AUGUSTA – A state-run permit program that helps Maine’s long-ailing groundfishing industry should be open to boats of all sizes, supporters of a bill to expand a so-called permit bank said Wednesday.

L.D. 939, sponsored by Senate President Justin Alfond, D-Portland, would allocate $3.5 million in state money annually to the Maine Groundfish Permit Bank, established in 2010 with federal money administered by the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

At a public hearing Wednesday before the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee, the bill faced no opposition. Some in the groundfish industry and the Maine Lobstermen’s Association testified in support of it.

Alfond said his bill “will have real economic benefit by creating a mechanism to provide Maine fishermen access to additional groundfishing quota at affordable rates.”