Author: Katherine Revello

Maine’s Apportionment Commission, which is responsible for using the 2020 census data to reapportion the state’s legislative and federal congressional districts, held a digital meeting on August 18 to discuss its progress.  Members of the commission debated whether or not to hold a public hearing and solicit resident input before or after they reach a consensus about what new district maps should look like. The meeting adjourned without reaching a decision or setting a date for a hearing to solicit public comment. Donald Alexander, the commission’s chair, stated that some of the software needed to read the redistricting data has…

Despite some improvements to Maine’s economy, the leisure and hospitality industries remain among the slowest to recover from the pandemic. In an August 20 press release, the Maine Department of Labor (DOL) announced that both Maine’s unemployment rate and labor force participation rate increased during July 2021. The unemployment rate increased from 4.8% in June to 4.9% in July, with the number of Mainers unemployed increasing by 700. The number of payroll jobs increased by 1,200. The DOL reports the unemployment rate increased because labor force participation increased more than employment. Maine’s experience does not differ greatly from that of…

Though the legislature failed to override Gov. Janet Mills’ veto of a bill that would have created a consumer-owned utility and allowed it to take over Maine’s largest investor-owned utilities, the issue may be settled by voters in 2022. Our Power, a non-profit organization that describes itself as a “group of Maine ratepayers, business leaders, energy experts, conservationists, and others committed to putting the Pine Tree State’s energy future in the hands of Mainers,” recently announced it has begun the citizen initiative process to bring their issue to the ballot box. “Our Power is excited to launch a statewide citizen…

On August 12, Gov. Janet Mills announced that all Maine healthcare workers will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by October 1.  Mills made the announcement at a joint press conference with Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew and Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Nirav Shah. The agency is using its rule-making authority to issue an emergency change to existing immunization requirements that exist for healthcare workers. Under existing rules, healthcare workers in the state are required to be vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, influenza, and hepatitis…

During its August 11 meeting, the Government Oversight Committee (GOC) voted unanimously to endorse a report on the citizen initiative and people’s veto processes produced by the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability (OPEGA). The GOC referred the report to the Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs to consider legislation addressing opportunities for improvement of the system in future sessions of the legislature. The report was the result of a review assigned to OPEGA by the 128th Legislature’s GOC. OPEGA had previously conducted limited research related to the 2017 citizen initiative that asked voters to approve a casino in…

The Maine Department of Labor (DOL) announced on August 11 it is extending the deadline for its Back to Work grant program, which was initially closed to applications on August 6. The new deadline for applications is August 20. The DOL stated the reason for the extension was to allow “employers who did not file their application by the original August 6, 2021 deadline an additional two weeks to do so.” The Back to Work grant program was originally announced in June 2021. It offers one-time grants to qualified new hires who accepted a job between June 15, 2021 and…

According to estimates from the White House, Maine will receive just over $1.9 billion in funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and can compete for a possible $31 billion. Many of the estimates are projections based on formula funding. The bill, which was approved by the Senate on August 10, has not yet been debated by the House of Representatives and final funding numbers could still change. The largest sum of money Maine is likely to receive would be earmarked for roads and bridges. According to the White House, Maine would receive $1.3 billion in federal aid highway…

On August 6, the Maine Department of Labor (DOL) announced that approximately 7,400 unemployment claimants receiving federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) failed to provide retroactive proof of employment by the August 4 deadline and may be required to repay benefits. On December 27, 2020, former President Trump signed a law that affected eligibility requirements for federal pandemic unemployment assistance. The Continued Assistance for Unemployed Workers Act of 2020, part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, created new rules requiring those filing for PUA benefits to provide proof they were employed, self-employed or had plans to become employed or self-employed…

On August 4, a citizens’ petition that would put a question about the Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI) on the Massachusetts ballot in 2022 was filed with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office. The proposed ballot question proposes changing Massachusetts law to read: “The supply of gasoline, diesel fuels, special fuels or similar motor fuels available to meet consumer demand shall not be reduced or restricted by the implementation of any tax, fee, other revenue generating mechanism, or market-based compliance mechanism.” If approved by voters, it would effectively make it impossible for Massachusetts to participate in the TCI. The TCI is a…

The Maine Department of Labor’s (DOL) Back-to-Work grant program will close applications on Friday, August 6. The program allows employers to file grant applications on behalf of new employees hired either full-time or part-time between June 15 and July 25. Under the program, full-time hires are eligible to receive a one-time grant of $1,500 and part-time hires receive a one-time grant of $750. The DOL first announced the grant program, which it describes as offering “grants to businesses to pay as hiring bonuses to qualifying new employees,” on June 14. According to a press release from Gov. Janet Mills’ office…

