EAST MILLINOCKET, Maine — The town received a first payment Tuesday of state Sudden and Severe Impact funding that is part of a dispute between Gov. Paul LePage and Millinocket town leaders, school Superintendent Quenten Clark said.
The $336,149 payment covers about nine months of this fiscal year. The next payments will be folded into the regular state education subsidy and total about $99,426 a month for the next three months, about $42,000 more than the town typically gets in state education funds, Clark said.
The School Department’s solvency never was threatened by the delay of payments, Clark said, but it could have been, and the uncertainty about whether East Millinocket would get the money wasn’t easy to live with.
“I’m just relieved that it is all over,” Clark said Tuesday. “For us it is a huge amount of money.”
The funding’s apparently late release — Clark believed it would arrive about six weeks ago — and the LePage-Millinocket dispute were among the reasons East Millinocket leaders were reticent about discussing their dealings with the LePage administration and Millinocket’s feud with the governor.
Unlike the single $504,000 payment Millinocket received in early March, East Millinocket’s money came through regular channels in the typical manner, Clark said.
For his part, Clark thinks the feud is largely a case of misunderstanding that arose from the informal negotiations between the towns and the LePage administration.
“I don’t think there are any bad people here. This is just the way business happens in Augusta,” Clark said. “When you think about the 1,800 bills in the Legislature and you constantly have people advocating for and against them, written contracts are pretty much impossible.”
“They don’t do contractual stuff. That is how government functions there,” Clark added. “I expect in Washington it is the same.”
Sudden and Severe Impact funds are state money given to municipalities that suffer severe tax valuation losses, such as those caused by the devaluation a year ago of the two towns’ paper mills.
On March 7, the LePage administration announced that East Millinocket and Millinocket each would receive about $504,000 in Sudden and Severe Impact funds. Millinocket would have received $216,000 more, but LePage claimed that Millinocket officials broke their pledge to pay $50,000 annually toward the operation of the East Millinocket-based Dolby landfill.
LePage also believed that for many years the Millinocket mill was overtaxed.
Millinocket leaders said LePage had lied and they had agreed only to a one-time contribution to Dolby operations. State officials had proposed to allocate $150,000 annually to landfill operations, with East Millinocket and Millinocket contributing $50,000 each in cash or in-kind services annually.
Board of Selectmen Chairman Clint Linscott said that he had been confident that the state funds eventually would arrive.
Former board Chairman Mark Scally and Linscott, who succeeded Scally in November, have said that they did have an agreement to offer $50,000 of in-kind services to the landfill and were committed to doing whatever they could to safeguard the future of the paper mills and landfill, but that their $50,000 arrangement never extended past July 1.
State officials “held up their part of the bargain,” Linscott said Tuesday. “Now we have to move into the future.”
“My concerns still are about protecting these towns and these mills,” he added.
East Millinocket residents will have to approve the in-kind allocation at a town meeting later this year, Linscott said.
In Millinocket, meanwhile, school Superintendent Kenneth Smith said his department still can pay the bills but that things might get tight later in the year if the LePage-Millinocket battle isn’t resolved.
Millinocket has held onto the $504,000 check because state officials have said that cashing it would mean accepting the $216,000 loss. All of that money is due to go to the schools, Smith said, although town officials have maintained that $158,000 of it belongs in town coffers.
“We need the money. It is still pinned to our budget as a revenue and you just don’t throw away $720,000,” Smith said.
Clark said he never suspected from the meetings he attended that controversy would erupt. Clark and Scally said that LePage was cordial, businesslike, even jovial as town and state leaders gathered in the most recent meeting Clark attended in Augusta six weeks ago.
“His secretary wanted the governor to leave [to keep other appointments] and he kept talking to us. He was just chatting after a while,” Clark said. “I have seen him when he was in rare form, and he wasn’t. He was businesslike. It was a relatively relaxed meeting, I thought.”
LePage wanted a partnership and all sides seemed to agree on that point. He originally wanted the state and towns to share equally in Dolby costs but agreed to the towns each contributing a quarter of the expenses, Clark said.
