Good Morning from Augusta,
I would like to say that the fat lady has sung here in Augusta and the legislature has left town, but I would be Pinocchio.
Unfortunately, it’s Groundhog Day, as things felt and flowed similarly the week prior with multiple late nights and lots of conversations in the halls of the capitol building. The only difference this week was the tension rose with high level emotional debates on many outstanding issues such as abortion, farm worker definitions and overtime pay, indigenous rights and paid family and medical leave. More on the last issue in a moment.
As I write this, both the Senate and the House are finishing up their work for the week. However, it’s not over and both bodies will be back next week for more fun.
On the House side, with at least 50 items on the unfinished business calendar and a slew of undeliberated bills, they are coming back to town on Monday, June 26th at 9:30 am, and will likely put in one or two more full days to clear their workload before heading home for a few weeks.
The Senate will also come back for at least one full day next week, but we don’t know exactly when. Much of that has to do with the House and what happens with the Appropriations Committee on deliberations over the weekend on the Supplemental Budget and the Special Appropriations Table. Stay tuned next weekend for a full run down on next week’s fun.
As I said previously, it has been a contentious week in Augusta, especially on Thursday night as Tensions ran high when the House voted on the abortion rights bill, LD 1619, An Act to Improve Maine's Reproductive Privacy Laws. The vote stayed open for more than 30 minutes as the Democrats whipped their members to keep enough on the prevailing side and barely squeaked out a one vote margin with a 74-72 vote.
On Friday, the Paid Family Medical Leave Act (LD 1964), which the PLC has been lobbying against and more than 50 of our members sent messages to their legislators and the Governor’s office (Thank you!!!!) in opposition, passed both the House and Senate on strict party line votes and has been sent to the special appropriations table to learn its ultimate fate. It is estimated that it will cost $12 million in the first year and more than $13 million in the second year to establish and implement the program, so nothing is certain. However, if the bill does get funded, it will then move to the Governor to decide if she is actually in favor of increasing taxes for the first time in her administration, a line in the sand she refused to cross for the last four and a half years. We will continue to follow this and put out calls for action once we know more. The Governor might be our only backstop at this point in time.
In the good news department, LD 1408, An Act to Reduce Maine's Dependence on Fossil Fuels and Carbon Footprint for Energy Production Using Waste Wood Fuel (PLC Supported) was enacted by the House and Senate and has been sent to the Governor for signature. This bill, sponsored by Rep. Theriault (R-Fort Kent), will help expand markets for biomass with an expansion of combined heat and power plants in the state. More on this bill and what it will do is below, but we are very excited to get this across the finish line and thank Representative Theriault immensely for his hard work and dedication to this legislation.
Also this week, LD 1874, An Act to Support Maine Loggers' and Truckers' Right to Work in Maine by Improving Labor Standards (PLC Supported) was enacted by both the House and the Senate and has now been sent to the Governor with bi-partisan support from both Chambers.
I have updated our bill tracking spreadsheet so you can see where all the bills we followed this session stand at this time and a full update on the 11 remaining bills that the PLC is following is below.
Bills the PLC is Following on the House and Senate Floor
PLC Opposed
LD 827, An Act to Allow Employees to Request Flexible Work Schedules (PLC opposed) Enacted in the House and sent by the Senate to the Special Appropriations Table for final deliberation over funding. The amended bill, does the following: 1. It combines the definitions of "private employer" and "public employer." 2. It allows an employee to request in writing, including by electronic means, a flexible work schedule. 3. It requires an employer to consider an employee's request for a flexible work schedule and whether the request can be granted in a manner that is not inconsistent with employer operations. It defines "inconsistent with employer operations." 4. It specifies that an employer and an employee must mutually agree on the duration of time and terms of a flexible work schedule. 5. It allows an employer to rescind a flexible work schedule with as much notice to an employee as is practicable. 6. It prohibits an employer from retaliating against an employee for exercising rights given under the subchapter enacted by the bill. 7. It specifies that a collective bargaining agreement may provide an employee with rights more expansive than rights established by the subchapter enacted by the bill.