When former Secretary of State Matt Dunlap was sworn in as the state auditor on January 4, he did not possess the qualifications to hold office as outlined by Maine law. According to Title 5, §242 of the Maine Revised Statutes, the state auditor must be either a certified public accountant (CPA) or a college graduate with no less than six years of experience as a professional accountant or auditor. Dunlap has neither of those credentials. However, Maine law allows a period of nine months after a state auditor is sworn in to earn credentials as either a CPA, certified…

On August 4, just days after allowing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) eviction moratorium to expire on July 31, the agency announced it will be instituting a new, more narrowly focused moratorium. As justification for the order, as well as previous versions of the moratorium, the CDC has stated that tenants who are evicted must move and therefore present a significant risk for transmitting COVID-19.  Like the CDC’s guidance on which individuals should wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status, the new moratorium will be targeted at counties that have high transmission rates of COVID-19 and…

On July 28, Gov. Janet Mills announced updates to Maine’s recommendations for wearing face coverings in indoor settings. The state is following recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) rather than setting its own policies. Current U.S. CDC guidance recommends all people, even those who are fully vaccinated, wear face coverings in indoor, public settings in areas that have “substantial” or “high” levels of community transmission. A community’s transmission level is determined by the number of cases per 100,000 people from the previous seven days and the percentage of tests with a positive result in the…

On July 27, the U.S. Senate voted to bring President Joe Biden’s appointee to head the Bureau of Land Management to a final vote, though a date on which the vote will be held has not been set. Tracy Stone-Manning, whom Biden nominated on April 22, has become a controversial nominee as a result of allegations she was involved with tree-spiking when she was a graduate student. A vote by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee earlier this month was split 10-10 along party lines, with Democrats voting to advance Stone-Manning’s nomination and Republicans opposing it. The nomination will…

According to Maine Department of Education (DOE) Commissioner Pender Makin, ensuring every student in the state has access to full-time, in-person learning for the upcoming school year is her agency’s top priority. But what full-time, in-person learning will look like is uncertain and may differ between school districts. As Makin noted during an interview on WGAN this week, without a state of emergency in place, the DOE has no authority to issue statewide health and safety mandates in schools. Maine’s civil state of emergency expired on June 30. Without it, the state lacks the authority to enforce the mandates, such…

On July 19, the Maine Legislature voted to approve a plan for spending the $1.1 billion the state received from the federal government as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Gov. Janet Mills signed LD 1733 into law hours after the legislature’s final vote. As originally written, LD 1733 was an emergency bill which would have gone into effect immediately after becoming law. However, it failed to receive support from a two-thirds majority in both legislative houses and will now go into effect in 90 days after adjournment. LD 1733 passed the House by a vote of 70-49,…

Though the bill is dead, voters may still see the question LD 1708 would have posed on the ballot next November.

Gov. Janet Mills held a press conference on Tuesday to announce her veto of LD 1708, which would have created a consumer-owned utility known as the Pine Tree Power Company. Mills’ veto was expected, as she had been publicly critical of the bill before. LD 1708 would have forced the state’s investor-owned utilities, Central Maine Power and Versant Power, to sell their assets to Pine Tree Power. To finance these purchases, Pine Tree Power would have issued debt against its future revenues. It also would have been governed by a publicly-elected board, which would have used a competitive bidding process…

On July 12, Gov. Janet Mills vetoed LD 1711, which would have allowed whistleblowers to bring a private enforcement action in the name of the state for violations of certain labor laws. The bill allowed whistleblowers to take private enforcement action and act on behalf of the state if, after informing either the Attorney General, the Department of Labor, or the Maine Human Rights Commission of a labor law violation, those agencies declined to take action. Settlements or voluntary dismissals of private enforcement action were required to be reviewed and approved by the state agencies involved, as well as the…

A bill that would strengthen protections against civil asset forfeiture, sponsored by Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor), became law on Tuesday without Gov. Janet Mills’ signature. Passed by the Maine Legislature on June 30, LD 1521 specifies that police can only seize an individual’s property if that person is convicted of a crime in which that piece of property was involved. The bill originally passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate by a margin larger than the two-thirds majority required to overcome a veto, so it’s possible the Legislature would have overridden the governor if she objected.…

Though Maine’s state of emergency expired on June 30, some changes to rules and regulations instituted through executive order will remain in effect until the end of 2021.

