF folks have not been supportive” of that plan in the past, Bennett said. At the same time, Bennett dismissed the notion of a quid pro quo.

“It’s not one thing for another, but part of the overall picture,” Bennett said. “You have got to look at the big picture. You’ve got to lower energy costs.”

The governor has not given any indication if or when he would authorize the bonds.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say they’re being held up,” said Bennett. “The governor has five years to issues these. Some are not required until next year or 2017.

“He’s (LePage) not interested in purchasing more public land,” said Bennett. “In the immediate future, the focus is on ways to lower energy costs, and he’s looking for support from LMF folks.”

Bennett added that “Maine owns 800,000 acres of public land now that is not taxable.”

“It’s the wrong statistic to be quoting,” said Knox. “A lot of land is conserved, but still used in production for timber harvesting.”

LMF does serve stateowned land, said Knox, but added that most projects in line for LMF funds involve private landholders wanting to sell or grant easements to trusts, not to the state.

Additionally, many land trusts in line for LMF funding cannot wait until 2016 or 2017, because they need to close on deals this year, said Knox.

The Woodward Cove project is on such a deadline. A purchase and sale agreement to acquire the land from the Universalist Unitarian Church of Brunswick expires Dec. 31, though there is an option to extend that agreement, said Twitchell.

Knox said LePage’s tactics amount to “horse-trading” with the Legislature while drawing the LMF and conservationists into a fight they shouldn’t be a part of.

“Basically, it’s politicizing a well-loved, extremely successful program that reinforces the things that makes Maine strong,” said Knox. “I think there is a real stretch here to connect this particular agenda … with Land for Maine’s Future. There’s no real connection to these two things, just like there was no real connection to paying back the hospital debt.”

However, conservationists such as Knox note that it is the taxpayers who authorized the bonds in the first place.

Twitchell noted that land trusts and conservationists have depended on the LMF program to work smoothly for years. “We really need to count on the program functioning as it has in a predictable way that was not politicized,” she said.

Bennett noted that the referendums authorize the governor to issue bonds of a certain amount.

“The term is authorize,” Bennett stressed, adding that the governor would sign off on the bonds after examining the fiscal impacts on the treasury, and on the taxpayers who ultimately foot the bill.

“Right now might not be the most fiscally responsible time to sell a bond,” said Bennett. “He’s looking to get the best rate for the taxpayers.”

Those taxpayers are ultimately responsible for paying for the bond, said Bennett.

Meanwhile, many land trusts are frustrated.

“They feel powerless,” said Knox. “They feel they were promised something. When a land trust wins a competitive bid, they’re counting on that money, and they feel like the state is behind them. That’s being pulled from them.”

jswinconeck@timesrecord.com

LePage response

THE ADMINISTRATION is making a push to “help Mainers upgrade their heating systems, by using money from timber harvesting,” said LePage press secretary Adrienne Bennett.

“LMF folks have not been supportive” of that plan in the past, Bennett said. At the same time, Bennett dismissed the notion of a quid-pro-quo.

“It’s not one thing for another, but part of the overall picture,” Bennett said. “You have got to look at the big picture. You’ve got to lower energy costs.”