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GEORGE SMITH: Path of saltwater license bill ran through complex, tortuous maze

Sitting in a seminar at DeLorme’s amazing headquarters in Yarmouth, learning how to use my new GPS PN-40, I wondered if they could create an application that helped chart the trail of legislative bills.

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The trail would be long, with double-backs, circles and a lot of meandering in the corridors of the State House. For sure, the brochure that describes “How a Bill Becomes a Law” can’t begin to explain the tortuous process.

Alas, DeLorme’s PN-40 is designed for outdoor use and can’t help me at the Legislature. The recently enacted saltwater fishing registry would be a great example of the complexities and pressures of legislating.

Thanks to an intensive three-monthlong lobbying effort by the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, for which I work, aided by a few key legislators, most anglers will not have to purchase the new saltwater fishing license. In fact, it’s not even called a license, it’s an “endorsement.”

The decisive vote came in the Maine Senate at 8:30 p.m. March 25, after Democratic senators emerged from a caucus with an agreement to support a substantial amendment to the bill. The amendment also won the support of SAM.

Eight Democratic senators and all but one Republican senator stood strongly against the bill, despite furious lobbying by a number of organizations. An amendment was needed if the bill were to pass in any form.

Sen. Dennis Damon, D-Trenton, a tireless advocate for the bill, was still smiling after the final vote, knowing that he’d done the very best he could.

One thing many observers don’t realize is this: We can wage strong fights on specific bills but still remain friends. Today’s opponent is often tomorrow’s ally. I count Damon as a friend, and we have, in fact, worked together on several other bills this session.

The saltwater license bill remained tabled for two weeks in the Senate while supporters crowded the third floor each day to push for their bill, including lobstermen, clam diggers, the Coastal Conservation Association, the Natural Resources Council of Maine and the Department of Marine Resources.

Another thing they don’t explain in the brochure is that the leaders of state agencies can be found lobbying every day at the State House. But they don’t have to register as lobbyists or report their lobbying activities, a major flaw in the lobbyist disclosure laws.

Countering the saltwater license advocates were Sen. David Trahan, R-Waldoboro, Reps. Jon McKane, R-Newcastle, and Kerri Prescott, R-Topsham, and me. Legislators also heard from lots of people back home on both sides of the issue.

The final amended version of the bill got opponents 90 percent of what they wanted, although most Republicans, including Trahan, McKane and Prescott, opposed the amended bill on final passage.

When this law takes effect on Jan. 1, resident and nonresident anglers who purchase a fishing license from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife will not have to register or pay any fee to fish in saltwater. When these anglers purchase their freshwater fishing license, they will check a box on their license application if they want to fish in saltwater.

Saltwater anglers who do not purchase an Inland Fisheries and Wildlife fishing license will have to register with the Department of Marine Resources. The registration is free but an agent fee must be paid ($1 if registering directly with Marine Resources, $2 if registering with a licensing agent). Saltwater anglers who do not purchase an Inland Fisheries and Wildlife fishing license also will have to purchase a “striped bass endorsement” to fish for or possess striped bass. The annual fee for this endorsement is $5 for a resident and $15 for a nonresident.

The fight for a saltwater fishing license has been waged for more than a decade. In this legislative session, a license bill went back and forth between the Marine Resources Committee and the House and Senate twice, without action.

Finally, another version of the license bill emerged, only to be tabled in the Senate for two weeks while both sides lobbied it heavily. We were all weary of the issue and ready for a vote when it finally came. But given the bill’s history, it was no surprise that it took a major amendment offered by Sen. Bruce Bryant, D-Dixfield, before the bill was enacted, or that no one was totally happy with the final bill.

You could not make this process up, explain it in a brochure, or track it on even the most sophisticated of DeLorme’s GPS units. You just have to be there.

George Smith is executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine. He lives in Mount Vernon and can be reached at george@samcef.org.