AUGUSTA – In response to widespread public concern, the Appropriations Committee corrected what members say was an oversight involving misuse of loon license plate funds.

Early Friday morning, the committee finalized its supplemental 2004-05 budget proposal, adding a provision that restores and protects loon plate conservation monies from being partially diverted to the General Fund.

“It was important that we correct this oversight from the previous budget,” said House Majority Leader Rep. John G. Richardson, D-Brunswick.

In an attempt to narrow budget shortfalls, the governor and Legislature agreed a year ago to divert a portion of the money from the sale of loon plates that was intended to benefit conservation.

People buying loon plates pay a $15 annual renewal fee, with $5.60 going to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, and $8.40 going to the Bureau of Parks and Lands.

Some of the money supports the Endangered and Non-Game Wildlife Fund.

In March 2003, state leaders decided to divert $61,072 of the department’s 2002 loon plate revenue of $446,342 to help cover a $1.2 billion shortfall in the 2004 and 2005 biennial budget.

House Democrats’ spokesman David Connerty-Marin said that as part of the biennial budget for fiscal 2004-05, the state was authorized to sweep roughly 2 percent of all dedicated revenue streams into the General Fund.
Unprotected funds
“While some funds like those for Baxter State Park and the submerged lands were protected from the sweep, the loon plate funds were not,” Richardson added.

Connerty-Marin said loon plate money was not taken from the Bureau of Parks and Lands’ 2002 conservation plate revenue of $649,412, because it had all been used for park improvements.

Of the $61,072 earmarked to be diverted from the department’s 2002 loon plate revenue, about $30,000 was dumped into the General Fund earlier this year.

“That $30,000 that was diverted represented only a small fraction of the loon-plate revenue, but many people felt that it was a deceptive use of the funds,” Richardson said.

A loophole that allowed the remaining $31,000 portion of the $61,072 to be diverted to the General Fund in July was closed Friday by the Appropriations Committee.

“Mainers bought the loon plates with the understanding that the money would go to conservation,” said Rep. Scott Cowger, D-Hallowell, a member of the Appropriations Committee.

“They have every right to insist the money be used as promised, and that is why I submitted language to amend the budget, and make sure that happens,” he added in a press release Wednesday.

Late Wednesday afternoon, the House was expected to vote to approve the supplemental budget. Then it would be sent to the Senate for approval.

If the budget isn’t approved or gets amended in the process, he said the loon plate fund restoration and protection provision should remain intact.

“I’d be surprised if anyone undid that part of it, because the feeling here is that we need to do this,” Connerty-Marin added.
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