High Priority Issues

Update from May 28th, 2023

LDs that are well and truly DEAD – came out of the standing committees and were reported to the House and Senate. Note – there are some Good Deaths here. 

LD 34 – An Act to Require a Person to Show Photo ID for the purpose of Voting

LD 51 – An Act to Restore Religious and Philosophical Exemptions to Immunization Requirements

LD 89 – An Act to Clarify Eligibility for Property Tax Stabilization for Individuals 65 years of age or older

LD 222 – An Act to Require Students to demonstrate Knowledge of the Constitution of Maine and the US Constitution

LD 245 – An Act to Require a Person Receiving Unemployment Benefits to Attend Scheduled Interviews to Fulfill the Work Search Requirements

LD 338 – An Act to Allow Education Funding to Follow the Student

LD 514 – Resolve, Directing the Office of the State Auditor to Report on Taxpayer Money Funding Maine Nonprofits

LD 521 – An Act to Prevent Political Patronage with regard to State Legislators

LD 529 – An Act to Remove the Annual Filing Requirement in the Property Tax Stabilization Laws

LD 590 – Resolution, Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of Maine to Establish a Right to Health Care

LD 665 – An Act to Extend the Date by Which Compliance (to LD 2003 – Public Law 2021, chapt 672) ) is required

LD 667 – An Act to Impose a Tax Surcharge on Certain Incomes

LD 668 – An Act to Protect Maine Taxpayers by Requiring a person to be a US citizen to receive GA benefits and to ensure municipal compliance with Federal Immigration Laws

LD 685 – An Act to Codify that FOAA and FOIA requests are not Hate Crimes.

LD 694 – An Act to Lower the Signature Quantity Requirement for Certain Independent Candidates for Elected Office

LD 737 – An act to Prohibit Government Contracting Organizations from Influencing Elections

LD 768 – An Act to Authorize State Political Parties to Opt out of Ranked-Choice voting for Primary Elections

LD 770 – An Act to Prohibit Ballot Harvesting by Preventing a 3rd person from Returning More than 2 Absentee Ballots per day

LD 801 – An Act to Require Municipalities to Obtain Housing Units for Residents Experiencing Homelessness

LD 835 – An Act to Phase out the income tax

LD 869 – An Act to Protect Education Access by Prohibiting a Mandate for Schoolchildren for a Covid 19 vaccine or a vaccine under an emergency use authorization

LD 1038 – An Act to Reinstate Plurality Voting by Repealing the Ranked Choice Voting

LD 1098 – An Act To Restore Religious and Philosophical Exceptions Regarding Immunization Requirements

LD 1194 – An Act to Implement Work Requirements under the MaineCare program

LD 1137 – An Act to Prohibit Deceptive Advertising in Limited Pregnancy Service Centers (this bill was withdrawn on April 28)

LD 1148 – An Act to Prohibit Covid-19 Vaccine Mandates for Students Enrolled in Public Institutions of Learning

LD 1202 – An Act to Increase the Homestead Exemption to $50,000

LD 1209 – An Act to Reinstate the Religious and Philosophical Vaccine Exemptions for Private Schools and Virtual Public Charter Schools

LD 1228 – An Act to Prohibit Certain Higher Education Institutions from requiring vaccines approved under emergency use authorization for admission or Attendance

LD 1300 – An Act to Give the Governing Board of a Municipality Input into the Budget Developed by a School Board.

LD 1320 – An Act to Improve Signature Requirements for Candidates by Allowing Unenrolled Voters to Sign Petitions for Party candidates

LD 1380 – An Act to Fund Municipal Administrative Costs Associated with the Senior Property Tax Stabilization Program

LD 1413 – An Act To Amend the Laws Establishing a Property Tax Stabilization Program for Senior Citizens

LD 1448 – An Act to Change the TANF Program Requirements by Reducing Benefits Commensurate with a Recipient’s Salary, Reducing the Special Housing Allowance and Limiting Eligibility for 2-parent Families

LD 1650 - An Act to Create a Tiered Senior Resident Homestead Exemption

LD 1651 - An Act to Reduce the State Income Tax

LDs that are 1 small step away from Death – reported out of committees on Unanimous Ought Not to Pass Reports

LD 1567 – An Act to Create a Training Program for School Board Members and Establish School Board Meeting Standards

LD 1571 – An Act to Provide Meaningful Public Participation at Local School Board Meetings

LD 1697 - An Act to Implement Background Checks for School Board Members

LD 182 – An Act to Create a 9-month time limit on General Assistance Benefits for Able-bodied adults without dependents

LD 183 – An Act to Incorporate Time Limits on the TANF program into Municipal General Assistance Programs

LD 268 – An Act To Establish a 45-day Municipal Residency Requirement for General Assistance Programs

