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Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Legislative recap for Monday, June 9
The state seal at the entrance to the Maine State House in Augusta. (Jim Neuger/Maine Morning Star) Faced with the question of whether to change the unique way the state's constitutional officers are chosen, the majority of lawmakers on Monday rejected the notion that the attorney general and secretary of state should be elected by voters, rather than the Legislature. The Senate voted against a bill that would amend the constitution to require the popular election of the secretary of state, attorney general and state treasurer (LD 455) and then voted against a similar bill (LD 508), which was later tabled. Other proposed constitutional amendments to require the popular election of the secretary of state (LD 147) and attorney general (LD 149) were rejected by the majority of both chambers. With papers frantically shuffling between chambers this week ahead of the planned June 18 adjournment, Maine Morning Star will highlight the biggest items of debate as well as legislation and issues that we've followed all session. Here's an overview of what happened Monday. Both chambers Both chambers have now passed a resolve (LD 470) directing the Department of Education to review teacher mentoring programs in Maine Public Schools after the House voted Monday to pass an amended version of the bill. Following the Senate last week, the House voted 81-64 to pass LD 1145, which would give a group of mobile home owners or a mobile home owners' association the right of first refusal to purchase a mobile home park if the owner intends to sell. The House also adopted a floor amendment stripping the emergency clause from the bill that was also approved by the Senate. (More on this issue here.) The House and Senate have both also passed LD 13, which establishes a fund for the Secretary of State's Office for the production and delivery of election-related materials. The Senate backed two measures previously supported by the House that would expand access to needle exchange programs (LD 1078) and fund proper disposal of syringe litter (LD 1738). (More on this here.) Both chambers voted Monday against legislation (LD 1505) that would phase out the sales and use tax, as well as another bill (LD 1899) that would have eliminated taxes on health care spending, which tax committee co-chair Sen. Nicole Grohowski (D-Hancock) said she generally supported but the bill was 'not ready for prime time.' The House voted 74-71 for LD 1113, which asks a court, when sentencing an individual for a Class A, Class B or Class C crime, to consider the age of the individual at the time of the conduct. The Senate later followed, voting 19-15 to pass the measure. A proposal (LD 1036) to prohibit landlords from refusing to rent to tenants solely because they rely on programs such as General Assistance or housing vouchers is essentially dead after both chambers insisted on their respective positions on the bill. After it was initially passed by the House last week, the Senate rejected the bill after Sen. Chip Curry (D-Waldo) explained that the Judiciary Committee is carrying a similar bill into the next session to allow more time to work on it. (More on this bill here.) Before the Senate passed LD 1522 without a roll call, the House voted 76-68 to permanently establish the Maine Eviction Prevention Program within the Maine State Housing Authority. Members of both chambers rejected a measure (LD 152) that would have amended the Freedom of Access Act to require agencies to respond to public records requests within a specific time. Both the House and Senate rejected a bill (LD 1593) that would require that, when making a decision based on advancing equity, that a state or a local government agency make public its definition of the term as well as metrics. Both chambers also voted down a so-called parents rights bill (LD 1974), which would explicitly declare it a fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing, education and care of their child. Both chambers have also now rejected legislation (LD 1707) that would require an individual to be a citizen of the U.S. in order to receive any state or local assistance, aside from education. It would also have required municipalities to comply with federal immigration authorities in order to receive general assistance or state-municipal revenue sharing. LD 613, a bill supported by the Maine Medical Association that allows terminally ill patients to waive the current 17-day waiting period for access to life-ending medication, is in limbo after the Senate voted 17-18 on Monday against passage of the measure, which won the backing of the House last week. The House Monday again voted against passage of LD 1263 after the Senate last week backed the measure, which would create a Class A crime for aggravated trafficking of fentanyl when it results in an overdose. It now goes back to the Senate to take up again. After a failed effort to align with the Senate's rejection of LD 1535, the House insisted on passage of the bill, which would require the Public Utilities Commission to gather a group of municipal, police and fire officials to discuss the high electricity usage related to illegal cannabis grows in the state. Since the Senate last week insisted on its position against the bill, it is now essentially dead. The chambers are split over a resolve (LD 1364) directing the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to evaluate efforts to promote the use of non-lead ammunition with the House passing an amended version of the bill that the Senate rejected. During the Senate debate, Sen. Anne Carney (D-Cumberland) said she is consistently approached