LD 949, An Act to Protect Employees from Employer Surveillance (PLC Opposed) Enacted in the House and sent by the Senate to the Special Appropriations Table for final deliberation over funding. The amended bill specifies that an employer may use employer surveillance if the employer informs the employee before beginning employer surveillance. It prohibits an employer from using audiovisual monitoring in an employee's residence or personal vehicle or on the employee's property and provides that an employee can decline a request by an employer to install data collection or transmission applications on the employee's personal electronic devices for the purposes of employer surveillance. It also requires that an employer notify a prospective employee during the interview process that the employer engages in employer surveillance. It adds rule-making authority for the Department of Labor.
LD 993, An Act to Facilitate Stakeholder Input Regarding Forest Policy in Maine(PLC Opposed) Enacted in the House and sent by the Senate to the Special Appropriations Table for final deliberation over funding. The amended bill, which is the majority report, reduces the number of members on the Maine Forest Advisory Board from 21 to 10 and requires the Governor to appoint all members of the board. The amendment also requires that at least one member of the board be a professional forester. The amendment revises the duties of the board to advise and assist the Bureau of Forestry within the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry in the development and implementation of the state forest action plan required under the federal Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008. The amendment also requires the director of the bureau to submit to the Governor and the Legislature a decennial report on the implementation of the state forest action plan, beginning January 1, 2025. This amendment also adds an appropriations and allocations section.
LD 1190, An Act to Ensure a Fair Workweek by Requiring Notice of Work Schedules (PLC Opposed) Enacted in the House and sent by the Senate to the Special Appropriations Table for final deliberation over funding. This bill, sponsored by Senator Mike Tipping (D-Penobscot), states that any employer with more than 10 employees would have to pay their employees for a minimum of two hours if they have to cancel a shift under any circumstance. The bill also includes penalties if employers don’t comply with certain provisions.
LD 1338, An Act to Amend the Maine Exclusion Amount in the Estate Tax (PLC Opposed) Voted ONTP in the House by a margin of 95-45 and was killed in the Senate (Dead). This bill returns the exclusion amount, below which the Maine estate tax does not apply, to $2,000,000 from the $5,600,000 in current law for estates of decedents dying on or after January 1, 2024. The Treasurer of State must credit 100% of the revenues generated by the reduction in the exclusion amount to the Maine State Housing Authority to be used to support affordable housing. Twenty-five percent of the amount credited must be used to support affordable housing for veterans.
LD 1964, An Act to Implement the Recommendations of the Commission to Develop a Paid Family and Medical Leave Benefits Program, (Opposed by PLC) Enacted in the House and sent by the Senate to the Special Appropriations Table for final deliberation over funding. Sponsored by Senator Maddie Daughtry (D-Brunswick), the amended bill implements a paid family and medical leave benefits program based on the recommendations of the Commission to Develop a Paid Family and Medical Leave Benefits Program established by the 130th Legislature. The program provides up to 12 weeks of family and medical leave to eligible covered individuals. An individual is eligible for leave under the program after working 120 days for a company prior to submitting an application or if the individual is self-employed and has elected to be part of the program. The weekly benefit amount is 90% of the covered individual's average weekly wage. The bill establishes the Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Fund to support the program. The funds for administrative costs and payment of benefits come from payroll contributions of no more than 1% of wages shared by employers and employees, except that employers with fewer than 15 employees are not required to make employer contributions to the program. The bill also authorizes employers to provide these benefits through a private plan as long as the benefits for family and medical leave provided to their employees are the same as provided in the program. The PLC testified in adamant opposition along with PLC Board Member, Steve Hanington, Hanington Bros.