LD 364 – An Act to Prohibit the Use of General Assistance as a Replacement for Available Resources

LD 454 – An Act to Establish a 180-day State Residency Requirement for Municipal General Assistance

LD 776 – Resolution, Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of Maine to Establish the Right to Bodily Autonomy

LD 1629 - Resolution, Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of Maine to Recognize the Right to Personal Privacy

LD 1899 - An Act to Establish a Maine Commercial Driver’s License for Use Within State Borders

Passed House and Senate –

LD 394 - Resolve, Regarding the Legislative Review of Chapter 117 - Rule Regarding the Duties of School Counselors and School Social Workers, a Major Substantive Rule of the DOE

Passed House and Senate – on the Appropriations Table

LD 199 – An Act to Improve the Health of Maine Residents by Removing Exclusions to the MaineCare Program – provides coverage for noncitizen residents who are ineligible for coverage under the federal Medicaid program due to their immigration status. Fiscal note is $13.6MM per year, (initially).

Update from May 24th, 2023

LD 1964 - An Act to Implement the Recommendations of the Commission to Develop a Paid Family Medical Leave Benefits Program - Public Hearing is scheduled for May 25th at 1pm. This bill would cost nearly $400M annually, funded through a new payroll tax on employers and employees, and would allow 12 weeks of paid leave annually, stacked up to 24 weeks/6 months in some cases. The average Maine earner only needs 6 weeks’ worth of earnings over the course of a year to qualify, and claim only a "like-family" relationship. Completely subjective and ripe for misuse.

The Maine State Chamber of Commerce and Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce oppose this bill. The State Chamber will be in-person to testify along with the Retail Association of Maine, National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Maine, HospitalityMaine, and more.

To learn more, check out these 2 recent posts in our News section:

Update from May 17th, 2023:

In my last update, just a couple of days ago, I missed two critical bills  - which would allow your school boards to ram through their budgets and make it very difficult for people to reject them.  Even tho the referenda process generally results in budget approval, the mere fact that the budget has to go through a voting process for approval acts as a restraint on the budget a school board would come up with. This would remove any incentive for school boards to rein in their budgets.

Town chairs please forward to your membership ASAP!

Everybody – please forward to anyone else who may care.

LD 1370 - An Act to Simplify the School Budget Validation Process - Rep Mastraccio of Sanford, co-sponsored by Millett of Cape Elizabeth - Every 3 years, voters in a school district must decide to continue the budget referendum process and the result lasts for 3 years.  A vote to reinstate the budget validation referendum may be made by either a majority vote of the school board or a written petition filed with the school board by at least  25% of the voters in the last gubernatorial election.  The vote on the referendum itself is not considered valid unless the number of voters voting on the referendum is equal to or greater than 25% of the number of voters in the last gubernatorial election.  If the number of voters is less than that, the budget is considered to be approved (even if 90% of the votes are to not approve the budget). 

LD 1748 - An Act to Reform the School Budget Referendum Process by Limiting the Circumstances in which Referenda Occur - Rep Abdi of Lewiston - Under this bill, a school budget validation referendum is only required if a written petition, signed by at least of the number of voters voting in the last gubernatorial election in the municipalities in the school administrative unit, is filed with the unit's school board within 30 days of the approval of the budget at a budget meeting. Public Hearing May 2, WS May 22 10:00

These two bills are pending in the Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs,  and the public hearing on these bills has already taken place – on May 2, but its not to late to make your views known.  The Work Session is May 22, and testimonies may be submitted before then.  The sooner the better.  ASAP.  Today.  The committee clerk when he or she summarizes the testimonial response for the committee, will include submissions filed after the public hearing and before the work session.

To submit testimony, go to

https://www.mainelegislature.org/testimony/

choose public hearing

choose a committee – Education and Cultural Affairs

choose May 2 2023 1:00

choose LD 1370

follow the prompts

repeat the process for LD 1748.

Update from May 15th, 2023:

        The following legislative update is mainly historical.  And it only scratches the surface of What’s Really Going On Up There.  To get the full effect, you really must go to the CCRC website and slog through the Legislative watch list.

           You'll also see below a separate document providing an update on bills pertaining to housing. There are a few new ones and you really should pay attention to them. Plus get an update on those bills following up last year’s LD 2003 and the senior property tax stabilization law.

