TWEET THIS http://goo.gl/PDdtbX
When the Maine city state of the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority came into being as a municipal corporation serving as an instrumentality of the state, it was a instance where in the power of the state usurped the authority of the local government by using the state and federal government's ability to collect and then redistribute wealth, to buy Brunswick, Maine. Brunswick obliged the higher powers by foregoing its own constitutional authority to act as the agent of economic development in the territory which was once its own:
Maine State Constitution: Article VIII.
Part Second.
Municipal Home Rule. 1969
Section 1. Power of municipalities to amend their charters. The inhabitants of any municipality shall have the power to alter and amend their charters on all matters, not prohibited by Constitution or general law, which are local and municipal in character. The Legislature shall prescribe the procedure by which the municipality may so act.
Section 2. Construction of buildings for industrial use. For the purposes of fostering, encouraging and assisting the physical location, settlement and resettlement of industrial and manufacturing enterprises within the physical boundaries of any municipality, the registered voters of that municipality may, by majority vote, authorize the issuance of notes or bonds in the name of the municipality for the purpose of purchasing land and interests therein or constructing buildings for industrial use, to be leased or sold by the municipality to any responsible industrial firm or corporation.
The politicians told the people of Maine that if they voted for the 8 million dollar bond for what the politicians labeled a "regional development authority", then the politicians would be able to "leverage" planeloads of freshly printed federal paper to further finance the former naval base as a municipality designed to the specs of the state's politicians and "targeted sector" economic policy. See The Maine Technology Institute -definition of "the targeted sector" HERE. MTI is located within the MRRA.
Neither the politicians nor the media felt obliged to tell the people that the freshly printed federal money so coveted by the state, has no value of its own and so value must be siphoned off of the purchasing power of the American dollar, a value, which is then replaced with rationing for the people, in the form of food stamps and health care, heat assistance, and so forth. This constitutes a transfer by the state of the people's wealth to the new owners of the means of production and intellectual property rights.
When the state usurped the authority of local governance, the MRRA took on the character of an occupied territory. Meanwhile back in 1995, the Brunswick Development Corporation, had formed in the municipality bordering the MRRA. Why wasn't the BDC rushing in to make a bid for this valuable property to be had for a song ? And where was the Town of Brunswick when the property which was once their own was being returned to civilian use? Neither the Town of Brunswick, nor the BDC were acting in their own best interests by doing absolutely nothing and thereby allowing the state to take over without a bidding war.
The state needed a clear field, for if there were a bidding war it would underscore the obvious - that economic development can be achieved another way other than through the agency of the state and thereby negating the state's dubious justification for violating Article IV part Third Section 14 of the Maine State Constitution which prohibits the legislature from chartering a corporation by special act of legislation.
Is there a hidden political class which sold the other players in the field on the advantages of doing nothing? The advantages are clear enough, the municipality of the MRRA gets its economic development financed by Maine and USA taxpayers- what municipality can do that unless it is formed under a new definition of a municipal corporation, transformed from serving as the legal authority of the municipality, to serving as an "instrumentality of the state"- a clear violation of Article IV Part Third Section 14 of the Maine State Constitution. Section 14 provides only two exceptions to its prohibition against the legislature chartering corporations -the first being for municipal purposes and the other exception being when the object of the corporation.
A municipality is local government. The purpose of "serving as an instrumentality of the State" is not a local government purpose, and contradicts the intent of Municipal Home Rule provided for in the Maine Constitution.
Economic development- can be achieved without central management by the State, which did not exist in Maine prior to the mid-seventies. That other way is the free enterprise system, the antithesis of central management by the State, all the more so to central management by the State as a system of public-private relationships-aka an oligarchy.
The BDC is a private non-profit development corporation registered with the Secretary of the State of Maine:
The ByLaws for the BDC states that “The Corporation shall constitute a "local development corporation" pursuant to 5M.R.S.A. §13081(6)
Title 5 Of the Maine Revised Statues,
BDC Bylaw language in Section 6.1:
The Town of Brunswick, Maine,
shall be the sole
member of the corporation with all rights and obligations of membership provided by the Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws.
member of the corporation with all rights and obligations of membership provided by the Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws.
Section 6.2. Voting Rights.
