Attorney General Mills questions LePage plan to divert timber revenues

Source: Portland Press Herald

AUGUSTA –– Attorney General Janet Mills said a LePage administration proposal to divert timber harvesting revenue to a heating assistance program “would likely meet great skepticism” from the courts.

Writing to a task force reviewing the management of Maine’s state-owned lands, Mills said it was impossible to reach “firm conclusions” about the constitutionality of Gov. Paul LePage’s plan and other proposals to siphon off timber revenues for other purposes.

But Mills said past opinions from the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and one of her predecessors make clear that there are limitations to use of Maine’s public reserved lands, which are held “in trust” by the Legislature for residents.

“While the purchase of heating equipment for low-income rural families is a laudable goal, as is public assistance for food, shelter and health care, it is not easy to draw a connection between these types of uses and the preservation of the Public Reserved Lands,” Mills wrote to members of the Commission to Study the Public Reserved Lands Management Fund. “Under the very limited language of the Opinion of the Justices, this proposed use would likely meet great skepticism from the Court.”

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Read more: http://www.pressherald.com/2015/10/27/attorney-general-mills-questions-lepage-plan-to-divert-timber-revenues/