by constituents seeking to ban lead-based ammunition but said they've never done that because educating people about this topic gets them to choose a better option. The amended version of the bill, she explained, would make educational materials more accessible. After passage in the Senate last week, the House voted 76-69 to reject LD 371, which would remove the 100-megawatt maximum capacity limit for hydropower to qualify as a renewable resource under the state's renewable resource portfolio requirement. (More on this issue here.) After LD 1928 squeaked through both chambers last week, the Senate voted 14-20 against enactment on Monday leaving the bill, which would prohibit lodging establishments from using single-use plastic containers — such as mini shampoo bottles — in limbo. The Senate on Monday voted under the hammer to pass legislation (LD 1202) to create the African American Studies Advisory Council to measure and monitor the implementation of related curriculum using data collected by the Department of Education. It is an amended version of legislation that passed last year but was never enacted. (More on this here). House lawmakers voted 100-44 to back legislation (LD 297) that extends provisions of current law regarding the management of wastewater treatment plant sludge at the state-owned landfill. The House voted against legislation (LD 1268) that would have provided an annual stipend to all employees of the Maine State Ferry Service. Legislation (LD 1471) requiring a landlord to provide tenants an energy efficiency disclosure statement for certain rental housing in the state passed the House. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Legislators suggest task force tackle challenge of property tax reform
The Legislature's Taxation Committee hears public feedback on bill proposals in Augusta. (Emma Davis/ Maine Morning Star) With bipartisan agreement that Maine's property tax burden is too high, legislators are pushing for some tweaks to tax credits this year, however they're holding off on substantial reform until a task force can study the issue. Among its work on 18 bills on Thursday, the Taxation Committee removed the policy changes from a bipartisan plan from legislative leadership to provide property tax relief. Instead, the committee members unanimously agreed the bill should be exclusively focused on the creation of a task force that would report back legislative recommendations starting next year. 'The truth of the matter is with 2,000 bills that we're working in five months,' said co-chair Sen. Nicole Grohowski (D-Hancock), 'I actually think taking a break and being able to focus on one thing for a period of time is the way we can get the best outcome for Maine people.' The Maine Legislature is approaching its expected final month of work for the first year of the two-year session and is overall considering dozens of bills that aim to reform property taxes. Some have received favorable votes from the Taxation Committee including on Thursday a plan to expand the Property Tax Fairness Credit. The committee also earlier advanced a proposal to increase the state's tax exemption for homeowners and another to expand property tax relief for veterans and their survivors, with the latter passing both the Maine House of Representatives and Senate this week. The committee's recommendations largely fell in line with the positions of Gov. Janet Mills' administration, including committee members unanimously opposing on Thursday attempts to reinstate previously repealed programs related to property taxes. 'We did take the time and really work the task force,' Rep. Shelley Rudnicki (R-Fairfield) said, referring to the several hours the committee spent Thursday morning hashing out the details of its composition and deadlines. 'I think it makes sense right now to go that way rather than try to piecemeal things.' A bipartisan bill, LD 1770 sponsored by Senate President Mattie Daughtry (D-Brunswick) and co-sponsored by House Speaker Ryan Fecteau (D-Biddeford) and Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart (R-Aroostook), among others, initially sought to both increase the property tax fairness credit and establish a Real Estate Property Tax Relief Task Force. The committee unanimously decided to advance an amended version of the bill that only included the latter, which now sets LD 1770 on a likely path to passage. The Mills administration had some concerns about the policy changes in LD 1770 given the tight budget year but was fully supportive of the task force component. Stating that they'd like to wait for the recommendations from this task force for major reform, the committee unanimously rejected most of the other property tax bills it considered on Thursday. These included LDs 432, 1304, 1464, 1537, 1591, 1610, 1729 and 1798. 'We are taking all of this, all of this information, seriously,' said Rep. Tracy Quint (R-Hodgdon), 'and that is why we are sending it over to the task force, because they can take the appropriate amount of time to see which bills can be properly worked and implemented.' Other lawmakers withdrew their own bills, including Rep. Steven Foster (R-Dexter) who withdrew LD 614, which sought to modify certain property tax assessment methods. 'I believe a long term answer to this problem requires much more than occasional increases to the Homestead exemption, tax credits, or other temporary fixes,' Foster said. 