Good Morning from Augusta,
The fat lady has sung and the Legislature is finally Sine Die (Without Day). One month late and a few hundred thousand dollars later, but what’s money, right when the rules don’t really apply? At this point, the Legislature will not return until January 2024 to wreak havoc on 483 bills that were carried over to the next session.
This past week, the Legislature met on Tuesday, July 25th, with significantly reduced participation due to previously planned vacations, and plowed forward for almost 24 hours and finally left the building at 5 am on Wednesday, July 26th. Activity on Tuesday and Wednesday included passage of bills from the Special Appropriations Table, carry over of 483 bills, and dealing with vetoes from the Governor. The Legislature did sustain two Gubernatorial vetoes related to wages for agricultural workers and the legality of campaign donations by foreign owned companies.
Below is the final report on bills that were still alive going into the final day of the session as well as a final look at all of the bills we followed during the 1st session of the 131st Legislature: bill tracking spreadsheet.
Thanks for your help this session and we’re on to January!!!
Bills the PLC was following on the last legislative day
PLC Opposed
LD 827, An Act to Allow Employees to Request Flexible Work Schedules Enacted in the House and sent by the Senate to the Special Appropriations Table but carried over to 2024. 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 Enacted in the House and sent by the Senate to the Special Appropriations Table but carried over to 2024. 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 Enacted in the House and sent by the Senate to the Special Appropriations Table but carried over to 2024. 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 Enacted in the House and sent by the Senate to the Special Appropriations Table but carried over to 2024. 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 Dead
LD 1964, An Act to Implement the Recommendations of the Commission to Develop a Paid Family and Medical Leave Benefits Program, (Opposed by PLC) was included on page 320 of the supplemental budget that was enacted by the Legislature and signed into law by the Governor. 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.
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 Enacted in the House and sent by the Senate to the Special Appropriations Table but carried over to 2024.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 Signed into law by the Governor on June 28th. 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 Recalled from the Governor’s desk and carried over to 2024 for further work. 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 Became law without the Governor’s signature on Thursday, June 29, 2023. 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 Became law without the Governor’s signature on Tuesday, July 4, 2023. 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.
Have a great weekend and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
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