Legislative committee votes against LePage’s anti-national monument bill

Source: Bangor Daily News

AUGUSTA, Maine — The first legislative review of Gov. Paul LePage’s attempt to prevent the creation of a national monument within Maine began badly for him when one of the state’s top environmental attorneys advised that no state law could accomplish the governor’s goal.

The Joint Standing Committee on State and Local Government recommended against passage of a governor’s bill, LD 1600, in a 7-6 vote, officials said Thursday. The vote split along party lines on Wednesday.

Jerry Reid, chief of the Natural Resources Division of the Maine Attorney General’s Office, stopped short of calling LD 1600 unconstitutional. He said that most civil courts would likely question its attempt to limit to whom landowners can convey their land or anything that “could be viewed as restraining the conveyance of property.”

“The important takeaway message is that the state cannot prevent the takeover of the land and cannot do anything to frustrate what the federal government is going to do there,” Reid said during a work session on the bill on Wednesday.

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Read more: https://bangordailynews.com/2016/03/10/politics/legislative-committee-votes-against-lepages-anti-national-monument-bill/