AUGUSTA – A committee that deals with fish and game laws sent mixed signals Thursday on how it stands on the Sunday-hunting proposal that was included in Gov. John Baldacci’s budget, which has raised protests from landowners who vow to post their properties if it becomes law.
Seven members of the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee of the 11 present voted to allow Sunday hunting of small game in the unorganized territories as a way to add revenues. Sunday hunting would continue to be banned during the firearms season for deer.
But the committee also sent two competing proposals to the Appropriations Committee, which will take up the issue when it considers the larger budget implications. The full Legislature will have the final word.
“That was basically no message to Appropriations. That was a wash,” Rep. David Trahan said after the vote. The Waldoboro Republican said the committee missed an opportunity to take a strong stand on the merits of Sunday hunting, adding, “The prestige of the committee was damaged today.”
The vote followed statements that reflected some members’ frustration with the way the proposal appeared – as a line in the budget, rather than as a freestanding bill.
“Today, because of politics … we are having a discussion on an issue that is in this budget that doesn’t belong there,” said Sen. Chandler Woodcock, R-Farmington. He asked fellow members to forget their political ties on the Sunday hunting issue, saying, “This is a landmark vote for this committee.”
The co-chairman of the committee, Democratic Sen. Bruce Bryant of Dixfield, said the majority of the committee members indicated support for Sunday hunting, but whether the Appropriations Committee gets a clear message on the matter “will be up to them.”
Bryant said people should not lose sight of the larger issue: how to adequately fund the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, which is plagued by cycles of budget problems.
Bryant said he sought to give committee members broad latitude to include their own views on fees and other funding issues affecting the department. Trahan is backing a version that calls for no Sunday hunting, no fee increases and a study of long-term funding for the department.
The Sunday hunting plan in the proposed budget seeks to make permanent a temporary $3 charge that was added to the cost of hunting licenses and was due to expire this year.
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