To SAM Rapid Response Team

General SAM Membership Alert

From George Smith

January 20, 2005



Public Hearing Scheduled!

The legislature’s Appropriations Committee has scheduled a public hearing on the Governor’s proposed budget for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife – including Sunday hunting and fee increases.

We hope you can attend to support SAM’s testimony in favor of the budget. Our opponents will be there in force and we’ve got to turn out our troops – or this tremendous opportunity for Sunday hunting will be lost.



PLEASE – call or email Kelly in the SAM office and let her know you can attend the hearing. Kelly can be reached at 622-5503 or members@samcef.org.

The hearing is scheduled for Thursday, February 3, at 1:00 pm, in Room 228 of the Capital building. Please plan to arrive by 11 am to be assured of a seat in the room. Kelly will be there at the door to assist you in finding seating and to help with any other needs. Wear your hunting clothes – and we will also provide stickers that identify you as a sportsman who is there to support Sunday hunting.

Those who attend the hearing do not need to testify. But if you wish to do so, let Kelly know and I will get back to you with suggestions and an explanation of the committee’s requirements and procedures.

In addition, if you have not yet done so, please contact your own State Representative and Senator and urge them to support Sunday hunting and the governor’s budget for DIF&W. This is very important. Legislators are getting inundated by our opponents – but they are not hearing from sportsmen who want this Sunday hunting opportunity. They must hear from you.

I am attaching our last emailed message, with detailed information about how to contact legislators, and a SAM newspaper column that explains the DIF&W budget issues including Sunday hunting.

Thanks for your help. This is a tremendous opportunity. But if we don’t get Sunday hunting now, with the Governor’s support, we will never hunt on Sundays in Maine. And we won’t get it without your help – NOW!



January 12 Rapid Response Team Message

You must act now to help us achieve the Sunday hunting opportunities offered by Governor John Baldacci in the proposed new state budget. We ask you to do two things:

1) Contact the Governor and let him know that you appreciate and support his decision to allow Sunday hunting opportunities.

2) Contact your State Representative and Senator to urge them to support the Governor’s budget for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, including the Sunday hunting opportunities.

You can contact the Governor by email (governor@maine.gov), regular mail (1 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333), or phone 287-3531.

You can contact your State Representative by email (see instructions below), mail (2 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04330), or phone (287-1400 or 1-800-423-2900).

You can contact your State Senator by email (see below), mail (3 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04330) or phone (287-1540 or 1-800-423-6900).

To find out who represents you in the Maine House and Senate, go to SAM’s website (www.samcef.org), click on the “Legislative News†section, then click on the “Find Your Representative and Senator†section. This will direct you to list of Representatives and Senators by town. You can get email addresses and other information about your legislators at the legislature’s website (http://janus.state.me.us/legis/). Finally, if you can’t access the internet, you can get all of this information by calling the Legislative Information Services staff at 287-1692.

Please send copies of your messages to SAM at members@samcef.org or 205 Church Hill Road, Augusta, ME 04330. We need to know who you contacted and what you said.

On SAM’s website, (www.samcef.org), you can find much more information about DIF&W’s budget, the Sunday hunting opportunities, and where we’re going from here. All of this information is located in the section on “Legislative News.†At that location you will find:

An article titled “Sunday Hunting Makes Governor’s Budget,†that explains how SAM was able convince the governor to include Sunday hunting opportunities in the budget.

An article titled “The Case for Sunday Hunting,†that provides more information about why Maine sportsmen – and our outdoor economy – deserve and need these opportunities.

An article titled “DIF&W’s Budget – A Summary of the Details.†This is the short version of what is in the budget, including Sunday hunting.

A letter, titled “Letter to Legislators,†that SAM distributed to each legislator. You can use our letter to create your own messages to the governor and legislators. Please put your messages in your own words, rather than use our sample letter.

Bangor Daily News SAM Column

Sunday Hunting Makes Sense

Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has never attracted public tax dollars sufficient to pay for the services the department provides to the public. No matter what the mechanism, or how hard sportsmen lobby for public dollars, it simply does not happen. We can’t compete for funding with the real human needs including health and education.

Three years ago a study demonstrated that DIF&W provides $4 million of direct services to the public each year. Governor Angus King and the legislature responded to that study by enacting a law that requires the governor to provide General Fund tax money to pay for 18 percent of DIF&W’s budget. It has not happened.

For the second biennium since that law was enacted, public money is unavailable to provide the $4 to $5 million in tax money to DIF&W that the law requires.

In the last biennium, sportsmen stepped up to fill the gap, supporting a move to increase every single license, permit and registration sold by DIF&W by $3. That $3 across-the-board increase was temporary and expires at the end of 2005.

This year, sportsmen were united in opposition to re-enactment of that $3 increase, and lobbied strongly for the $4 million that would fulfill the legal requirement for 18 percent public funding for DIF&W.

When Governor Baldacci was unable to provide this level of public funding in his proposed state budget, sportsmen stepped up again to fill the funding gap, agreeing to make the $3 across-the-board increase permanent, in return for Sunday hunting opportunities and a commitment from the Governor to work together for a long-term funding solution for DIF&W.

The Governor’s proposed budget for DIF&W specifically includes:

$700,000 of General Fund tax money in each year of the two-year biennium;

Sunday hunting for all species and seasons except the November gun season on deer. No Sunday hunting will be allowed during the firearms season on deer except for duck hunters;

Repeal of the law that prohibits nonresidents from hunting on the first day of the firearms season on deer.

Extension of the $3 increase in all permits, licenses and fees;

A higher boat registration fee.

