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LD183 • 2025

An Act to Cap Publicly Owned Land Area at No More than 50 Percent of Any County

An Act to Cap Publicly Owned Land Area at No More than 50 Percent of Any County

Agriculture
Active

The official status still shows this bill as active or still awaiting another formal step.

Sponsor
Representative Billy Bob Faulkingham
Last action
2025-04-01
Official status
Pursuant to Joint Rule 310.3 Placed in Legislative Files (DEAD)
Effective date
Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

Using official source text because the generated explanation was unavailable or could not be confirmed against the official bill text.

An Act to Cap Publicly Owned Land Area at No More than 50 Percent of Any County

An Act to Cap Publicly Owned Land Area at No More than 50 Percent of Any County Sponsor: Representative Billy Bob Faulkingham Reference committee: Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Latest committee action: Reported Out; ONTP

What This Bill Does

  • An Act to Cap Publicly Owned Land Area at No More than 50 Percent of Any County Sponsor: Representative Billy Bob Faulkingham Reference committee: Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Latest committee action: Reported Out; ONTP

Limits and Unknowns

  • This entry is temporarily using official source text because the generated explanation could not be confirmed against the official bill text during the last sync.

Bill History

  1. 2025-04-01 Senate

    Pursuant to Joint Rule 310.3 Placed in Legislative Files (DEAD)

  2. 2025-03-27 Committee

    Reported Out; ONTP

  3. 2025-03-25 Committee

    Work Session Held

  4. 2025-03-25 Committee

    Voted; ONTP

  5. 2025-03-21 House

    Carried over, in the same posture, to the next special or regular session of the 132nd Legislature, pursuant to Joint Order SP 519.

  6. 2025-01-14 Committee

    Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.

Official Summary Text

An Act to Cap Publicly Owned Land Area at No More than 50 Percent of Any County
Sponsor:
Representative Billy Bob Faulkingham
Reference committee:
Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry
Latest committee action:
Reported Out; ONTP

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text 
Printed on recycled paper
132nd MAINE LEGISLATURE
FIRST REGULAR SESSION-2025
Legislative Document No. 183
H.P. 116 House of Representatives, January 14, 2025
An Act to Cap Publicly Owned Land Area at No More than 50
Percent of Any County
Reference to the Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry suggested and
ordered printed.
ROBERT B. HUNT
Clerk
Presented by Representative FAULKINGHAM of Winter Harbor.
Cosponsored by Senator MOORE of Washington and
Representatives: MCINTYRE of Lowell, MINGO of Calais, QUINT of Hodgdon, STROUT of
Harrington, TUELL of East Machias.

Page 1 - 132LR0312(01)
1Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
2Sec. 1. 12 MRSA §1829-A is enacted to read:
3§1829-A. Limitation on publicly owned land
41. Public ownership limited. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary,
5 publicly owned land in this State may not exceed 50% of the land area of a county. For
6 purposes of this section, "publicly owned land" means land in which the Federal
7 Government, the State, a county or a municipality holds property rights, including
8 easements, development rights, trust rights or other ownership interests.
9 With the approval of 2/3 of each House of the Legislature, the State, a county or a
10 municipality may exceed the limits of this subsection.
112. Report. The department shall, beginning April 15, 2026, report biannually to the
12 joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over public lands matters
13 on the percentage of publicly owned land statewide and by county.
14SUMMARY
15 This bill limits publicly owned land in the State to no more than 50% of the land area
16 in any county. The bill also allows the State, a county or a municipality to exceed the limits
17 with the approval of 2/3 of each House of the Legislature.
18 The Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry is required to report
19 biannually beginning April 15, 2026 to the joint standing committee of the Legislature
20 having jurisdiction over public lands matters on the percentage of federal, state, county and
21 municipal property ownership statewide and by county.
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