The legislature is in the process of referring bills to committee and scheduling public hearings. The next SAM news will have a more comprehensive legislative report. Below is our agenda, and a few bills we are already watching.
UPDATE: Proposed Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine Constitutional Amendments and Important Legislation to Protect Us from More Bear/Gun Referendums
SAM has introduced three Constitutional Resolutions to stop or bring fairness to future wildlife and firearm referendums.
- SAM Constitutional Resolution to exempt wildlife management from the referendum process. Although we could not get agreement to move this initiative forward last year, we believe it’s too important to our future and will introduce this bill again.
- SAM Constitutional Resolution to establish the constitutional right to hunt, fish, and trap. We believe it is time Maine joined the rest of the states around the country that make hunting, fishing and trapping a right!
- SAM will re-introduce the Constitutional Resolution that fell just four votes short of the 2/3 majority needed for passage, that would require qualifying signatures for ballot initiatives come equally from both Congressional Districts. This change would bring equality to all Mainers by insuring that heavily populated, politically liberal areas like Portland stop dictating to the rest of Maine what gets on the ballot.
SAM has introduced a law change that would reform the state laws that govern citizen petitions. The changes proposed include toughening penalties for violating Notary (loss of license, fines) and circulator rules — including giving the Secretary of State the authority to throw out petitions if circulators violate rules. In addition, the law would create an on-line fraud reporting hotline for individual cases of potential fraud. If this SAM law change finally passes, Maine will finally have a referendum system that is accountable to the voters!
SAM will lead an effort to rebuild the next generation of Sportsmen and women – by investing in our children!
It is no secret that fewer and fewer children are learning the skills of hunting, shooting, and responsible conservation. Two years ago, SAM invested in the future by renovating our 8,000 square-foot Augusta, Maine facility. Our members and partners contributed $150,000 to begin youth conservation programs at our facility. We did it with committed membership and sheer will. In the coming year, we plan to teach 1,000 children how to hunt fish and conserve our natural resources.
At the same time that we transformed our building, we reached out and established formal relationships with 50 Fish and Game Clubs. This Club Network was key to winning two referendums, and now it is time to rebuild their aging infrastructure.
Several years ago we worked with DIFW to annually secure $1 million federal dollars to invest in shooting club ranges. It is now time to expand that investment to include grants for youth conservation programs. SAM has introduced a bill to establish a new $350,000 annual state grant program for club youth programs and youth conservation schools. The new money will come from a $1 increase in the resident fishing license, and a $2 increase in the non-resident fishing license.
We have also introduced two firearm-related bills.
One is to ban the creation of a state-run gun registry. The legislation is based on a Rhode Island law already passed.
Two, we introduced a bill that fixes an oversight by the DIFW committee when they eliminated the hunting age. Parents were submitting moose hunting permit applications for infant children and acting as their sub-permittees, and also applying for permits themselves, possibly giving them two moose permits. Our bill would require them to wait until the child is 8 before applying.
We are also very concerned with LD 128, the foraging bill. We believe it is too extreme and goes too far. We are open to trying to address landowner concerns, but there are not enough prisons to house all the people affected by this potential new crime.