Gift From a Neighbor

Stories of neighbors who each holiday season pass an aging fruitcake, uneaten and unwanted, among themselves are probably apocryphal. But Maine receives just such a fruitcake regularly from its neighbor on its western border in the form of a declaration that the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is not in Maine, but within the boundaries of New Hampshire.

It’s fruitcake time again. According to news stories, this week the New Hampshire Boundary Commission, a legislative panel formed in the spring of 2003 to study the issue, released its report and found “that New Hampshire has historically owned the Piscataqua River and inland harbor.”

There are those who spend their lives fretting over the minutia of questions such as what defines the middle of a river, as is the point of contention here. We won’t argue with them, but would point out that after a series of complaints, previous studies, boards and commissions, lower-court rulings and general cross-border unhappiness, the U.S. Supreme Court has examined this issue twice, in the 1970s and three years ago, and both times failed to move the shipyard to New Hampshire.

The court was unequivocal in 2001. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the court, observed that, “None of the historical evidence cited by New Hampshire remotely suggested that the Piscataqua River boundary runs along the Maine shore.” And, “New Hampshire’s claim that the Piscataqua River boundary runs along the Maine shore is clearly inconsistent with its interpretation of the words ‘Middle of the River’ during the 1970s litigation.”

The recurrence of this question is based on money – New Hampshire residents who work in Maine are required to pay Maine income taxes, which, understandably, offends their sense of living free. It is a natural issue for any political candidate: Every politician in New Hampshire acts as if their state has been wronged; every one of them in Maine is certain the decision as stands is correct.

If this were just a political exercise, it would be considerably less harmful than the unwanted fruitcake, but it is more than that. Each time New Hampshire brings suit, Maine must spend an enormous amount of time and money preparing for and countering the latest accusations. This continuing nuisance may now grow worse if anyone listens to the commission’s plan to implore Congress to move the border.

This is unlikely to happen, but the expense Maine would go through to make certain it remains unlikely is one more financial burden for a state that is trying to be more like its neighbor by lowering its taxes. The gift of a fruitcake would be easier to stomach.