Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy. — Ernest Benn
Gov. Paul LePage’s goal to re-evaluate LURC seems reasonable and prudent on the surface. Government agencies benefit from independent reviews by qualified evaluators. He and Republican leaders in the Legislature selected a 13-member LURC Reform Panel to decide the future of LURC and oversight responsibilities of 10.4 million acres of forestland under its jurisdiction.
The governor, Senate President Kevin Raye, R-Perry, and Speaker of the House Robert Nutting, R-Oakland, repeatedly have stated that they and the panel are open-minded about changes to LURC. However, Republican leaders are disingenuous because their behavior runs contrary to their words.
How can LePage claim he’s open-minded one week and then state later at a town hall meeting in Presque Isle, “There’s a task force establishing how [LURC’s] going to work in the future, and I can tell you this: It will not be in the hands of the state. It’s going back — likely — to the counties”?
The disingenuousness doesn’t end with the governor. Raye and Nutting, while claiming to be open-minded, previously have stated their intent to abolish LURC, handing land use authority to county commissioners and local people in the Unorganized Territory.
Conservation Commissioner William Beardsley, whose department oversees LURC, advocated for the elimination of LURC while campaigning for governor last year. Beardsley is chairman of the LURC Reform Panel. Yet he, Raye, Nutting and LePage assure us with press releases that the LURC review process is above board.
The Republicans’ deceptive plan to “reform” LURC has other gaping holes. LePage, Raye and Nutting’s biased selection of a 13-member panel further erodes public trust. Seven panel members testified for the abolishment of LURC during the last legislative session. Several have an ax to grind with LURC for previous run-ins with the agency. Panel member Hank McPherson clashed with LURC over his Grace Pond development project in Upper Enchanted Township in the 1990s.
The Republicans have a credibility problem; they’ve stacked the panel with avowed LURC opponents. If the governor and Republican legislative leaders were seriously interested in reforming LURC, they would have constructed a panel of bipartisan qualified individuals. Appallingly absent from the panel are retired wood products industry foresters and retired state biologists — professionals who have worked most closely with LURC’s regulatory process and who could have added substantive reform recommendations.
Former LURC members would have added credibility to the panel. Steve Wright of Newry served as a highly respected LURC commissioner for 23 years. Wright volunteered to serve as a panel member, but his letter was not answered by the governor’s office.
Collectively, natural resource professionals and former LURC commissioners could have offered the governor invaluable feedback had that been the sincere goal of Republican leaders.
If someone has an ingrown fingernail, they’re not going to follow the medical advice of a doctor who recommends amputation as the only option. That LURC needs help is not in question, but removing it altogether from state government constitutes radical surgery of the most absurd sort.
It’s increasing apparent that the process is a charade — a poorly disguised plan to make the panel appear to be interested in improving LURC when clearly abolishing the agency is top priority. And the fact that little progress is being made by the panel underscores the administration’s plan to bait and deceive the public into thinking that it’s interested in reform when minds already are made up.
All the LURC reform hearings are being held in eastern and northern Maine where support for Republicans and opposition to LURC runs deepest. Clearly the governor is not interested in a balanced public opinion of LURC. By giving added weight to the voices of northern and eastern Maine, the Republicans also are guilty of fostering the divisive attitude that two Maines exist. Instead, as leader of the state, LePage should be diffusing the divide by building bridges between the two distinct regions. That’s accomplished by hearing opinions of residents statewide.
Unfortunately, the governor’s poorly veiled plan is part of a disturbing trend to eviscerate Maine’s environmental regulations to promote business growth. So far, he and the Republican Party have tried unsuccessfully to weaken state regulations protecting significant wildlife habitat, Maine’s site law and shoreland zoning. They’ve now stacked the deck against LURC.
Only if we speak up and make our voices heard, whether LePage wants to hear them or not, can we hope that he’s unsuccessful with this latest attack.
Ron Joseph of Camden recently retired after a 33-year career as a state and federal wildlife biologist in Maine.