It is nice to see Sen. David Trahan hasn’t wasted any time jumping into the legislative fray that is Augusta politics.
The latest Trahan exploit involves LD 1399, An Act Concerning Water Quality in Watersheds. Among other points, the bill proposed the creation of a Clean Shores Fund that would direct state resources toward addressing pollution in shellfish areas.
Trahan drew fire from some quarters for backing off from his long-standing pledge to avoid any tax increase on Maine taxpayers, and we will get to that in a minute.
That said, we applaud Trahan for being brave enough to raise his hand arguing for a .17 cents per month fee increase on utility wastewater users to help fund LD 1399. Yes, it is a tax increase by another name, but it is also a pittance compared to saving a $60 million-a-year Maine industry and at the same time, protecting a vital natural resource.
Behind the scenes, Trahan and Rep. Dianne Tilton (R-Harrington) both submitted bills on the same subject. As the legislature often does, the bills were consolidated for consideration.
In a conversation with LCN May 12, Trahan said the fee increase was included in Tilton’s bill, not his own. However he initially supported the measure in the name of getting something done.
However, not done there, in response to citizen input, Trahan went back to beating the bushes. Ultimately he found another source of revenue and managed to dispatch the $2 annual fee from the proposed bill.
Ultimately, the bill was approved by the Appropriations Committee with bipartisan support, surviving two public hearings intact along the way. The bill was placed, with Trahan’s regulatory language included, into the budget, a parliamentary maneuver that will allow the bill to become effective immediately upon the budget’s passage, which is expected sometime next week.
We applaud Trahan and his fellow Republicans and Democrats for stepping up to the plate here and their willingness to compromise for the sake of the state. The shoe that was about to drop was the federal threat to prohibit the sale of Maine shellfish out of state, a decision that could have posed a disastrous financial and public relations problem for the state.
For all the kvetching we can do about the news from Augusta, and there’s plenty of reason for complaint, this time, our state legislators got something right. Good job.