'I think the task force and its work this bill would establish may provide that answer.' Daughtry had outlined that the task force would be required to be geographically diverse and composed of legislators, economists, tax experts, real estate professionals and representatives of low-income and older residents. The committee added additional specifications, including that those representing low-income and older residents be people with that lived experience and that one member must represent municipalities with fewer than 10,000 residents and different forms of government — i.e. both cities and towns. While the committee had wanted the task force to complete its work within the current 132nd Legislature, it ultimately compromised, given concerns about staff workload in light of changes on the federal level raised by Michael Allen, associate commissioner for Tax Policy in the Department of Administrative and Financial Services. With the Republican majority in U.S. Congress pushing for a budget plan with new tax breaks, cuts to Medicaid and other programs, Maine state government will likely have to return to readjust state spending and operations once the details are finalized, Allen said. 'That means we're looking at conformity sometime in the middle of the summer of a very complicated bill, which is going to probably require this committee to come in to evaluate any proposal by the governor,' Allen said. 'It may take two or three weeks just to figure out what exactly Congress did and its impact on state revenue.' Therefore, the committee agreed to have the task force issue an interim report in January 2026, but also have the ability to continue its work until December 2026, when a final report would be due. Rep. Gregory Lewis Swallow (R-Houlton) was alone in offering a different take on the task force. He thinks limiting it to only studying property taxes is too narrow. 'Everything is synergistic on this issue,' Swallow said. 'When you deal with one tax, you're dealing with another tax.' The state has incrementally expanded the Property Tax Fairness Credit, the latest of which occurred last year. The credit allows taxpayers to receive back a portion of their property tax or rent paid during the tax year, with the value calculated by the degree to which the 'base benefit' exceeds 4% four of a person's annual income. In the 2023 tax year, the state essentially returned just under $80 million to taxpayers through the credit and after the latest expansion the state has returned about $115 million to taxpayers in 2024, though that number may change as returns come in. Allen said 33,463 taxpayers have benefitted from the expansion, with an average tax cut of $678, including 7,672 people who would have earlier been ineligible. Another adjustment could be coming. The committee unanimously voted to advance LD 715, sponsored by Rep. Nina Azella Milliken (D-Blue Hill), which would allow for people over the age of 65 with an annual income of $36,000 or less to receive a credit equal to the amount by which the 'base benefit' exceeds 3% of their annual income, a decrease from the current 4%. Former state Rep. Ron Russell introduced this plan last session, and while his bill passed both chambers, it ultimately did not get funded. On the other hand, the committee voted 8-3 against LD 1665, sponsored by Sen. Anne Carney (D-Cumberland), which covered similar ground but with a wider scope. It proposed increasing the benefit base to varying levels based on age and number of children. The majority of the committee ultimately rejected the plan, with Grohowski and Quint agreeing that the state shouldn't muddy the waters by adding another track for people with dependents to the property tax fairness credit when the state already has a specific child tax credit, which the committee has separately recommended be expanded. Enacted in 2022, the Property Tax Stabilization Program allowed people 65 years old and over to freeze their property taxes at the previous year's level regardless of income, as long as they owned a permanent residence for at least 10 years and were eligible to receive a homestead exemption. Mills allowed the law to take effect without her signature. However, the Legislature repealed that program after just one year in effect, following skyrocketing cost projections, concern about wealthy property owners taking advantage due to a lack of income restrictions and the administrative burden it left on municipalities. The eligibility expansion for the Property Tax Fairness Credit and the creation of a Property Tax Deferral Program had been some of the ways lawmakers tried to soften the blow of this repeal last session. With unanimous votes among those present, the Taxation Committee rejected Republican proposals to reinstate the program, albeit with some changes aimed to address the program's shortcomings. LD 1481, sponsored by Rep. Wayne Parry (R-Arundel), would add income limits for eligibility, and LD 1541, sponsored by Sen. Joseph Martin (R-Oxford), would exempt all Mainers over 65 from property taxes. The latter bill is co-sponsored by Republican leaders, Sen. Trey Stewart of Aroostook and Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham of Winter Harbor. 'We should have fixed it,' Parry said of the program during a Wednesday press conference, 'not gotten rid of it.' In 2024, the Legislature repealed a law that limited the total levy that could be raised by a municipality via property taxes each year. LD 542, which is sponsored by Rep. Jeffrey Sean Adams (R-Lebanon), proposed reestablishing municipal property tax levy limits. The State and Local Government Committee was split on the proposal and not along party lines. Six legislators voted for its passage, while six voted against it. The majority of the House opposed the bill on Tuesday, with a 79-62 vote against passage, and the Senate tabled it on Wednesday. Regardless of how the Legislature's final votes come down, the Mills administration is also opposed to both bills, so they would likely get vetoed. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
