Dairy task force recommends boosting subsidy to preserve Maine farms [Video]

A task force is calling for added taxes on gambling, cannabis or cigarettes to strengthen Maine’s milk price stabilization program and help prevent more dairy farms from going out of business.

A draft report from the Maine Dairy Task Force also recommends asking voters to approve a multimillion-dollar bond issue that would support a variety of other proposals intended to bolster the state’s struggling dairy industry.

And it recommends establishing a minimum annual budget appropriation of about $7.5 million to reduce wide fluctuations in state funding for the price stabilization program and uncertainty related to highly volatile federal milk pricing, market conditions and other factors.

Regardless of how the money is raised, Maine’s milk subsidy must be fully funded each year to avoid further attrition in the state’s dairy industry, said Annie Watson, a dairy farmer and task force member who is president of the Maine Dairy Industry Association.

“That is going to be the most important recommendation,” Watson …