On Wednesday, May 17, at 9:00, there are public hearings on two bills pertaining to elections  

            LD 1502 – An Act to Provide Consistency of Process for Maine’s Electoral Votes by Prohibiting Enactment of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

            LD 1917 - Resolution, Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of Maine to Implement Ranked-choice Voting for Governor, State Senator and State Representative

Criminal Justice & Public Safety

Work Sessions May 17 at 1:00 on firearms bills – LDs 

22 – Class D crime to transfer firearm to prohibited person

60 – 72 hr wait period

624 – prohibit government from maintaining records of firearms owners

1451 – Prohibit state and local enforcement of federal firearms laws

1561 – restore rights to possess firearms by persons previously convicted of certain offenses

Education and Cultural Affairs

LDs Majority ONTP

51 and 1098– restore religious and philosophical exemptions 

338 – Allow Education funding to follow the student

869 – prohibit mandate for schoolchildren for a Covid 19 vaccine or vaccine under an emergency use authorization

1148 – Prohibit covid 19 mandates for public school students

1209 – reinstate exemptions for private schools and virtual public charter schools

Majority OTP -  LD 394 – Rule 117 – role of school counselors and social workers

Health and Human Services

Majority ONTP bills regarding welfare payments

117 – prohibit cash withdrawals from EBT 

668 – must be citizen to receive GA benefits

778 – able-bodied must work or school or volunteer 20 hrs per week in order to get SNAP or GA for more than 3 months

1448 – Reduce TANF benefits commensurate with recipients salary

Majority OTP  

199 – noncitizen residents ineligible for federal Medicaid program get MaineCAre

945 – Removing asset limits for TANF eligibility

1040 – MaineCAre covers gender-affirming care

Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services

Coming up:

LD 590 – resolution for constitutional amendment to establish a right to health care – Work Session May 17 at 10:00

LD 902 – Repeal MaineCAre expansion – Work Session May 15, 1:00

Majority OTP LDs 

935 – remove barriers to abortion coverage in private insurance – no deductible, co-pays, 

1478 – fund family planning  ($3.39MM/yr)

Housing – see separate document on LDs pertaining to housing

Judiciary

Coming up-  Work Session May 17 at 1:00

LD 535 – gender affirming medical care w/o parents consent age 16-18 

LD 1735 – safeguard gender-affirming health care – makes Maine a sanctuary state for children to come and get gender affirming health care

Majority ONTP LD’s pertaining to abortion 

494 – conform state funding to federal Hyde amendment

771 – protect right to withdraw consent for an abortion

1197 – prevent coerced abortions

1249 – prohibit prescribing abortion drugs through telehealth

1614 – require ultrasounds (note:  Republican offered an amendment to require medical providers to OFFER an ultrasound – still killed)

1809 – prohibit health care w/o parental consent

Majority OTP LDs 

1343 – state preempts field of abortion regulation

Labor and Housing – 

For bills pertaining to housing, see separate status report

LD’s Majority ONTP 

245 – show up for scheduled interview or lose unemployment benefits

301 – exempt employers from providing paid leave for certain part time employees

571 – ease rules to allow 16 & 17 yo to enter the workforce

1636 – workers don’t have to pay union dues or fees if they don’t join the Union

LD’s Majority OTP

1376 – increase minimum wage ($15/hr, then $1 increase every year)

State and Local Government

LD’s Majority ONTP

514 – state auditor to report on taxpayer money funding nonprofits

521 – prevent political patronage by state legislators – can’t work for agency or nonprofit which receives state fund for 4 years

801 – require towns to obtain one housing unit for every 1,000 residents for persons experiencing homelessness

Taxation - For bills relating to property taxes, see separate status report

Veterans and Legal Affairs

Public Hearings May 17, 9:00

LD 1578- prohibit enactment of national popular vote – (but LD 1578, to adopt interstate compact to elect president by popular vote not scheduled yet)

LD 1917 – Resolution proposing an Amendment to the Constitution to Implement ranked choice voting for governor, state senator and state representative.  

LDs majority ONTP

34 – show ID to vote

237 – require voter to update registration every 4 years

694 – lower number of signatures needed for independent candidates to qualify

750 – allow candidate to state the office that they are seeking and the party at the polls – committee passed this bill but the House and Senate killed it

768 – Allow political parties to opt out of RCV for primary elections

769 – reduce enrollment requirement for minor political parties to qualify for status

770 – limits ballot harvesting to 2 per day per 3rd person

790 – require disclosure “paid by public funds” on communications from clean elections candidates

1032 – resolution for amendment that only citizens can vote in local elections

1038 – repeal ranked choice voting

1320 – allow unenrolled voters to sign petitions for party candidates

1365 – require photo ID to vote

1416 – resolution for amendment to increase the percentage of votes cast in last Governor election required to submit a state referendum question from 10% to 25%

1500 – video monitoring of ballot drop boxes and remove party designation from absentee ballot return envelopes

1698 – eliminate private donations to Maine Clean Election Fund – eliminates seed money and qualifying contributions

LDs Majority OTP (with amendments)

1653 – persons under guardianship for mental illness can vote

1690 – voter can get status as ongoing absentee voter, and thereafter automatically receive an absentee ballot for each ensuing election