[farm.school] FW: Next on the plate: Maine farms?]

[Eileen Liddy]

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From: Eileen Liddy [mailto:epliddy at megalink.net]
Sent: Sunday, November 12, 2006 12:20 PM
To: Eileen Liddy
Subject: [Fwd: [ME_PandJ] Next on the plate: Maine farms?]



http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/061111plates.html
<http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/061111plates.html> 



Next on the plate: Maine farms?

By TESS NACELEWICZ, Staff Writer 

Saturday, November 11, 2006



Loons, lobsters, and now local agriculture.



If the Legislature approves a new specialty license plate in support of

Maine's farms and farmers next year, the state's residents will have yet

another design choice for their vehicles.



The proposed "ag tag" depicts a farmer walking hand-in-hand with a little

girl, both silhouetted in a colorful sunrise over his farm and rolling

cropland. The plate, which would read "Support Local Agriculture," would

beMaine's fifth specialty license plate to raise funds forvarious programs.



The other four are a conservation plate, featuring a loon, which raises

money for wildlife and habitat preservation; a plate depicting a lobster,

which raises funds for lobster research; and Maine Black Bear and University

of Maine System plates,which generate money for scholarships.



The specialty plates cost an extra $20 for the first registration and $15

each year they're renewed. No extra fee is required for Maine's

standard-issue license plate, which features a chickadee.



Most of the extra money from the specialty plates goes toward the programs

they support, and the rest goes to the state. The amount the programs

receive varies depending on the plate, said Deputy Secretary of State Doug

Dunbar.



The proposal for the agriculture plate calls for $10 of each year's fee to

go to education programs administered by the Maine Agriculture in the

Classroom Association.The goal of that independent nonprofit organization is

to increase students' understanding of agriculture's role in the economy and

society.



Sharon Foss, chairwoman of the association's executive board, said the group

hopes the new plate will raise about $50,000 per year for purposes that

include providing grants for educational groups such as 4-H and Future

Farmers of America and for training teachers.



Maine has a variety of recognition license plates that don't raise money.

For example, there are plates to honor survivors of Pearl Harbor and

prisoners of war, and a Wabanaki plate available only to members of

specified Maine Indian tribes. Dunbar said those types of plates don't

require extra fees.



To create a specialty fundraising plate in Maine, supporters must meet

rigorous requirements that the Legislature enacted to prevent the state from

having an excess of such plates.



Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said supporters must get the signatures of

at least 2,000 registered Maine drivers who say they would buy such plates

and raise $40,000 to cover the state's manufacturing startup costs.



Proponents of the agriculture plate met those requirements this fall, and

Dunlap's office will submit a bill in the coming legislative session to get

the plate approved. It generally takes six months to produce and distribute

plates after they are approved.



Dunlap said there might be some opposition to the plate because supporters

of other specialty plates may view a new one as a competitor for funds. Even

the standard chickadee plate, which in 1999 replaced a lobster plate that

many considered unattractive, has caused a drop in the money earned by the

loon plates, Dunlap said. In 1999, the loon plate brought in $1.7 million;

this year it is expected to bring in $1 million, he said.



Rep. Boyd Marley, D-Portland, a middleschool teacher and chairman of the

Legislature's Transportation Committee, and Rep. Donald Marean, R-Hollis, a

farmer on the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee, are behind

the new plate. They say the funds it would generate would help a new

generation understand the importance of Maine agriculture.



Marley also says it won't take money from other plates.



"It will appeal to a new constituency," he said. " It's just enough

different that people might want it."



Charlie Armstrong of Etna, a board member of the Maine Agriculture in the

Classroom Association and the artist who designed the plate, predicts that

even Mainers with no direct connection to farming will buy the plate because

people who have seen it so far have reacted very positively.



"They love the bright colors," he said.



Staff Writer Tess Nacelewicz can be contacted at 791-6367 or at:

tnacelewicz at pressherald.com <mailto:tnacelewicz at pressherald.com> 





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