Latest news with #RachelTalbotRoss
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Equal tax treatment among Wabanaki Nations poised to come to fruition this year
Participants in a Wabanaki Alliance rally on Indigenous Peoples' Day at the Maine State House in Augusta. (Photo by Jim Neuger/Maine Morning Star) After a 2022 change left out the Mi'kmaq Nation from reform, legislation to ensure equal tax treatment among all of the Wabanaki Nations secured the approval of both chambers of the Maine Legislature this week. LD 982, sponsored by Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Cumberland), passed the House of Representatives and Senate on Tuesday without roll call votes. The bill would exempt the Mi'kmaq Nation from state sales and income tax for activities occurring on tribal trust or reservation lands and allow the Tribe to generate sales tax revenues from sales on their own lands — the same rights afforded to the other Wabanaki Nations. The Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, the Passamaquoddy Tribe and the Penobscot Nation were granted these rights under a 2022 tax revision, also proposed by Talbot Ross, which brought them on par with the rules that apply to other tribal nations throughout the country. Compared to other federally recognized tribes, the Wabanaki Nations are treated more akin to municipalities than sovereign nations because of the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act. But the Mi'kmaq Nation was not referred to in the Settlement Act and only received federal recognition later in 1991. Last session, the Legislature passed a law known as The Mi'kmaq Nation Restoration Act that put the Tribe on par with the rest of the Wabanaki Nations. LD 982 therefore builds upon the restoration act and the tax revision. This change was previously attempted last session with legislation proposed by State Treasurer Joseph Perry, then representing Bangor in the Maine House. While that bill received favorable committee and chamber votes, it got caught up in end-of-session procedural fights and ultimately died without final action when lawmakers adjourned. The bill this session ultimately becoming law is not yet guaranteed. It has several associated costs, which means it's likely to go to the appropriations table, where bills with fiscal notes that are not already provided for have to vie for funding. This bill would decrease the state's general fund by $4,750 in fiscal year 2025-26 and $45,150 in fiscal year 2026-27. It would also result in ongoing annual transfers of $500 to the Mi'kmaq Sales Tax Fund and result in revenue decreases to the Local Government Fund. There would also be a one-time cost — $19,300 — to fund computer programming costs associated with the provisions of this bill. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gov. Mills signs minimum wage for Maine agriculture workers into law
Jun. 10—Gov. Janet Mills on Tuesday signed a bill into law that requires agricultural workers be paid at least the state minimum wage. The proposal, sponsored by Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, is similar to one proposed last year by Gov. Janet Mills. That effort fell short after lawmakers passed an amended version of the bill and Mills vetoed it. Under existing law, Maine farmhands can earn as little as $7.25 an hour. That is the federal minimum wage, which has not been raised since 2009. Once the new law takes effect, farmhands must earn at least the state minimum wage, which is currently $14.65 an hour and increases automatically with inflation. Advocates, who have been advocating for the bill for years, celebrated the signing in a news release. Talbot Ross said in a written statement that the signing of the bill is a "long overdue step towards justice" and corrects "a legacy of exclusion rooted in racism that denied protections to Black, Brown, Latino, and Indigenous laborers." "Today, Maine made history," Talbot Ross said. "This moment belongs to the workers who have spoken out for years — often unheard and unseen — demanding the most basic rights and dignity. Today, we say to them: We see you. We value your work. You belong fully under Maine law." Heather Spalding, deputy director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, said her organization is "thrilled that Maine is taking this step toward social justice and correcting an error on the law books." "This is a bare-bones policy to protect the people who carry out physically demanding tasks, for long hours in all kinds of weather to ensure that we have food on our tables," Spalding said. Republicans largely opposed the bill, warning that it could put farms out of business and jeopardize piecework, where workers get paid by the amount of crops they harvest as opposed to hourly wages. The bill mirrors a proposal put forward by a diverse working group assembled by Mills during the last legislative session. That bill was amended in committee to allow aggrieved farmworkers to sue over alleged violations. It passed both chambers, but was vetoed by Mills. The new law will take effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns. Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Farmworker minimum wage on track to become Maine law
