Warning to Legislature: Back Off or Face A People’s Veto

The voters spoke clearly in the last two referenda. Enough is enough. What are they trying to pull? Do they think that little of Maine people that they can slide this deal in through another back door while the people are back home trying to make a living? What kind of self-importance does Augusta breed?

The committee is so confused that they are about to grab hold of a branch to create the illusion that they have done something… well, that branch is a snake and they ought to be beating it with a shovel instead of embracing it.

The Forest Sustainability Council, the blank check to the “Tree Czar” to make more rules, setting pre-audit “benchmarks”, items they are putting in their new bill, is just the twice-defeated Compact. That same old undershirt the voters threw away is being repackaged to be sold as new by this committee (Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry) in Rep. Dexter’s bill, LD 289. To add insult to injury, there will be no public hearing on the newly reconstituted bill.

People should also know that Rep. Shiah’s proposal, LD 1766 is still alive and that’s the Compact word for word! That should have been the first thing killed when the session started and it’s still alive!!

As we come into mud season, the little guys who earn their living from the woods can’t be here to see what the committee is doing. They can’t be here to tell you “Enough is enough. Don’t go any further.”

The Committee should stick with the full funding of the Forest Practices Act and the provision for better data collection on the 17 million acres of Maine woods. When they go beyond those two things they are arrogantly disregarding the will of the people and I will make it my personal crusade to expose every single legislator, regardless of party, who takes part in this sneak attack on the little people of this state. I will also launch a Peoples Veto to remove any additional mischief the Legislature does to it’s forest industry in this session.

Mark my words, this is not about forestry now and it won’t be about forestry in November. It’s about big government making itself even bigger. They are regulating us to death and I won’t stand for it.