County’s hard-working snowmobile clubs getting short-changed

To the editor:
    I feel very strongly that the following information should be made public, so that the Governor and legislators that are representing us in Augusta and the voters and taxpayers responsible for creating the $350,000,000  Maine snowmobile industry will know what is going on.     After being a member of snowmobile clubs for 40 years and Maine Snowmobile Association for nearly as long, the following is my opinion of what is happening between Aroostook County, the state of Maine and Maine Snowmobile Association. Because we have a lower temperature and more snow than other counties in Maine, Aroostook County has been called number one in the state of Maine for snowmobiling. Because of that fact, Aroostook County is also number one in creating a $350,000,000 annual Maine snowmobile industry.
    All club members and non-club members are part of the Maine snowmobile industry. Even many senior citizens play a key role in trail grooming and raising and donating money to the industry.
    The longer snowmobile season this year has resulted in much more income for the state. It also has created a serious problem for Aroostook County clubs. Aroostook County clubs have been spending their own money trying to keep the Maine snowmobile industry alive. This made it possible for non-residents from many other states and many friends and relatives from the rest of Maine to continue to enjoy snowmobiling in the number one county for snowmobiling in Maine. It also added much more to the income the state received from the Maine snowmobile industry. Without the income the state of Maine receives from the snowmobile industry the present hole in Maine budget would be much larger.
    If the Governor and Maine Legislature is near-sighted enough not to realize that much more of the financial burden for grooming trails must be taken off the backs of Aroostook County snowmobile clubs, that big hole in the budget will be much harder to fill.
    Many times I have asked snowmobile club members in Aroostook County what the Maine Snowmobile Association had done for them. After a minute or two of thought, the only thing they can think of to say is that MSA lobbied for snowmobile clubs. MSA officials were responsible for introducing and lobbying two bills that went to the 2007, 123rd legislature. LD633 went to the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee in February, 2007. During 2007 the committee held a public hearing and two work sessions on the bill and it was finally voted to carry LD633 over to the 2008 session.
    What MSA officials did while lobbying LD633 was make a couple mistakes that backfired. They convinced snowmobile clubs in Aroostook County that if the bill passed the clubs would get much more money for grooming trails. The clubs assumed the money would be available when the bill passed. After much difficulty, I finally obtained a copy of the bill, which shows the earliest date the act would take effect is July 1, 2009. Any money the clubs would get for grooming trails wouldn’t be until the spring of 2010. This would be three and one half years after the MSA officials introduced LD633 in 2007. Without any help from MSA, a bill was introduced and passed that repealed the sales tax on trail groomers.
    The second bill that MSA introduced and lobbied for went to the Taxation Committee and passed. The bill required that the sales tax, that was meant to go to the clubs to reduce the cost of grooming trails, be taken from the trail-grooming fund to pay back the state for what the state lost when the sales tax was repealed.
    It appears to me that MSA officials are confused and lobbying for the State of Maine rather the snowmobile clubs they represent. If the State of Maine snowmobile clubs kept the $12 from each membership that they send to MSA it would amount to $159,900 each year. That would be worth much more than what we are getting from the lobbying done by MSA officials.
    When MSA was organized in 1968, the headquarters were in Bangor. Without any consideration for northern Maine, MSA headquarters were moved to Augusta. Since it has been in Augusta and the meeting held on Tuesday nights, it has been impossible to average one or two club directors from Aroostook County to MSA meetings. I am asking Aroostook County Snowmobile Clubs to hold one meeting in central Aroostook in the near future to discuss these issues.
James McBreairty
Washburn