Maine’s national monument will have an operating budget of about $400,000 — its highest yet — if Congress gives approval, officials said Thursday.
The Department of the Interior’s proposed budget for Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument would be a $200,000 increase over the $180,000 given the year before, according to U.S. Sen. Angus King’s office.
The increased allocation is a milestone of sorts for the 87,564-acre site east of Baxter State Park. The once intense opposition to the monument has gradually abated since then-President Barack Obama designated it with an executive order in August 2016. The monument was once opposed by the Legislature, among others, and Gov. Paul LePage went so far as to deny it road signs on Interstate 95, though he later relented.
[Trump’s interior secretary recommends against changes at Maine monument]
King mentioned the possible increase to a Katahdin region audience during a visit to the area about two weeks ago. The proposal is for the federal 2019 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1.
To read the rest of “Maine’s national monument was once heavily opposed. Now its federal budget is slowly growing.,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Nick Sambides Jr., please follow this link to the BDN online.
