[Descant]

As I recall, the Department of Homeland Security offerd a lot of money to NH as part of Marine Patrol doing enforcement on the coast. That was when we merged Marine Patrol with State Police. Maine, being IMHO, much smarter than NH, with a lot more coast, said let the USCG patrol the coast and we'll do inland. For many years the USCG tried to get their foot in the door on NH inland waters, especially Winnipesaukee, and we always refused. This time around, the USCG came up with this crazy thing about verifying where wed allocated registration fees and added a requirement for the extra decal. The N H legilstaure, I believe lobbied by the Dept of Safety for $$ reasons, went along. In my mind, we shoulod have told the USCG to stick to their business and we would do ours. Let them have the coast and merge Marine Patrol with Fish and Game. To me, the bureaucracy is running this, not the elected representatives.