Boat Boondoggle

The departments of Marine Resources and Inland Fisheries and Wildlife deserve credit for ingenuity in the face of a tight state budget for finding creative ways to get the federal government to buy them new boats. Such ingenuity comes with a price – albeit delayed – to the state and efforts to use homeland security money for purchases the state can’t afford should be abandoned.

It is tempting to see the $22 million that the Department of Homeland Defense has allocated to Maine as a well-deserved pot of money that should quickly be put to use. This is partially true. If there are projects that will honestly enhance the state’s and country’s efforts to keep terrorists out, the money should be spent for such purposes. It is hard to see how a new IF&W boat to patrol Sebago Lake and DMR boats to patrol the coast meet these criteria.

Sebago Lake is the source of Portland’s drinking water. But it is entirely confined within the United States’ and Maine’s borders and can’t be very high on any terrorist’s list of potential targets. Adding a second boat to protect the lake, the state’s second largest, may be a good investment. An additional boat, in addition to patrolling for terrorists keen on sabotaging the drinking water intake pipes at its south end, would help the department monitor fish habitat, perform rescue operations and enforce boating laws, according to one of the wardens who works there. If another boat is needed to do this work, the state should pay for it.

Another problem with using the homeland security funds is that they cover only part of the cost. Once the boat is bought, who will operate it? Presumably another warden would either have to be hired or moved from another location. The result is likely to be additional personnel, which means additional ongoing expense to the state long after the homeland money is spent.

The same is true of buying boats for DMR. Is that department committed to paying for additional personnel to run the crafts? What about the Coast Guard? Isn’t it their responsibility to guard the coast? Would the new DMR boats be used less to hunt for terrorists seeking to come ashore or blow up a boat and more to capture lobster scofflaws?

The International Boundary Commission, the group that is responsible for maintaining the U.S.-Canada border, wants more money to clear brush and replace deteriorating markers along the 5,525 boundary and is also seeking anti-terrorism funds. Keeping the 20-foot-wide boundary marked clear of brush is worthwhile work, but there is no evidence that lack of maintenance on deserted portions of the border is encouraging terrorists to enter the United States from Canada or vice versa.

In all these cases, homeland defense funds may look like easy money. Spending it quickly will be easy, but sustaining the increased manpower that results will not be.