AUGUSTA, Maine - Supporters of bottled water giant Poland Spring turned out in force Monday for a public hearing on a bill calling for a penny-per-gallon tax on companies that extract more than a million gallons of water in Maine each year.
This is the third time such a bill has been put forward in the Maine Legislature.
Tom Brennan is a senior resource manager for Poland Spring's parent company, Nestle Waters North America. He says the proposal would amount to a $7.5 million annual tax, and could jeopardize Poland Spring's economic security, including 800 good-paying jobs in Maine.
"This is very personal for us," Brennan said. "This proposed legislation is not just some policy change. It's a direct threat to real people who have good jobs in a clean industry, and to those who might have jobs in the future."
Brennan says Poland Spring spends more than $42 million annually on payroll. The average annual wage for a company employee is more than $24 an hour, and the benefits package includes medical, dental, 401k, tuition reimbursement, profit sharing and paid sick days, vacation days and holidays.
Brennan says the bill would wind up rewarding Poland Spring's competitors, which bottle out of state and will not be subject to the proposed tax, even though they do not create Maine jobs and also do not pay Maine taxes.
He urged lawmakers to do what they've done twice before and reject the bill.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Victoria Kornfield of Bangor, says the bill is not about whether Poland Spring is a good or a bad company, or whether the company is extracting too much water. Instead, she says it's simply about taxing large bottlers and rewarding property taxpayers for their shared resource.
"We need to acknowledge that the intrinsic value of water is greater than its commercial value, and that we, in the state of Maine, have been naive about giving away a precious resource at a tiny price when people all over the state could, and should, benefit from a tax on this resource," Kornfield said.
Kornfield's plan for the tax is to dedicate a quarter of what's generated to the Maine Environmental Fund; one quarter would also go to the municipality where the water is extracted from, and one half would go to education.
