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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 1
September 2005
Working waterfront tools make Maine ballot
AUGUSTA, ME - Two measures aimed at protecting the future of the commercial fishing industry in Maine have made it through the legislative process over the last session to win spots on the statewide election ballot in November.
The first is a proposed constitutional amendment to tax waterfront land reserved for commercial fishing purposes based on its current use rather than its “highest and best” use.
The second is a $2 million bond proposal to establish Maine’s Working Waterfront Access Pilot Program to provide “gap financing” to help fishermen, communities, and others purchase waterfront property in order to keep it accessible to commercial fishermen.
Both measures were strongly supported by the Working Waterfront Coalition (WWC), a network of fishing associations, local and state agencies, and nonprofit economic development groups concerned about the loss of working waterfront in Maine’s booming coastal real estate market.
One coalition member is the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA), which has made working waterfront preservation a priority.
“At our annual meeting two years ago, everyone raised this as a concern,” said Patrice McCarron, MLA executive director and member of the WWC executive committee. “Fishermen are consolidated to public wharves. It’s very crowded.”
According to a 2002 study, 84 percent of 25 coastal Maine communities surveyed indicated that the lack of shore access was already a problem or was expected to become one in the near future.
“Once waterfront is converted to something else, there is a slim to no chance of getting it back,” McCarron said.
The waterfront situation in Maine differs from many other states in that most access to the ocean is through private rather than public property.
As demand for water-view real estate has grown, so has the property tax bill for private owners of the piers, wharves, and beaches fishermen depend on. And the appeal of selling out for what now can amount to a small fortune has become harder for many folks to resist.
It has reached the point, McCarron said, “that you could imagine this generation selling everything off and the next generation wanting to fish but not being able to do it.”
Since its founding several years ago, the WWC has been focused on building what it calls a tool box of strategies for preserving working waterfronts.
Referring to the current-use taxation proposal and the working waterfront gap-funding bond issue, WWC executive committee member Hugh Cowperthwaite of Coastal Enterprise Inc. stressed, “They’re two different things and they’re both important tools to help people maintain access.”
Current-use taxation
The vote in November will be the second go-around for current-use taxation. A similar constitutional amendment proposal lost by just one percent of the vote in a 2000 referendum.
This time around, the proposal received overwhelming support in the Legislature, with unanimous votes in both the House and the Senate, according to Rob Snyder, Island Institute program director and a WWC executive committee member.
If approved by the voters, the proposal would give the Legislature the power to provide for the assessment of waterfront land “used for or that supports commercial fishing activities” based on its current use rather than on its value on the open real estate market.
This protection against tax inflation is already in effect for three other property categories: farms, agricultural lands, timberlands, and woodlands; open space lands used for recreation or the enjoyment of scenic natural beauty; and lands used for game management or wildlife sanctuaries.
Despite the full support of the Legislature, the referendum will likely face opposition from some town governments concerned that it could lead to revenue losses.
The WWC hopes to be able to ease those fears before the vote. In many cases, working waterfront is already located in areas zoned for commercial businesses and so is already being taxed at its highest and best use, Snyder explained.
And the WWC will remind municipalities that commercial fishing remains a vital part of the economy of many of Maine’s coastal towns.
Bond issue
With an ongoing budget crisis in Maine, the $2 million gap-funding bond issue had a much more difficult time making it through the Legislature.
Originally proposed as a new program in Gov. John Baldacci’s bond package, the proposal was dropped altogether earlier this summer, then reinstated in the final budget in the form of a compromise sponsored by Rep. Steve Bowen of Rockport.
Because of the state’s fiscal problems, there was a reluctance among lawmakers to support a new program. The compromise instead proposes the creation of the $2 million pilot program within the Land for Maine’s Future (LMF) program. Also bond-funded, LMF was founded in 1987 to purchase Maine land for conservation and public recreation purposes.
The Working Waterfront Access Pilot Program would be a real change for LMF in that, rather than buying land outright for public purposes, it would provide “gap-funding” to help fishermen, fishermen’s co-ops, towns, and/or investors make private property purchases.
LMF Director Tim Glidden explained that those who want to buy waterfront property to preserve it often can come up with much but not all of the money.
“The idea is that they’ll get private financing and then work with the state to get gap financing, which is an outright grant, not a loan,” he said. “The new owner of the property would guarantee that it would be held for commercial fishing use in perpetuity.”
David Etnier, a deputy commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR), worked closely with Glidden on the legislation.
“The department and the governor fully recognize there has been a loss of access to the industry from west to east (along the Maine coast). We feel it’s important that property continue to be accessible. Those who hold licenses need access to their boats and services,” Etnier said.
If the bond issue passes, DMR will organize a review panel to advise the DMR commissioner in the operation of the pilot program and will develop criteria for evaluating applications for investment in protected working waterfront properties.
Now the attention of the WWC and its 100-member organization and individuals will turn their attention to building support for both proposals and getting out the vote.
“This is sink or swim for us,” said the MLA’s Patrice McCarron. “If we don’t have a way to access the ocean, we don’t have a future.”
Lorelei Stevens
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