AUGUSTA – Legislation that released $2.1 million in subsidies to Maine’s dairy farmers was signed into law by Gov. John Baldacci on Friday after it passed unanimously through the House a day earlier.

The package is intended to provide temporary relief to dairy farmers while agriculture leaders and legislators await word from Baldacci about long-term solutions. At the signing, Baldacci said he expects to present his legislation in about two weeks.

The money to fund the payments was left over from a similar bill enacted last May that, due to a small rebound in milk prices last fall, was not totally expended.

The subsidy will kick in only if the base price of milk falls below $16.94 per hundredweight between now and May 2004. Farmers will receive 40 percent of the difference.

“I think today will begin a period of renewed attention on dairy issues,” Rep. John Piotti, D-Unity, predicted following Thursday’s vote.

Piotti is a member of the Legislature’s Agriculture Committee, the Governor’s Dairy Task Force and sponsor of the original 2003 dairy subsidy legislation.

“When we passed this bill last May we thought that by now the Legislature would have enacted a long-term plan to support this industry,” Piotti said. “But that hasn’t happened. We are still awaiting a bill from the administration. And whatever may be developed and passed over the next six weeks will possibly not go into effect until this summer.

“In the meantime, dairy farms [are] still struggling,” said Piotti. He was critical of the perceived lack of commitment to Maine’s farmers. He said even calling the farm assistance a subsidy is misleading.

“When we help companies develop new products through the Maine Technology Institute, we don’t call it a subsidy,” he said. “When we provide low-interest loans through FAME, we don’t call it a subsidy. When we provide targeting job training services to Maine businesses, we don’t call it a subsidy.”

He said the dairy industry needs to be treated the same way. “These funds are an investment – an investment in a $100 million industry that is critical to Maine economically, environmentally and socially,” said Piotti. “The current problem in dairy is not that Maine farmers can’t compete, as many people think. Rather, the problem is a failed federal pricing system. That system will, at some point, be fixed. If Maine is smart with its public policies, we can emerge from the current [crisis] not only with a stable dairy industry, but with a thriving dairy industry.”