The Member shall have no voting rights. ( the inhabitants of the municipality of Brunswick will not have a vote)
Goal sited in Task Force for Economic Redevelopment, Recommended Legislation for an Economic Development Program -110th Congress, ( obtained by requesting it from the Maine Legislative Library)
2: eliminate the requirement for a local referendum on municipal bond issues.
States give municipalities the power to create an official governmental body, such as a board or council. Members of this body are elected by voters who live within the voting boundaries of the municipality. The local body has the power to pass ordinances, or local laws. These laws may not conflict with state or federal laws. The Free dictionary
Chapter 1: GENERAL PROVISIONS
3.Bylaws.
"Bylaws" means the code or codes of rules adopted for the regulation or management of the affairs of the corporation irrespective of the name or names by which such rules are designated and includes the corporation's constitution unless the constitution is filed as the articles of incorporation or enacted by the Legislature in a special Act.[
1977, c. 525, §13 (NEW)
NOTE ON May 6 2014
When I first published this post the Rules for Non-profit Corporations were found on line- Now that link no longer displays those rules and instead provides a download link for the rules document. I downloaded it and then stored it on Preserving The American Political Philosophy website The doc is available for download here.Rules For Non-Profit Corporations Title 13-B.doc
The Rules For Non-Profit Corporations were established in 1981 a few short years after the legislature chartered the Maine Development Foundation ( a non-profit corporation) in 1977. (note that this is the same year that the legislature chartered the Maine Non-Profit Corporation Act). In chartering The Maine Development Foundation, the legislature created a new essential government function, that of managing the economy of the entire state from above. An ideological change of this magnitude should come about only as a constitutional amendment voted into being with the consent of the governed, but it instead it was brought into being through a constitutionally dubious statute, one that clearly contradicts the then recently passed Constitutional Amendment providing for Home Rule.
THE
1. Definitions
A. Corporation. Title 13-B Section 102(4) defines the term
"Corporation" as used in the Maine Nonprofit Corporation Act. Certain
entities are excluded from the definition. Among the exclusions are "an
instrumentality, agency, political subdivision or body politic and corporate of
the State." The Secretary of State interprets that phrase to mean an
administrative unit or corporate outgrowth of State, county or local government
created by statute, order, resolution, ordinance or articles of incorporation
to perform functions traditionally associated with government activities. By
way of example, entities, which will be considered excluded from the definition
of corporation, include, but are not limited to:
(1) State departments,
bureaus, divisions, commissions, boards and offices;
(2) The University of Maine;
(3) The Maine Maritime
Academy;
(4) Cities, towns,
plantations, counties and their political subdivisions;
(5) Municipal and county
agencies;
(6) Quasi-governmental bodies of State
government;
(7) State and local
housing authorities;
(8) Quasi-municipal bodies including
districts such as school administrative, hospital, water and sewer;
(9) Voting districts;
(10) County extension associations;
(11) Regional planning commissions;
(12) Councils of government;
(13) Development
districts;
(14) Urban renewal
authorities; and
(15) The
instrumentalities and corporate or political subdivisions of any of the above.
B. Church
(1) Churches may
organize as corporations under either Title 13 or Title 13-B.
(2) Nonprofit religious
corporations that are not churches must be governed by Title 13-B.
(3) For the purposes of
distinguishing these two types of corporations, "churches" means
organizations whose primary purposes are (1) religious worship or (2) the
management of buildings whose primary function is housing religious worship.
(4) The term
"churches" does not include religious schools, associations of
religious organizations or clergy, church camps, or support groups to repair or
maintain church buildings.
Note April 14 2014
EFFECTIVE DATE:The legislature-Secretary of State’s intentions are clear enough, the re-invention of the meaning of the word "corporation" for the purposes of the Maine Nonprofit Corporation Act is the rationalization advanced authorizing the Legislature to statutorily by pass Article IV Part Third Section 14 of the Maine State Constitution, which prohibits the legislature from chartering corporations, providing no exceptions for non-profit corporations.
January 4, 1981
AMENDED:
September 10, 1987 (EMERGENCY)
November 2, 1988
January 7, 1991
July 20, 1992 (also changed ch. 1)
December 15, 1992
February 13, 1996
EFFECTIVE DATE (ELECTRONIC CONVERSION):
April 28, 1996
NON-SUBSTANTIVE CORRECTION:
October 27, 1997 - Divisional name in heading corrected.
REPEAL AND REPLACE:
July 12, 2003 - filing 2003-231
The statutory redefinition of "corporation" is used as justification for an ever expanding network of corporations charted by the Maine Llegislature as "instrumentalities of the state"
The following is found in the definitions section:
4.Corporation.
