Could Maine use Portland cargo-terminal bond proceeds to improve the city's International Ferry Terminal?

Plain-English summary

The Maine Department of Transportation asked whether money from a 1983 transportation bond issue for a Portland cargo terminal could instead support improvements to the city's International Ferry Terminal. The proposed project would use $4 million of the $4.5 million authorization.

Attorney General James Tierney concluded that the expenditure was legally permissible. The ferry terminal served passengers and cargo-bearing trucks, so improvements would benefit its cargo-handling function as well as passenger service.

The bond legislation broadly referred to transportation improvements, economic development, and port and marine facilities. Its narrower appropriation language called for a public general cargo-handling facility in Portland. Because the ferry project improved cargo-handling capacity, it fit both descriptions.

The opinion authorized the Department's discretion but did not require it to choose the ferry-terminal project.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1986. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Who this opinion addressed in 1986

Transportation Department officials

The bond proceeds could fund the proposed ferry-terminal work because it advanced the authorized cargo and marine transportation purposes. The Department retained discretion over whether to proceed.

Port and municipal officials

A terminal did not lose eligibility merely because it served passengers as well as freight. Its cargo-bearing truck traffic connected the improvements to the bond's cargo-handling purpose.

Bond administrators

The opinion read the ballot description, appropriation section, statement of fact, and legislative discussion together to identify the permissible use.

Common questions

Q: Was the International Ferry Terminal only a passenger facility?
A: No. The vessels also carried cargo-bearing trucks, and the proposed improvements benefited both traffic types.

Q: Did the bond law mention cargo handling?
A: Yes. Section 4 appropriated funds to develop a public general cargo-handling facility in Portland.

Q: Did the opinion require the Department to spend the money there?
A: No. It said the Department could do so in its discretion.

Background and statutory framework

P. & S.L. 1983, c. 58 authorized transportation-improvement bonds and appropriated up to $4.5 million for a public general cargo-handling facility in Portland. The referendum language referred more broadly to economic development through port and marine transportation facilities.

The statement of fact discussed improvements to cargo piers and ferry terminals across Maine. The opinion treated that purpose and the proposed terminal's freight activity as consistent with the narrower Portland authorization.

Citations and references

Law:

• P. & S.L. 1983, c. 58

Source

• Landing page: https://www.maine.gov/legis/lawlib/lldl/agops/agops.htm
• Original PDF: https://lldc.mainelegislature.org/Open/AG/Opinions/1986/ag_19861008.pdf

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain; the linked PDF is authoritative.

86-18

JAMES E. TIERNEY
ATTORNEY GENERAL

(

STATE OF MAINE

DEPARTMENT OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
STATE HOUSE STATION 6
AUGUSTA, MAINE 04333

October 8, 1986

Dana F. Connors, Commissioner
Maine Department of Transportation
State House Station #16
Augusta, Maine 04333

Re: Transportation Improvements Bond Issue.

Dear Mr. Connors:

You have asked whether it is legally permissible to utilize some of the proceeds of the sale of bonds authorized by P. & S.L. 1983, c. 58 for cargo terminal improvements in the City of Portland to fund improvements to the existing International Ferry Terminal in that city. For the reasons which follow, it is the Opinion of this Office that since the improvements contemplated will improve the cargo-handling capability of that terminal, they are within the scope of projects authorized by the Legislature to be financed from the bond issue.

As this Office understands it, the Department of Transportation proposes to utilize $4 million of the $4.5 million authorized by the bond issue legislation to improve the International Ferry Terminal, which handles ferry service between Portland and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. The ships providing this service accommodate not only passengers but cargo-bearing trucks. Thus, the proposed improvements will benefit both types of traffic.

The bond issue legislation expresses its purpose only in general terms. The most specific language is found in Section 4 of the bill, appropriating $4.5 million to "be used to develop a public general cargo-handling facility in Portland." Section 1 of the same bill describes the bond's purpose as providing for "transportation improvement," and -2-
specifying that bonds "shall be issued from time to time so as to meet the needs of the transportation improvement program." The question appearing on the referendum ballot, also specified in the authorizing legislation, describes the purpose of the bond issue as providing funds to "be utilized for capital improvement projects directed toward enhancing economic development and related support systems throughout the State [which) will encompass: . port and marine transportation facilities' development" of up to $4.5 million in Portland.

The bill's Statement of Fact states only that "the port and marine transportation program includes $10,000,000 for proposed improvements to cargo piers and ferry terminals in Maine. It is intended that these funds will be utilized in a way that best serves the port and marine transportation needs of the State." Both the Governor's opening address to the special session of the Legislature that enacted the bond issue and the limited legislative debate on the measure refer to the port improvements primarily as economic development measures.
Legis.Rec. 4, 25 (1st. Spec. Sess. 1983).

It is plain that improvements to the International Ferry Terminal described above would constitute economic development activity involving a marine transportation facility for the benefit of the general public. It thus is clearly encompassed within the scope of the Legislature's general intentions, also set forth above, as to the uses to which the proceeds of the bond issue could be put. In the view of this Office, the project would also satisfy the somewhat narrower purposes set forth in Section 4 of the authorizing legislation - "to develop a public general cargo-handling facility in Portland" - since it would enhance the ability of the terminal to operate as a cargo-handling facility. Under these circumstances, therefore, there appears to be no basis for concluding that the utilization of bond issue proceeds for improvements to the International Ferry Terminal would violate in any way the intention of the authorizing legislation or restrictions contained therein. This is not to say, of course, that the Department is obliged in any way to utilize the bond issue proceeds in this manner. It is only to say that the Department may, in its discretion, do so.

I trust this assessment is responsive to your inquiry.
Please let me know if this office can be of further assistance.

TIERNEY

JET/ec
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