BELFAST, Maine — City officials are scrambling to figure out the next steps for the long-planned-for $1.5 million Belfast Harbor Walk project after learning late last week that Gov. Paul LePage has frozen their part of a $25 million bond that was approved in 2010 by Maine voters.
“My hope is that the governor’s office is rethinking this,” City Manager Joe Slocum said Friday. “What’s unfortunate is that Belfast and other communities went ahead and planned like they had the money, because they were told that they did.”
Belfast officials had applied for and received a $400,000 Communities for Maine’s Future matching grant last year, the maximum amount available, and officials incorporated that sum as they budgeted for the waterfront walkway, which will go out to bid in August.
But as of now, the funds have been stalled for two years, which means that 11 communities around the state need to figure out how to approach their projects.
Last month, LePage wrote a letter to affected state agencies that explained why they shouldn’t budget for bond revenue without clear approval from him.
“It is our duty as public servants to ensure each taxpayer dollar is spent appropriately to earn the highest return at the lowest cost,” the letter reads. “That is especially true when we are spending borrowed money — money that has to be paid back by future taxpayers, with interest.”
The decision by the LePage administration affects a total of $40 million in bonds that voters have approved in recent years but that the state treasurer’s office has not yet sold at market, including $25 million for the 2010 bond initiative that includes the Communities for Maine’s Future grants.
The competitive grants were given to projects that would help revitalize downtowns. Altogether, the affected funds add up to $3.05 million, according to George Gervais, the commissioner of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development.
The municipalities that applied for and received the grants are Belfast, Skowhegan, Bath, Dover-Foxcroft, Eastport, Monmouth, Rockland, Unity, Winthrop, Norway and Livermore Falls.
“I think the governor’s message was clear,” the commissioner said Friday. “He really didn’t feel it was fiscally responsible for the state to take on more debt now. The soonest that will be is 2014. He has the best interest of the taxpayers in mind.”
Gervais said state officials have been working to find other solutions to the cash-flow conundrum.
“I lean on the side of optimism,” he said. “We’re exploring our options. Maybe by this time next week, we’ll be delivering some good news.”
That would be a happy solution for communities such as Skowhegan, where Town Manager John Doucette said Friday afternoon that his town’s $400,000 grant is to be used to renovate a downtown parking lot that is a key component of the town’s economic development plan. Skowhegan planners want to bring in more buses and create white-water rafting opportunities on the Kennebec River and the Commercial Street parking lot is crucial to those ideas.
“We understand where the governor is coming from,” he said. “But in 2014, the cost of this project is going to be a lot higher.”
Andrew Deci, Bath director of planning and development, said his city’s grant for $70,718 would be used for a window restoration project at the Customs House Building, which he described as an “exceptionally important building to the community.”
He said he did not know if the city now intends to delay the project.
Gervais said all of the projects are different and at different stages of development. Some towns, such as Belfast, don’t want to wait to complete their projects. Other towns say they will.
“What it boils down to is timing,” he said. “The question remains if they have to fill in a gap in time.”
According to Slocum, Belfast likely will make up for the $400,000 shortfall with a municipal bond.
“I’m not really sure how that makes it better for anybody,” he said. “It really becomes a shift in interest from the state taxpayer to the Belfast property taxpayer.”
Belfast City Planner Wayne Marshall said the Harbor Walk is the community’s No. 1 capital project priority for the year. So far, Belfast has spent about $220,000 on engineering and design for the Harbor Walk and officials still intend to go to bid for the construction phase on Aug. 3.
“We’ve committed a lot of energy, a lot of thought and a lot of taxpayer funds,” he said. “We’re anxious to have this project be able to go forward.”
Learning about the frozen funding was troubling, according to Marshall and Doucette.
“We’re concerned,” Marshall said. “This is the exact type of project that we hope would be supported because of the types of benefit it provides to the local, regional and state economies.”
Doucette said the news came as a big, unwelcome surprise to Skowhegan.
“We knew [the governor] was freezing bonds, but there was nothing saying he was going to freeze ones that had been approved a year ago,” he said. “I don’t think I’m against what he’s doing — but this has been approved. The money’s there. Let us do our projects.”
Spending borrowed money on a walkway when we can’t fix our roads and bridges is ridiculous. Priority? I don’t think so. I am with the gov on this one. Kind of a bridge to nowhere project. If the locals want to spend millions on a walkway let them pay for it out of their own pockets.
How about we start trying to figure out how to “revitalize” our poorest places in the state. There are many areas in Biddeford, Lewiston, and Bangor that should really be looked at because our poorest of poor live in parts of those areas and we just keep looking to make the tourists happy. We need to take care of our own people before we take care of the tourists from Canada and Massachusetts.