According to data provided by the Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of July 6, 44.5% of Maine’s 860 recorded deaths from COVID-19 occurred in long-term care facilities. That number includes residents and staff. With data starting in April 2020, the Maine CDC recorded 1,879 cases of COVID-19 among long-term care facility staff and 2,815 cases among long-term care facility residents. It also recorded 383 deaths. The COVID-19 pandemic was deadly for nursing homes across the nation. According to a report recently released by the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human…

If all 300 workers received the $1,500 benefit, the grant program has already paid out $45,000, or 4.5%, of the $10 million available.

The bill passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 123-23 and the Senate by a vote of 32-3. It received bipartisan support in both chambers.

Between 2019 and 2020, drug deaths in Maine rose by 33% according to a report funded by the Maine Office of the Attorney General. In 2020, 504 people died as a result of drugs, up from 380 in 2019. According to the report, 91% of drug deaths in 2020 were the result of accidental overdoses. There was an increase in deaths due to the use of nonpharmaceutical drugs, particularly fentanyl, used in combination with other drugs, such as methamphetamines and cocaine. The report found 81% of deaths in 2020 involved two or more drugs and the average cause of death…

Gov. Mills recently issued vetoes for seven pieces of legislation approved by the Maine Legislature. Her veto of several of those bills drew criticism from her own party, particularly Senate President Troy Jackson. L.D. 125, An Act To Prohibit the Aerial Spraying of Glyphosate and Other Synthetic Herbicides for the Purpose of Silviculture On June 25, Mills vetoed L.D. 125, which would have banned the spraying of certain chemicals used in forestry. The bill was sponsored by Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook). L.D. 125 would have banned aerial spraying of glyphosate and other synthetic herbicides used in silviculture, including for…

A measure that would have compensated for the expected loss in revenue from banning flavored tobacco was not included in the budget bill recently approved by the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee. The legislature has not yet voted on L.D. 1550, which, as originally proposed, would ban the sale of flavored tobacco products in Maine. Tobacco sellers who violate the law would face a civil penalty of $1,000 for a first time offense and a fine of $5,000 for subsequent offenses. An amendment proposed by the minority of the Committee on Health and Human Services would strike the bill and…

The governor’s office recently posted veto messages for seven bills rejected by Gov. Janet Mills, the first batch of vetoes of the 130th Legislature. Among the bills vetoed by the governor are L.D. 194, which would have banned entities owned by foreign governments from influencing citizens’ referenda; L.D. 417, which would have banned pretextual traffic stops; and L.D. 1668, which would have developed a plan to close the Long Creek Youth Development Center. L.D. 194 banned foreign nationals, defined as a foreign government or firm, partnership, corporation, association, organization, or other entity of which a foreign government controls at least…

Governor Mills recently signed into law several bills that affect campaigns and elections in the state of Maine. L.D. 1363: An Act to Amend the Laws Governing Elections L.D. 1363 makes several changes to the use of ranked-choice voting and absentee ballots in Maine elections. The bill expands the type of elections using ranked-choice voting. Previously, ranked-choice voting was used in primary elections for United States Senators, United States Representatives to the House, the governor, state senators, and state representatives or general or special elections for U.S. Senators and Representatives. The new law also uses ranked-choice voting in general elections…

Bills passed by the Maine Legislature during its recently convened special session have begun making their way to Gov. Janet Mills’ desk. As of June 22, Mills has signed over 300 pieces of legislation. The new laws, which go into effect 90 days after receiving Mills’ signature, cover everything from changes to the tax code, environmental regulations, healthcare, campaign finance and elections, and occupational licensing. Many of the bills address shortcomings in the law’s ability to help residents during emergencies, which was highlighted by the pandemic. Several emergency pieces of legislation, which go into effect immediately after being signed, are…

The Maine Legislature recently passed LD 1117, a bill that would prohibit excessive rises in generic and off-patent prescription drugs sold in the state. It would also allow the attorney general to take action against any drug manufacturers that violated the bill’s provisions. The bill, which was sponsored by Sen. Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook) and received only three votes from Republicans in the Senate, requires Gov. Janet Mills’ signature to become law. Mills has not publicly said whether she intends to sign the measure.  The bill prohibits drug manufacturers from imposing “excessive price increases”, either directly or indirectly, through a whole…

On June 16, Gov. Mills announced the creation of a sweepstakes for Mainers who have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The “Don’t Miss Your Shot: Vaccinationland Sweepstakes” will award the winner $1 for every Maine resident who receives at least one COVID-19 shot by 6:00 on July 4. The prize money will be paid out of funds allotted to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) from the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and. Economic Security (CARES) Act for vaccination purposes. To be eligible, residents must have received their first dose…