Jun. 3—AUGUSTA — Maine farmworkers could soon be covered by the state's minimum wage law for the first time after lawmakers voted this week to extend the law to the state's agriculture industry. The proposal, sponsored by Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, is similar to one proposed last year by Gov. Janet Mills. That effort fell short after lawmakers passed an amended version of the bill and Mills vetoed it. The new legislation, LD 589, passed 74-72 in the House of Representatives on Tuesday and 22-12 in the Senate on Monday. The bill got final passage in the House in the afternoon on a 74-73 vote and was enacted in the Senate with no roll call. It is now headed to the governor. While the governor is expected to sign the bill into law, aides did not respond Tuesday to a question about whether she supports it. Meanwhile, a separate bill that would provide legal protections to farmworkers who discuss their working conditions and pay with other farmhands was rejected by the House, 75-71. That same bill had been previously approved by the Senate, meaning the bill will die between chambers unless a compromise is reached. Under existing law, Maine farmhands can earn as little as $7.25 an hour. That is the federal minimum wage, which has not been raised since 2009. Talbot Ross' bill, which was supported by a range of agricultural associations, would require farmworkers be paid at least the state minimum wage, which is currently $14.65 an hour and increases automatically with inflation. Advocates have been trying to persuade lawmakers to require the state minimum wage for farmworkers for years. They came close to succeeding last year after a stakeholder group proposed a compromise that Mills introduced to the Legislature. A version of Mills' bill was enacted in both chambers, but the governor vetoed it, citing changes made during the committee process, including a provision that would have allowed workers to sue over alleged violations. During floor debates this week, supporters argued the exclusion of farmworkers from minimum wage laws was a long-standing injustice that needs to be corrected. Many farmers are already paying the state minimum or more, and the others should be required to do the same, they argued. The version of the bill working its way through the Legislature doesn't allow workers to sue over violations. It also would allow farmers to continue paying employees based on piecework, or the amount they can harvest or process in a shift, as long as they earn at least the minimum hourly wage. Opponents said the bill would hurt farmers and put them out of business, and that it would jeopardize piecework positions for some who do it to supplement their incomes but don't meet the minimum wage standard. Rep. Gary Drinkwater, R-Milford, said the bill would make it more difficult for seniors or teenagers to be paid by piecework, because they may not be able to harvest enough blueberries to justify their employment. "Anyone who cannot rake enough blueberries to meet the hourly wage simply won't be hired," Drinkwater said. "This bill shuts out the very people who depend on seasonal work." Rep. Rafael Macias, D-Topsham, said the bill sends a message to farmworkers that they and their work are valued. "For too long, agricultural workers, those who plant our food, harvest berries, wrap wreaths, milk cows and work long hours under the sun, have been excluded from basic wage protections most of us take for granted," Macias said. "These exclusions are rooted in a shameful legacy, and they have no place in the Maine of today. All of our hearts should hurt for this long injustice." During a Senate floor debate Monday, Talbot Ross argued that the bill was necessary to correct the historical injustice of underpaying farm hands. She said passing the bill would send the message that Maine would "no longer tolerate a system built on exclusion and inequity." After that, the floor debate devolved when Republicans took offense to references to historical discrimination. "I planned to sit this one out," said Sen. James Libby, R-Standish. "But I can't sit in my chair and listen to people talk about, 'you must support this bill this or else you don't care about minorities.' That is not true." Sen. Joseph Martin, R-Rumford, said he was offended that "somebody would call it racist for someone to pick blueberries or strawberries." And Sen. Scott Cyrway, R-Albion, fondly recalled doing piecework as a child, saying such work was not "slave labor" and "we are not second-class citizens." Those inferences drew a sharp rebuke from Talbot Ross, who said Republicans twisted her words and that listening to the debate was "some of the hardest moments for me to sit in this chair." She stressed that she was criticizing systems, not individuals. "Calling people racist? I work very hard every single solitary day not to do that because I do not believe that's where the discussion should start," Talbot Ross said. "Maybe read United States history, because I am talking about a pattern of discrimination, not individual people who may be of a certain ideology. I'm talking about patterns that history cannot deny. And I will not sit here and have you twist my words to claim otherwise." Despite the votes in favor of the minimum wage, a bill that would afford legal protections to farmhands who discuss their working conditions and pay with each other appears doomed. Those protections are guaranteed to private sector workers through the National Labor Relations Act, but farmworkers are excluded and state lawmakers have made repeated attempts to protect what is known as "concerted activity." Opponents of LD 588 argued that it would allow farmworkers to form unions, citing testimony from labor unions advocating for collective bargaining rights for farmers. Supporters argued that the bill would simply allow workers to talk about wages and working conditions, but would not give them collective bargaining rights. While previously supported in the Senate, the House voted 75-71 to reject the bill Tuesday. It will likely die between the chambers unless a compromise is reached or enough House members change their votes. Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Latest attempt to add Equal Rights Amendment to Maine Constitution languishes
Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Cumberland) rallies outside the State House to voice her support for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Maine Constitution on March 4, 2025. (Photo by Emma Davis/ Maine Morning Star) The latest attempt to add an Equal Rights Amendment to the Maine Constitution has all but failed, though a procedural move on Thursday technically leaves it in limbo until appropriations are settled at the end of session. Constitutional amendments are ultimately decided by the voters but first need to receive the support of two-thirds of the Maine Legislature. On Wednesday, the House voted 74-65 to enact the measure, failing to meet that threshold. The reason Republicans were opposed: gender identity. 'The question before us is not whether equality matters,' Rep. Jennifer Poirier (R-Skowhegan) said on the House floor on April 17. 'It's whether this amendment helps or harms that cause, and I submit that it does more harm than good.' The proposed amendment would prohibit 'the denial or abridgment by the state or any political subdivision of the state of equal rights based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, physical or mental disability, ancestry or national origin of an individual.' Echoing prominent opposition to the federal Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s, several of the Republicans who voted against the measure claimed it was a threat to women's rights because of the protections it would afford against discrimination based on gender identity, which is a protected class under the Maine Human Rights Act. Gender identity has become a major flashpoint in Maine since President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding unless the state complies with his executive order banning transgender girls from playing in girls' sports. The state is currently being sued by the Department of Justice and has been the subject of several probes and funding cuts that have been widely interpreted as retaliatory. The Legislature is also considering a few individual bills to restrict transgender students' access to sports, bathrooms and locker rooms. Despite this new context, state efforts to pass an ERA are longstanding. LD 260, proposed by Rep. Holly Sargent (D-York) and more than 90 Democratic and independent co-sponsors, continues the work of the late state Rep. Lois Galgay Reckitt, who pressed for a state ERA for five decades, with the last attempt failing to pass in 2023 during her final term in the Maine Legislature. On the House floor on April 17, Sargent argued constitutions are not static documents. 'Our Constitution began with a narrow vision of to whom equal rights were given,' Sargent said. 'But our national and state constitutions are living evolving and expanding pronouncements of what Americans believe throughout our history. Our constitutions have gradually redefined who is worthy of all of the rights to be bestowed and who can be excluded, who is viewed as less than human.' Lawmakers are not considering with this bill whether to enshrine rights in the Constitution, said Rep. Amy Roeder (D-Bangor), but rather whether to let the voters decide. 'I, for one, am not afraid of the will of the people,' Roeder said, 'and I hope the rest of this body will join me in that.' The Democratic majority in the lower chamber did. But instead of casting an enactment vote on Thursday, the Senate sent the legislation to the 'Appropriations Table.' This is typical for constitutional amendments, as they will have fiscal notes associated with election costs. If bills aren't explicitly funded in the state budget, they need to be paid for using remaining unappropriated money, which is divided up usually near the end of session when the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee 'runs the table.' While bills placed on the table can still pass, precedent shows that most will die, left on the table without final action by the time the Legislature adjourns. Regardless, initial votes in both chambers and the enactment vote in the House signal the two-thirds threshold will not be reached even if appropriators do eventually decide to take it off the table. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Maine homeless advocates, emergency shelters call for more state funding