Biddeford, Lewiston, and Bangor citizens need to elect some forward-looking reps to plan these revitalizations. I agree, Bangor has lots of “potential,” esp. downtown, beyond just arenas and casinos…a bit of creative thinking is needed.
They can apply for the same funds the other towns have applied for, and won–Belfast, Skowhegan, Bath, Dover-Foxcroft, Eastport, Monmouth, Rockland, Unity, Winthrop, Norway and Livermore Falls.
Go get ’em….(assuming the gov will “release” them–sheesh!)
This is an investment with matching funds.. aka.. a good deal. The money spent by tourists and locals alike goes into state coffers, with much of it used to support roads and the poorest communities.
Unfortunately, conservatives only look at the very shortest of short-term outcomes.
Love the comment from Slocum: “It really becomes a shift in interest from the state taxpayer to the Belfast property taxpayer.”
Really. So, the people who will benefit most from this project are going to be required to fund it? That’s a crying shame. Apparently, it must be much fairer to require everyone else in the state to fund the project so that Belfast can prosper…
And more whining in Bath, where there will be no grant for a $70,718 window restoration project at the Customs House Building, which is supposedly an “exceptionally important building to the community.” Fantastic – let the community which values this “exceptionally important building” pay for it!
All I can say is, “Thank you, Governor LePage,” for bringing some common sense and leadership to this state!!!!
$220k spent on engineering. Holy that is a lot of money!
Good Lord , has anyone ever been to Belfast ?? Driven the streets away from the worshiped waterfront ??? 400 grand on a foot path for old hippies and moon bats from away to walk their mutts on and letting them crap everywhere??? They got a similar grant a few years back and blew it on fancy sidewalks with granite curbs and fancy street lights for the downtown near the waterfront…Liberalism is a mental disorder that sometimes can’t be cured…Only in Belfast…LOL…
You fail to point out that Belfast has prospered in this downed economy. Last year, 25 new businesses opened downtown and the streets are filled with people walking and spending money. While other downtowns are dying, Belfast has come together as a community and really shaped things up in the last 10 years. With the addition of AthenaHealth, Front Street Shipyard, the new Coastal Food Processing business (I forget the name), Belfast is doing things that other communities cannot seem to do, and that is attract business for every level of worker.
Haven’t been around ole downtown Belfast for too many decades,have ya?
Wha-a-a-a–aa! Wha-a-a-a-a! We can-t build our walkway! Now, listen closely— Wha-a-a,wha-a-a! We don’t have enough money to feed our kids, buy them clothes! Nice that Belfast can prioritize!
spending borrowed money on things that do not make a difference.
There’s $400,000 that won’t be paid to workers, who will thus have less money to spend in the community. Local merchants and those in neighboring communities will have $400,000 less income. Since the state’s terrible job situation is already reducing demand, some businesses may have to lay off workers. The Republican “austerity” death spiral continues.
What about obama’s job situation. Despite all the smoke and mirrors of the bean counters in DC, the unemployment rate is still higher nationally than here in Maine.
BTW…When they are figuring out those numbers, they stop counting the unemployed after so long. Also, adding federal jobs is a net loss for the taxpayers which this man is so fond of doing.
Trust me, the kind of workers who’d be doing those jobs wouldn’t be spending their pay in downtown Belfast. Hannaford,maybe, because we all have to eat.
It is that line of thinking that has led us to the financial ruin we now are experiencing as country. We must continue to print, borrow and spend tax dollars to save ourselves? Yikes.
400K on a walkway… this is similar to spending MILLIONS on the small bridge across the river because it was “unsafe” to walk across…. did anyone see all the heavy equipment (tens of thousands of lbs) that was ON the bridge to tear it down so it could be rebuilt?? Yet it was unsafe to walk across?? WASTED taxpayer money… same deal here…They should not be allowed to “shift” the burden to the Belfast taxpayers either…. especially for a ridiculous walkway…. fix a road or a school. Im glad Lepage has frozen this money… and I hope it stays that way.
I love the “Cold Turkey” approach the Governor is taking. The sooner these municipalities get off this crack called state funding (bonds) the sooner they will be stronger municipalities. Think of your own household budget. If you don’t have enough money for groceries, you sure as hell are not going to put in a new walkway in the back yard! This is why he was elected. LePage 2014!!!
Maybe Belfast needs to slow down like the Governor is doing. They should capitalize the estimated increase and wait the two years if that is what it will take. We have a 100 million dollar payment annually for our debt management as it is. Don’t people understand this?
Don’t have it don’t spend it!