Maine Ballot Initiative on Water Tax Falls Short in Signature Drive

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An initiative aimed at taxing spring water -- a first-in-the-nation proposal that rankled Maine bottler Poland Spring -- fell short Monday of attracting enough valid signatures to be placed on the ballot.

AUGUSTA, Maine — An initiative aimed at taxing spring water -- a first-in-the-nation proposal that rankled Maine bottler Poland Spring -- fell short Monday of attracting enough valid signatures to be placed on the ballot.


Petitions calling for a statewide vote next November contained 49,100 valid signatures, but organizers needed at least 50,519 to guarantee a statewide vote by then.


Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap ruled Monday that about 7,100 of the 56,287 signatures that had been submitted were invalid, mostly because the signers were not registered to vote in the municipalities where their signatures were collected.


The petition drive began three months ago, led by former legislator Jim Wilfong, who said he was surprised and disappointed that the effort fell short. He said he will continue the campaign -- even if petition circulators have to start again from scratch.


"This is a speed bump," he said. "It's not the end."


Poland Spring Bottling Co., the business that would be most affected by the tax, said it was pleased by Dunlap's determination.


"Our 600 employees in Maine can breathe a sign of relief that this referendum is not going forward," said Tom Brennan, regional natural resources manager for Poland Spring. "We were always hopeful that the effort to impose a crippling new tax on Maine's bottled water companies would not gain sufficient public support."


The plan, advanced by Wilfong's group H20 for ME, proposed a tax of about 20 cents a gallon on companies that extract, bottle and sell water drawn from Maine's underground aquifers.


Money from the tax would be deposited in a trust, whose dividends would be paid to income taxpayers in Maine. Part of the revenues would also fund business loans and water conservation projects.


Revenues for the first year of the tax were projected to reach $100 million.


The proposal would not have taxed the first 500,000 gallons of water extracted each year for sale by commercial entities. Also exempt would have been water taken from private wells and not resold, and water sold by utilities for domestic consumption.


Nestle Waters North America -- the parent company of Poland Spring, which has bottling plants in Poland and Hollis -- had been closely monitoring the petition drive.


Tax proponents have five business days to challenge Dunlap's decision. Wilfong said an appeal was likely.


Company President Kim Jeffery has said if the proposed tax were ever approved "we would have to seriously re-evaluate our ability to continue to do business in Maine."


Nestle Waters North America is a unit of Swiss giant Nestle SA, the world's biggest food and beverage company.


Source: Associated Press


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