PLC Supported
LD 1303, An Act to Exempt Boats and All-terrain Vehicles Purchased for Qualified Commercial Fishing or Commercial Farming from State Sales Tax (PLC Supported) Enacted in the House and sent by the Senate to the Special Appropriations Table for final deliberation over funding. This bill exempts from sales tax sales of all-terrain vehicles used directly and exclusively in commercial fishing, commercial agricultural production or commercial timber harvesting to a qualified purchaser. The bill defines "qualified purchaser" to mean a purchaser who, pursuant to the law governing the refund of sales tax on depreciable machinery and equipment purchases, has obtained a certificate from the State Tax Assessor stating that the purchaser is engaged in commercial fishing, commercial agricultural production and/or commercial timber harvesting.
LD 1408, An Act to Reduce Maine's Dependence on Fossil Fuels and Carbon Footprint for Energy Production Using Waste Wood Fuel (PLC Supported) Enacted in the House and Senate and sent to the Governor for signature. This bill, sponsored by Rep. Theriault (R-Fort Kent), will:
Expand the definition of net generating capacity to ensure it is clear that capacity sent to adjacent facilities behind the meter should not be considered electric output to the T & D system;
Expand the size of net generating capacity for a single participant from 10 MW to 15 MW. This would also make project size consistent with a requested change to the federal Community Wood Energy Program, authorized by Congress, which has currently been included in the Farm Bill reauthorization by Senator Collins;
Expand the total net generating capacity of all program participants combined from 20 MW to 30 MW to allow for more projects to bid in;
Expand the definition of projects that are eligible to negotiate a long term contract with an investor owned facility. This would allow projects that might be built in a consumer owned territory that is adjacent to an investor-owned utility to sell energy directly to the adjacent investor owned utility;
LD 1455, An Act to Establish the Weighing Point Preclearance Program (PLC Supported) Passed in the House and Senate on 1st and 2nd Votes, awaiting enactment in the House before moving to the Senate. This bill establishes the Weighing Point Preclearance Program, which is operated by the Department of Public Safety, Bureau of State Police and which uses an electronic system that verifies a commercial motor vehicle's size, weight, registration and safety records as the commercial motor vehicle drives on a highway and allows compliant commercial motor vehicles to bypass weighing points. The bill also provides that if the Department of Transportation administers a separate program that uses a preclearance system, the department must determine which weighing points must participate in that program, and all preclearance system providers' devices and platforms must be treated equally and used concurrently at participating weighing points.
LD 1849 An Act to Ensure Fair and Timely Payment in the Harvesting of Forest Products (PLC Supported) Enacted in the House and Senate and on the Governor’s desk. Roll call votes can be found here. The amended bill requires an entity that contracts with a person to harvest wood and place the wood roadside so that the entity is able to have the wood hauled away for use or processing to pay the person within 30 days of the person's fulfilling the contract and placing the wood roadside. The amendment also requires the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry or a wood scaler under contract with the department to conduct random inspections to ensure that entities are complying with this requirement.
LD 1874, An Act to Support Maine Loggers' and Truckers' Right to Work in Maine by Improving Labor Standards (PLC Supported) Enacted in the House and Senate and on the Governor’s desk. This bill provides that the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry may obtain certification from a forest certification program for state land only if the program requires labor standards for logging and trucking.
Contact Your Representative or Senator
Don’t know who your Representative or Senator is? A complete roster, sortable by town, is available here: House Members Senators
In your message, clearly state the bill(s) you support and why each one is important to Loggers in Maine. Introduce yourself and/or company.
Identify the town you live in or where your business is located. If you work in multiple towns, please identify those towns (we need to show that harvesting occurs across the state);
# employees (gross pay roll figure would be good);
# of subcontractors your business supports (e.g. how much you spend for repairs, fuel, how many logging crews you keep busy, etc.),
Volume of wood you move annually;
Conclude your message by thanking the Representatives for their service to the state and asking them to support these bills.
Have a great weekend and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Best,
Dana