A citizen's
initiative, headed by former Maine Legislator Jim Wilfong, is on its way to the
Legislature according to plans announced today at the State House. The
initiative is to be known as “Maine's Water Dividend Trust” because dividend
income will be raised from charges on bottled water mined from
Maine's many aquifers. These funds will be
invested for the benefit of all Maine's people, especially
Maine's younger citizens.
At the press
conference held recently, Wilfong said, “For nearly 35 years,
Maine people have invested billions of dollars,
privately and publicly, in the stewardship of our groundwater resource -- making
sure it is as plentiful and pristine as the glaciers left it ten thousand years
ago. In this century, water is to Maine in importance, as oil has been to
Saudi
Arabia in the last one. For years, companies
have been making significant margins bottling free water for consumption around
the world. It is now time for Maine people to receive a dividend from their
equity in Maine’s groundwater.”
According to
a release, the Trust would be funded by a $0.20 cent per gallon clean water
reimbursement charge. Trust income would be used to reduce local property taxes,
encourage small business/family farm development and to make long-term
investments in education. The projected revenues for the first year are expected
to reach $100 million dollars (based on an estimated one-half billion gallons of
bottled water presently mined by commercial bottlers from
Maine's groundwater inventory).
“The reasons
for this initiative are many and include,” Wilfong added, “The need to
strengthen Maine’s laws regarding the sustainability of
our groundwater supplies and to compensate Maine taxpayers for their vision and financial
commitment to preserve and protect Maine's fresh water.” Wilfong continued, “Our
generation must use this water dividend to create an ongoing trust for our
children and grandchildren that helps them to live in
Maine and prepares them to compete and thrive
in a global, knowledge-based economy. Mutually prosperous
Maine communities, communities with a bright
future and opportunity, will be built in part by a skilled workforce, innovative
entrepreneurs, fishermen and family farmers. The Trust will invest in them and
their ideas. Continued public and sustainable management of our most essential
common resource, water, will work to the mutual benefit of
Maine people and our corporate water partners.
A water dividend will provide an expected return on investment at a time when it
can be best put to work for all generations of
Maine people.”
More than 50,000 Maine
voters have signed petitions in hopes of forcing a referendum on the proposed
extraction fee on water that businesses draw from the state's aquifers for
resale in containers. Campaign organizers say a handful of smaller bottlers
would be hit by the tax, but Poland Spring would bear the biggest
impact.
With Poland Spring drawing nearly 500 million gallons of water per year
from its wells in Maine, the tax
would amount to close to $100 million, a cost the company said would exceed its
annual profits.
The campaign, dubbed H2O for ME, was the brainchild of Jim Wilfong, a
former legislator who served in the Small Business Administration during the
Clinton administration, specializing
in international trade.
Sources:
Poland Spring
H20 for ME
|
The Water Connoisseur