C. An instrumentality, agency, political subdivision or body politic and corporate of the State.[1977,c. 592, §12 (NEW).][1977, c. 592, §12 (RPR)
Maine State Constitution, Article IV Section 14. Corporations, formed under general laws. Corporations shall be formed under general laws, and shall not be created by special Acts of the Legislature, except for municipal purposes, and in cases where the objects of the corporation cannot otherwise be attained; and, however formed, they shall forever be subject to the general laws of the State
However this does pose a problem for the BDC.
The BDC cites a repealed law in establishing its corporate status:
The ByLaws for the BDC states that “The Corporation shall constitute a "local development corporation" pursuant to 5M.R.S.A. §13081(6)
The Maine Legislature does the same. The Legislature, by special acts of legislation,
From the appearances of the website for "Brunswick Development Corp" , one might mistake it for municipal government but municipal government is elected by the inhabitants of the municipality whereas board members of non-profit corporations are not. The
Arguably , the intent of Article IV Part Third Section 14 of the Maine State Constitution is to prevent capitalism from controlling government. The Maine State Constitution has been superseded by statutory law for decades, going back to the early 1950's
MRRA uses taxpayer money from the entire state of Maine and the USA to develop as a State governed municipality. The Brunswick Development Corporation is private corporation which subsumes local government and eliminates the public referendum.
Established outside of the Maine Constitution, the twin municipalities of the MRRA and the Brunswick Development Corporation, are like territories occupied by another form of government- functionally no longer part of the state of Maine as governed by the Maine Constitution.
Within the guarded walls of occupied territory, dwells the targeted sector. Outside of the occupied territory, lies the original state of Maine, still governed by The Maine State Constitution, but with occupied territories looming all around. The occupied territory wants to keep on expanding until it claims all of Maine for its own use. The people of Maine need to form a defense contingency to fight back the occupiers-or they too might soon see hospitals or some other valuable resource disappearing from their communities for no discernible reason !
Why are shows like The Walking Dead such a hit these days? They dramatize the reality in which we find our selves.
After Thoughts
2
.
Authority to amend.
The articles of incorporation may be amended by:
A. The incorporator; or
[
1995, c. 458, §8 (NEW)
.]
B. If there is more than one incorporator, by 2/3 of the incorporators.
[
1995, c. 458, §8
(NEW)
.]
1995 s the year that the BDC was incorporated.
The application for BDC's incorporation is signed by an "individual" and that individual's name is "Christopher E Howard". There is an individual by that name in Portland Maine, a lawyer with the firm Peirce Atwood
It's hard to read the document of incorporation because of the quality of the reproduction, but I deciphered that it says that if the applicant is by an individual.
Christoper E Howard signed as an individual. If the Town of Brunswick had applied for the articles of Incorporation, the Town would have had to sign by the rules of a corporation.
So according to Title 13 B 2. Christoper E Howard has the sole power to amend the articles of Incorporation. The Town is only a member of the BDC- not the incorporator.
However the Town of Brunswick has the authority to be the agency of economic development pursuant to the Home Rule Amendment of the Maine State Constitution, which states that the inhabitants of the municipality may elect to approve bonds for such purposes.
There is no mention, that I have found in the Articles of Incorporation or the bylaws of the Brunswick Development Corp about the source of the capital that BDC "invests", but as a non-profit corporation, the BDC can accumulate it through various means including government grants (state and federal tax payer money).
Since the Town of Brunswick is the sole member of the BDC, it follows that the BDC was incorporated solely for the purposes of Brunswick , allowing Brunswick would have access to capital funds other than by municipal bonds. and funds that might not normally be available to a municipality, at the cost of eliminating public referendums. Let us not forget that eliminating public referendums was one of the two goals identified by Governor’s Task Force for Economic Redevelopment-1976, which can be obtained by requesting in from the Maine Legislative Library.
Task Force for Economic Redevelopment, Recommended Legislation for an Economic Development Program -110th Congress, 2: eliminate the requirement for a local referendum on municipal bond issues.
A Guidestar Search did not produce results.
.
In this Forecaster Article Town counsel Chairwoman says
A Tactfully Hinted Bribe by The BDC to the The Other Side Of Town
Brunswick Development Corp to Buy Land For The Police Station
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