What began as a troubling and disgusting story of Lynn C. Taylor, 64 of Portage Lake, Maine stealing, “misappropriating” for those wishing to be politically correct, money that belonged to the State of Maine, now has a bizarre and disturbing twist, leaving many Maine residents wondering what is going on.

On September 12, 2001, on the Maine.gov website, a news item was published about Taylor’s theft of hunting and fishing license fees.

Lynn C. Taylor, 64, of Portage Lake, pleaded guilty to theft on September 9, 2011 in Kennebec County Superior Court. Under a plea agreement, she will be required to repay over $16,000 in fees within six months of her plea. If she fails to make the restitution, she faces a sentence of up to five years in prison.

Somehow, the state discovered that between December 1, 2007 and April 5, 2008, Taylor, “failed to turn over $16,752 in fees”. The first question should become, why did it take the state 3 years to discover this? Or, why did it take the state so long to prosecute?

Taylor is the owner of Coffin’s General Store in Portage Lake. In 2006 she signed an agreement with the state of Maine to be a license sales agent for the state.

So, where did the money go? We may never know but it may hold the key to what is to follow.

I sent an email to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife a few days ago and asked how the error was discovered and why it took so long to either find the theft and/or prosecute for it. I have not received an answer to my inquiry. I have however heard some rumors about email sabotage, Fairpoint and disgruntled laid-off government employees. I have no information on this.

Maine sportsmen essentially fund the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) through license fees and excise taxes collected from the sale of certain sporting goods. Complaints have always been bounced around how the MDIFW is underfunded and as a result are unable to carry out management programs in the manner they would like. So, sportsmen should be rightfully upset, to discover that a licensing agent failed to turn in $16,000 of our money to the state. Asking questions about why it took so long and how this error was discovered are reasonable questions to ask and deserve accurate and prompt answers.

But evidently this story doesn’t stop here. What are sportsmen and Maine taxpayers in general supposed to think when they discover that a quasi government agency is going to loan Lynn Taylor the $16,000 to pay the state back for money she stole?

I was sent a photo copy of a newspaper clipping this morning that came from the Kennebec Journal. I tried unsuccessfully to find the same short clip in the online version of the Kennebec Journal. In that article it read:

Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin said she and Taylor’s attorney, Luke Rossignol, worked out a plea agreement as the case was about to go to jury selection.

Robbin said it appears that Northern Maine Development Commission will lend Taylor the restitution money and she will repay that group. (emphasis added)

The Northern Maine Development Commission (NMDC) is the quasi governmental agency I referred to. According to the Commission’s website the group’s mission is to:

Mission
To serve the northern Maine region with effective regional community planning and economic development.
Vision
To be the driving force of economic and community development for northern Maine, motivated by the commitment, teamwork and integrity of the people at NMDC.

Integrity? Ooooh!

That’s all well and good and I’m sure the NMDC does some great things to assist the people of Northern Maine with keeping their economies going and assisting in planning and development. I can think of a few. One of the functions of the NMDC is to facilitate loans to needy businesses.

The obvious question now becomes is the NMDC in the business of loan sharking? Do they float loans to criminals in order to pay restitution for their crimes? I suppose that would be their business but I think there’s at least one small problem with this.

According to the NMDC’s annual report for 2010 – 2011, of the $4,574,004 dollars that comprise that year’s “Total Revenues, Gains, and Other Support, $3,073,889 came from “Federal & State Grants”. That money doesn’t grow on trees. Federal and State grants come from taxpayers’ dollars. In addition, at least two of the agencies that NMDC works with to procure loans for their clients are the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Finance Authority of Maine.

I think there needs to be some serious explaining done to the sportsmen of Maine and taxpayers of Maine and the United States in General. I’m not sure I can come up with the right conditions in which it would justify loaning tax dollars to someone to pay restitution for tax dollars they stole.

This reeks badly.

Tom Remington

Related Posts