State Rep. Stephen Kulik may have been led to believe that forming the Mohawk Trail Woodlands Partnership (MTWP) would benefit communities and their forests in Western Massachusetts. But his bill H2932 contains a disturbing hidden agenda: a tax giveaway to corporations, preemption of local control, degradation of our economic health, and destruction of our natural resources.
H2932 requests $6 million in state taxes (plus $24 million federal) to subsidize large scale forest products corporations. It creates a quasi-governmental entity, the MTWP, controlled by a board stacked with commercial interests. The plan behind H2932 was developed over several years and is heavily reliant on wood pellet production. These specifics are not included in the bill. The purpose of the bill is to provide the MTWP the tax subsidies and legal framework needed to implement whatever plan they choose. The formation of MTWP increases the likelihood of clear cutting in our local forests. It provides the means through which forestland can be parceled into the large tracts of land needed to attract large corporations. In fact, section f(6) of H2932 states that “the partnership may obtain by purchase, rental, donation, or otherwise, … the acquisition of real property or interest in real property, as may be needed to implement the partnership plan.”
To be clear, this is not about pellet stoves in homes and businesses, or local landowners harvesting trees for local use. This is about corporations cashing in on our local forests. Rep. Kulik’s bill enables them to do this with your tax dollars and without your control. The preemption of local control by an external governing agency, especially one heavily represented by corporate interests, is always a bad idea.
H2932 is a bad bill. Please contact your representatives and say “no” to H2932.
Alex Meade and Clarissa Spawn
Shelburne Falls