Mar. 18—AUGUSTA — Advocates for the homeless and emergency shelter providers asked lawmakers for an increase in state funding Tuesday, saying shelters are struggling to meet demand and that without additional resources homelessness will worsen. A bill before the Legislature is proposing a $5 million annual increase to the state's Emergency Shelter and Housing Assistance Program, which is used to help cover operating expenses and services at 40 emergency shelters around the state. The program has been flat-funded in the state's general fund budget at $2.5 million since 2016, according to the bill's sponsor, Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland. "This bill is a practical, fiscally responsible step to prevent shelter closures and ensure that Maine's emergency response system remains functional," Talbot Ross told the Housing and Economic Development Committee during a public hearing. The program is just one piece of how shelters pay for their operating costs, contributing about $7 of the average per-night cost of operating a shelter bed in Maine, which is $102 per night, according to a recent study from MaineHousing. The remainder of shelter funding typically comes from fundraising, grants and municipal aid, according to Talbot Ross. Shelter providers as well as MaineHousing, an independent, quasi-governmental agency that works to address housing needs, testified in support of the bill, LD 698, on Tuesday, saying the increase in funding is needed to sustain operations amid rising costs and a persistent housing crisis. The $5 million increase would bring state funding to $19 of the $102 per bed nightly cost. But Gov. Janet Mills' administration has also warned that this is expected to be a tight budget year, and while no one testified against the bill Tuesday, the Governor's Office of Policy Innovation and the Future said in written testimony that the administration has been unable to identify sufficient revenues to fund the bill's proposal. While funding for the program has not increased in the state's baseline budget since 2016, the office wrote that the administration and Legislature have in recent years provided $15 million in one-time funding, authorized emergency funds for warming shelters and last year made $10 million available to ensure the continued viability of five low-barrier shelters. "We understand, however, that the 35 non-low-barrier shelters in the ESHAP network which did not benefit from last year's investment continue to struggle — as do their peers in states across the country — with highly limited budgets, rising costs and increasing needs," the office wrote. "We are committed to working with the Legislature, shelter providers, MaineHousing, and local and federal government agencies to identify a more sustainable financial path for the Maine's emergency shelters," it added. In addition to funding in the baseline budget, the program also gets federal support from Maine's HOME Fund, which is funded with a dedicated portion of the real estate transfer tax. Shelter providers and several formerly homeless Mainers testified that the increase in state funding is critical. Katie Spencer White, president and CEO of the Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter in Waterville, said emergency shelters are facing an "existential crisis" without new funding. She said her board recently approved a loan for $200,000 to help the shelter meet operating costs. "If we don't take out that loan, we will close," Spencer White said. "If we close, people will die. We've reversed 30 overdoses since Jan. 1... What we do matters and not just to the people of Waterville." Shelter operators said Tuesday that in addition to the funding from the state program, they also seek funding from municipalities, local businesses and churches and other philanthropic donors, and grant funding, but it can be difficult to cobble together enough. Some shelters utilize the state's General Assistance program to help pay for shelter nights, but Spencer White said her shelter and many shelters in smaller communities around Maine do not, in part because the program also requires a municipal reimbursement that can be burdensome for the communities the shelters are based in. Many people staying at shelters also don't qualify for General Assistance for reasons including, for example, if they have income from a disability or Social Security, Spencer White said. Karen Gonya, a board member at Homeless Services of Aroostook, which operates the only homeless shelter north of Bangor, said the organization served 216 adults and 18 children last year in its shelter programs, and helped 90 people with its warming shelter. "We are struggling right now to meet payroll," Gonya said. "We are limiting expenses, from basics like turning down heat to the more drastic step of cutting staff hours. But without more reliable funding, we are worried about the future of our shelter. It would be such a tremendous disservice to our region... to not have a homeless shelter." Lisa Franklin, a Portland resident who was formerly homeless for a year after leaving an abusive relationship, told the committee that it was her stay at the former Oxford Street Shelter that allowed her to access critical medical and social services and rebuild her life. "People of all ages, races and genders experience homelessness for a variety of reasons," Franklin said. "As the rate of homelessness continues to rise across our state, it is imperative that our homeless shelters remain open and funded." Copy the Story Link We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others. We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion. You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs. Show less
