In the past 18 months, 22 percent of all the land in Maine (five million acres) has been sold. Most of the land transactions were forestlands that have been sold by large, multi-national corporations through Limited Liability Corporations (LLCs) owned by the corporations themselves. The point of transferring ownership through LLCs is to avoid the payment of a transfer tax.

In last year’s legislative session, Sen. Michael Michaud of East Millinocket submitted a bill aimed at the collection of land transfer taxes by LLCs. The complexity of the legislation and the lack of time to deal with it caused the bill to die in committee with a unanimous ought not to pass vote. The result of failing to pass this legislation has now created a shortfall in the General Fund in excess of $5 million.

Although this practice of selling land through LLCs is currently legal, there has been no outcry from the executive or legislative branches. The state now faces a total shortfall of $250 million and yet the practice continues with, it seems, executive and legislative knowledge.

It seems to us that both bodies have a fiduciary responsibility to the citizens of the state of Maine. As it now stands, it is only the small landowner who bears the burden of land transfer taxes, while corporate landowners sell land through LLCs with impunity.

Meanwhile, the Department of Conservation is actively engaged in negotiations with several large corporate landowners to purchase easements on lands that would halt development in the so-called West Branch Project. At last count, the state was offering the landowners one-third the fair market value of these lands. Once again, the bureaucrats in Augusta have duped the general public. In our view, the state already has in place within this department, a commission that monitors and reviews all the development in the unorganized territories.

Anyone who owns or leases land in the unorganized territories knows full well the power of the Land Use Regulatory Commission. So what are the citizens of this state buying? It appears that while the state is facing a shortfall of $250 million, the bureaucrats are spending our tax dollars (both state and federal), to buy something that we already control. LURC does not allow development in the unorganized territories on any large scale, period. The question still begs, just what is the citizenry buying?

Further, these West Branch lands that will be impacted by the easement(s) are currently in litigation. Allegedly, the lands being negotiated have a legal encumbrance that provides for 30 years free day use by all citizens of Maine. Should the plaintiffs prevail in the lawsuit, the value of the land will be markedly reduced. However, when approached by the lawyers for the plaintiff, the lawyers for the Forest Society of Maine and the governor’s office, refused to acknowledge the suit, and “preferred to do their own negotiations.”

One of the negotiators in past easement purchases is Allen Hutchinson of the Forest Society of Maine. At a hearing conducted by the Public Access Committee at Pittston Farm last May, he stated that McDonald Investments and others had approached him about brokering an easement with the state in November or December of 1998. This is well before Bowater announced the sale of this portion of their land in 1999. When Hutchinson was asked if the governor knew, he replied that he must, as the Commissioner of Conservation, Ron Lovaglio, was fully involved.

The most egregious part of this whole questionable deal is that the current landowners, McDonald Investment and Wagner Forest Management, Ltd., avoided paying approximately $700,000 to the state in land transfer taxes. Their representative, Tom Colgan, who refused to tell the legislature last winter who owned the land, is now in secret negotiations with the Conservation Department.

All of this is being done without legislative oversight. If the deal goes through, the landowners could receive up to $50 million, and the Maine citizens will apparently receive nothing in return, not even free public access. This is truly the fleecing of Maine.

Ray A. Campbell is the executive director of The Fin and Feather Club Inc. in Millinocket.