On June 17, the Maine Legislature is expected to adjourn a special session without voting on the supplemental budget or the governor’s plan for spending funds Maine received from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The Appropriations and Financial Affairs (AFA) Committee has not discussed the budget since June 1 and there have been no public discussions of the budgets between members of the legislature. The AFA Committee has yet to hold a work session on LD 1733, the governor’s plan to spend the $1.1 billion in State Fiscal Recovery Funds (SFRF) allotted to Maine by ARPA. In March, Democrats…

On June 14, Gov. Mills announced a program to incentivize unemployed Mainers to return to work. Called “Back to Work,” the first-come, first-serve program will offer employers a one-time $1,500 payment for eligible employees who begin work between June 15 and June 30, or a one-time $1,000 payment for eligible employees who start work in July. The Back to Work program will be paid for with $10 million in federal funds and will be administered by the Maine Department of Labor (DOL) and Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD). To be eligible for the program, employees must have received…

The Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI) began in 2010 when 11 states and the District of Columbia signed a Declaration of Intent to create a regional compact aimed at reducing carbon emissions from the transportation sector. But after Connecticut recently announced it was pausing its participation in the program, only Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia remain. The Declaration of Intent for the TCI was initially signed by the heads of transportation, environment, and energy agencies in 11 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, plus the District of Columbia. Its stated goal was to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions, minimize our transportation…

On June 11, Maine Gov. Janet Mills announced she was renewing the state of civil emergency, which was set to expire on June 13. She also announced that the state of emergency will expire on June 30. Under Maine law, a state of emergency cannot last longer than 30 days unless renewed by the governor. Gov. Mills first declared a state of civil emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic on March 15, 2021. Including the most recent extension, Mills has renewed the current state of emergency 16 times. In a press release announcing the temporary extension of the state of…

On June 9, the Maine Department of Education (DOE) updated its PreK-12 and Adult Education Public Guidance. Though Gov. Janet Mills recently announced Maine’s state of civil emergency will expire on June 30, DOE’s requirements continue to remain in effect until July 1. The changes announced on June 9 come after earlier guidance exempting schools participating in the pooled COVID-19 testing program from physical distancing requirements. The pooled testing program collects swabs from a small group of students who are in the same cohort or homeroom and mixes those swabs in a common “pool” in a test tube. That pool…

If a bill recently approved by the Maine Legislature’s Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology (EUT) is passed, Maine voters may be presented with a referendum question this November that would replace Central Maine Power and Versant Power with a privately-operated nonprofit utility. But opposition recently voiced by Governor Janet Mills may indicate a conflict with her own party and an intention to veto the bill if it reaches her desk. On June 1, the EUT Committee held a work session on LD 1708, “An Act To Create the Pine Tree Power Company, a Nonprofit Utility, To Deliver Lower Rates,…

On June 2, the Maine House of Representatives defeated eight bills aimed at reforming the use of executive emergency powers.

After more than a year away, the Maine Legislature returned to the State House on June 2. As coronavirus case numbers began to rise in March 2020, the legislature adjourned its session on March 17. On December 2, 2020, both chambers passed a joint order authorizing the legislature to operate remotely. Maine began that legislative session on January 8, 2020 and adjourned sine die on March 17. It was one of 39 states to do so in response to COVID-19. The legislature’s return to the state house this year marks a special session in the 130th Legislature, which was scheduled…

A pair of bills recently voted out of the Committee on Taxation have the potential to raise taxes on Mainers. If passed, LDs 498 and 1524 would effectively raise the top marginal income tax rate along with the estate tax in Maine. While supporters believe the bills will target high-income earners and address income inequality, opponents are concerned they could hurt Maine industry and make the state less economically competitive. Michael Allen, Associate Commissioner for Tax Policy in the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, testified in opposition to both measures on behalf of the Mills administration. LD 498, An…

Maine Gov. Janet Mills is on pace to exercise her executive authority almost twice as frequently as any of her six previous predecessors. Since taking office in 2019, Mills has issued 76 executive orders, not counting extensions or modifications to existing executive orders. That’s an average of about 32 executive orders per year, and almost double the average rate at which Gov. John Baldacci exercised this authority. Baldacci issued 142 executive orders during his eight-year term as governor, from 2003 to 2011. Baldacci averaged about 18 executive orders per year. Gov. Paul LePage, Mills’ immediate predecessor, issued 69 executive orders…

Maine’s Department of Labor currently has no plans to end enhanced employment benefits.

In four of the last six weeks, Maine has led the nation in COVID-19 infection rate in nursing homes.