Maine § 1849. - Revenue from public reserved lands

(1) The director determines that sufficient funds are available in the Public Reserved Lands Management Fund in subsection 2;  

(2) Any harvest and trucking fees are paid for or reimbursed by the firewood bank; and  

(3) All contractual requirements of the harvest operation from which timber is donated are met.  

For purposes of this paragraph, "firewood bank" means an organization that purchases or accepts donations of firewood and makes available firewood free of charge to individuals and families in need of heating assistance.   [PL 2025, c. 170, §1 (NEW).]

2.  Fund established.  All income received by the director from the public reserved lands, except income provided for in section 1855, must be deposited with the Treasurer of State to be credited to the Public Reserved Lands Management Fund, which is established as a nonlapsing fund and is subject to allocation by the Legislature. Any interest earned on this money must also be credited to the fund. No expenditure may be made from the fund other than for the bureau's general operating purposes with respect to management of the public reserved lands unless the fund has a cash operating balance of at least $2,500,000 at the start of the fiscal year during which the expenditure is made.

3.  Expenditures from fund. 

4.  Expenditures from fund.  The joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over public lands matters, referred to in this subsection as "the jurisdictional committee," shall review all allocations or subdivisions of allocations from the fund.

A. Before February 15th of each odd-numbered year, the commissioner shall submit to the jurisdictional committee a detailed proposed budget for expenditures from the fund for the budgetary biennium. Before January 15th of each even-numbered year, the commissioner shall submit to the jurisdictional committee a detailed budget for any proposed modifications to the legislative allocations of the fund during the remainder of the budgetary biennium.   [PL 2021, c. 398, Pt. W, §2 (AMD).]

B. After receiving a budget submission pursuant to paragraph A, the jurisdictional committee shall review the proposed budget or budget modification and shall determine the appropriate allocations or modifications of existing allocations of the fund. The jurisdictional committee shall submit its recommended allocations or modifications to the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over appropriations and financial affairs, which shall include those recommended allocations or modifications of allocations in an appropriate biennial budget or supplemental budget bill.   [PL 2017, c. 289, §4 (NEW).]