A Little Known Secret: When The Maine Legislature Chartered Multiple Municipalities Into A Single Development Corporation
A Cautionary Tale for a time when municipalities are encouraged to become development corporations. william-daigneault-unsplash This post is taken directly from research I did a number of years ago. In the midst of composing a post about the current rural estate boom in Maine and the rise of remote working, I recalled the discovery of a region of municipalities which were chartered as development corporation quite unconstitutionally by the Maine Legislature in 1997. It is unconstitutional for the Maine Legislature to charter corporations by special act of legislation pursuant to Article IV Part Third Section 14 of the Maine Constitution, and yet it happens quite frequently. In fact, I would say there is a danger of any town in Maine being transformed into a development corporation by town leaders, as this is the kind of thinking that has been encouraged in Maine since 1976 when Maine became a centrally managed economy. As I was writing a current article, I discovered that the act...