The department’s budget is essentially flat funded, allowing for a slight increase in spending so that no positions or staff will be cut, but providing for no increases in services and programs.

The Governor has also pledged to work with sportsmen and DIF&W leaders to find streams of income from the public that would resolve this long-standing funding problem permanently, without tapping into tax money. We anticipate that the Governor will offer a long-term funding solution for DIF&W in his Part II budget that will be submitted later in this legislative session.

The Governor has put his Sunday hunting proposal in economic terms. At SAM’s Sportsman’s Congress last week, he said, “Maine is one of only nine states in the country that does not allow hunting on Sunday. We attract over 40,000 nonresident hunters a year, but lose many to neighboring states like Vermont, New Hampshire and Canadian provinces where hunting is allowed on Sunday. Hunting has an economic value of more than $450 million, and allowing bird, moose or bear hunters to hunt the entire weekend will make Maine a more appealing destination for hunters, and it will increase that revenue.â€

We must emphasize that this Sunday hunting proposal does not include the November gun season on deer. That’s when hunters are out in big numbers and suffer conflicts and problems with landowners and the public. All other hunting seasons involve much smaller numbers of hunters and few landowner problems.

We doubt that anyone feels unsafe or any landowner feels besieged in May during the turkey hunting season, or in September and October when hunters pursue a range of game including ducks, geese and grouse with guns and deer with bows.

For the sportsmen of Maine, and the state’s outdoor economy, we hope the legislature and people of Maine will support the Governor’s proposed DIF&W budget, including the opportunities it offers to hunt on Sundays.

The State of Maine lost my business when they changed opening day for out of state hunters from the normal Saturday to the next Monday.

What was the sense of buying property there? What's the sense of hunting there?

Good luck on your Sunday hunting. We could always hunt on Sundays in VT, NY and NH anyway.

Why do some eastern states have this in place, I'm a westerner and boy if they ever proposed something like this here there would be a small revolt. Not trying to strat anyhting but I'm just courious thats all.

323

My guess is that they want the best hunting for themselves. They got it as opening day is very important. There are also those who do not want out of staters owning land in Maine. I suppose every state has some like this. In a way it's not hard to understand.

The United States of America does not have many people like this thank goodness.

Maine was inhabitted with Puritan's starting in the 1600's... hunting (or doing anything) was forbidden on the Sabbath and the law has remained. Archaic and quaint? Yes.

Delaware is just the same, no Sunday hunting. We have been fighting to change it, but the State won't budge. The Sunday church crowd and the equestrienne clubs are fighting to keep it closed on Sunday. I hope Maine all the luck in getting it changed.

Pennsylvania has this law too. I used to hunt with my brother there, but it was just a hassle to take Sunday off in the middle of a hunt. I was reading last fall on the NRA site, that Pa. was trying to change their law, but I haven't heard if they got anything done aboout it. I was suprised to find out 13 states still have this law. Good luck in Maine!

DGK

The "Blue Laws" prohibit hunting in many Eastern states including my home state of CT. Also liquor sales are prohibited here on Sunday.

It is my understanding that only seven states currently are clinging to the old blue laws regarding hunting. In Pennsylvania, a bill has been introduced in the legislature to allow limited expansion of sunday hunting. Currently it is legal to hunt crows and coyotes. There is no good reason other than religion to ban hunting of any kind. It certainly discriminates against those religions that hold the sabbath on Saturday and not Sunday. My best guess is that it is coming to Pennsylvania, but there are those that would like to keep us in the dark ages.

Here is a link to a website put up by an individual regarding Sunday hunting:

http://www.pasportsman.org/Sunday_Hunting.htm

I stand corrected on the number. I really hope they get this changed all over. I would love to go back out to Pa. to hunt, but it just screws up the weekend, and I have to use extra vacation. I was looking into a hunt in Maine a couple years back, and decided against it, because of the Sunday thing. The company I work for has a division in North Carolina, and we were loking into hog hunting there, until we found out they don't allow sunday hunting.

DGK

I drove today from Rumford to Madawaska.

What a beautiful state so close to places that are the complete antithesis.

I have a partnership in an outfitting business with some retired military friends of mine up near Patten Maine. We have always been successful down here in the south in buying and developing hunting operations. We fell in love with this beautiful place up in Maine.

I was reticent to do ANYTHING having to do with guns or hunting south of the Mason-Dixon line(to you foreigners, that the line that basically divided the north and south during our Civil War, better known as the "War OF Northern Aggression . Well we bought it anyway and everything was great until we started running in to tree-huggers, democrats and other vermin and now we're embroiled in a HUGE legal battle. Aside from all that, the place is chock-full of regulations and assorted BS to make things hard! and oh yeah, you can't hunt on Sunday. Never again. It's up for sale and we're going to Texas. jorge

My brother was stationed in Brunswick during his last stint in the Navy, and I visited a couple of times. One of the most beautiful places I have ever been, I would love to hunt there, but I can't bring myself to hunt anywhere that has stupid laws.

DGK

quote:

Originally posted by Brad:
Maine was inhabitted with Puritan's starting in the 1600's... hunting (or doing anything) was forbidden on the Sabbath and the law has remained. Archaic and quaint? Yes.

Its alright Brad, Sunday is a nice break when you have been hunting like heck all week and you need some day to drink and not feel guilty for not being hunting.

Maine is a beautiful place to live and hunt, but don't forget that until the Missouri Compromise it was part of (shudder) Massachusetts. There are still a lot of laws on the books there long outdated. If you want to hunt in New England on a Sunday, come to New Hampshire or Vermont - you will be welcome here.

6mm, you live in Ellsworth?