“I went to my car, I called [the School Department’s] business manager and I said, ‘They cut a deal. We are going to get the money,’” Clark said. “The next thing I knew, they didn’t have a deal.”
Lepage IS a Sudden And Severe Impact!
Seriously not intending on being cynical or biased…Why is
the state providing welfare to local governments when we are in such poor
economic times?
Who said we are in poor economic times? LePage after giving millions back to the rich in this State! If you Repubs think he is going to share with you, you are in for disappointment. Why do you nthink he set up his site for campaign contributions so early? Answer is simple. If you give now, you get special consideration. Even a monkey could figure that one out1
Then you should push to have the law changed. This has to do with State Law, and it would happen to any city or town in the state if the circumstances were the same.
$42k that Millinocket needed…maybe!!!
Withhold 216k from East Millinocket and they would be complaining just like Millinocket. Only reason they aren’t is because they got ALL that they were entitled to.
Because we didn’t use an evaluation that still contained equipment, machines, and buildings that don’t exist anymore, to figure out our mill’s tax value. Millinocket cheated and got caught plain and simple. And even IF they got their whole check it wouldn’t solve the problem because their school board already spent it, their town already spent it. In fact their school board spent it 2x.
You are not a credible person period. You have no facts to back up anything you have said. The only person claiming that Millinocket over valued the mill is you and LePage. The amount has been agreed upon by more parties than just Millinocket. You have no facts on the schools budget, the amount spent or how much the town has so called already spent.
Maple syrup wouldn’t melt in Quenten’s mouth. I guess he knows what to kiss to keep his precious money flowing!
It’s a huge amount of money for us too – the one’s who gave it to you. Here’s to hoping that with the charcoal factory open, the toxic dump running and the check clearing, Millinocket will finally become self-sufficient again.
As usual, that was East Millinocket. Look at a map lol
And again, I feel compelled to remind you that 99.8% of Mainers do not distinguish between North, South, East or West Millinocket. They’re all the same town and they are all benefiting from the handouts that the taxpayers continue to provide them.
Maybe that percentage of liberals in Southern Maine. North of Bangor for the most part we know our geography. That is like sayin Rumford & Mexico, Watervill, Winslow, Portland, South Portland, Bangor and Brewer are the same towns. Yea, and I am sure Bangor does not get any handouts either. They sure do get plenty for schools and other projects.
As a point of clarity.. it is quite difficult to find the border between Rumford and Mexico as there are literally no signs saying you left and you arrived.
Clearification, I know when I go from Mexico to Rumford.
I am sure you did a scientific survey to find that 99.8% number. It seems to me that 99.8% of the people south of Augusta don’t have a clue about the geography of northern Maine anyway. What they think really doesn’t matter to us anyway. The total amount of sudden impact funding works out to around 92 cents per Maine resident. If you would just tell me where to send the money, I will write you a check for your share and your immediate family members if it would shut you up.
The more you open your mouth, the more we can see you really don’t know anything.
No one up here seperates Bangor from Brewer either!
Maybe we aught to call it Brewgor
Speak for yourself
Clarke says it was never threatened? The says it is a huge amount of money. Wonder if they had not received the check what he would said in a few months.
Hmmm… They can sue me….
“Millinocket has held onto the $504,000 check because state officials have said that cashing it would mean accepting the $216,000 loss. ” You’ve got to be kidding me! Millinocket hasn’t cashed that check and put it in escrow? Don’t they know who they’re dealing with? LePage isn’t above ordering a stop payment on that check. I would expect nothing less. Yanking away every red cent would certainly make a great next chapter in this saga. C’mon Paul, we know you have it in you. Let’s not disappoint.
I take exception with Mr. Clark’s comment that with legislative action contracts are pretty much impossible. It is important to note that legislation is written in a very precise manner. If it is not in the legislation than it is not part of the agreement, period. There should never be hand shake agreements when it comes to legislation or state contracts. It is extremely important to have everything clearly laid out.