Good morning from Augusta,
With about a month left in the legislative session, the legislature is slowly working on some of the major policy discussions that await them in the next few weeks before they adjourn on April 17th. The supplemental budget, gun bills, data privacy legislation, and National Popular Vote bills are taking up a lot of the bandwidth in the House and Senate. In addition, it appears most of the committees are getting close to concluding their work and the presiding officers have set a deadline for the committees to wrap-up by next Friday. After next week, the time crunch will be on the non-partisan staff to move all the legislation up to the floor for final disposition.
On Wednesday of this week, LD 2212, An Act to Strengthen Maine's Agriculture, Food System and Forest Products Infrastructure Investment, had its final language review in the Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry Committee. The committee approved of the language the PLC has been advocating for with the Speaker of the House’s Staff. LD 2212 is sponsored by Speaker of the House, Rachel Talbot-Ross (D-Portland) and is one the initiatives that we are very supportive of this session. LD 2212 provides a $10 million appropriation to the Maine Agriculture, Food, and Forest Products Investment Fund and makes changes to who appoints members of the advisory board. The PLC recently testified in support of the bill as it could provide new opportunities for our members to get grants and low interest loans for their businesses for equipment and reinvestment.
Next week, the PLC will be testifying in favor of a bill scheduled for a public hearing in the Environment and Natural Resources Committee. LD 2261, An Act Designating New Motor Vehicle Emissions Rules as Major Substantive Rules, sponsored by Representative Mike Soboleski (R-Phillips), will ensure rules adopted by the Department of Environmental Protection regarding new motor vehicle emission standards, including rules to establish zero-emission requirements, are major substantive rules. It is extremely important to require the rules to go before the full legislature for ratification before being implemented. If the rules remain routine technical, the Department of Environmental would be able to implement the rules unilaterally. The PLC is supportive of allowing the members of the legislature to adjust the proposed rules to better suit the people of Maine.
The PLC is still closely monitoring bills that have passed out of committee but have yet to receive language reviews. There are a few bills in the Labor and Housing Committee that have seemed to have stalled after their committee vote. Two of the bills will have a significant impact on contractors.
First is LD 513, Act Regarding Overtime Protections for Certain Maine Workers. Senator Tipping’s (D-Penobscot) bill will require an employee that works in an executive, administrative, or professional capacity must earn $55,086 beginning January 1, 2025, to be exempt from the laws governing minimum wage and overtime pay. Includes and annual adjustment starting January 2026 based on the percentage of annual increase in certain earnings published by the US DOL.
The other is LD 372, An Act to Increase Enforcement and Accountability for Wage and Hour Violations. It is a terrible bill and when implemented by the new Director of the Bureau of Labor Standards, could be detrimental to any business that has a wage and hour violation. The bill will allow the Director to become judge and jury on wage and hour violations will more than double the penalties and allows the Director to collect penalties from the business owners, completely circumventing the judicial system.
You can find more information on legislation from our bill tracking spreadsheet here.
Last Week’s Legislative Activity March 11 – March 15, 2024
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
LD 2212, An Act to Strengthen Maine's Agriculture, Food System and Forest Products Infrastructure Investment, Work Session - Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry Committee. The PLC testified in support.
The PLC was present for the final language review of LD 2212. More information on this bill can be found above.
Next Week’s Legislative Activity March 18 – March 23, 2024
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
LD 2261, An Act Designating New Motor Vehicle Emissions Rules as Major Substantive Rules, Public Hearing - 1pm, Environment and Natural Resources Committee
More information on the bill can be found above.
Thursday, March 21, 2024
LD 2261, An Act Designating New Motor Vehicle Emissions Rules as Major Substantive Rules, Work Session - 1pm, Environment and Natural Resources Committee
More information on the bill can be found above.
Bills the PLC is Following on the House and Senate Floor
Last year the PLC testified with qualified support for this bill on February 14th of last year. - Senator Ingwersen amended the bill to require the Efficiency Maine Trust to establish a pilot program to provide incentives for the purchase and lease of medium and heavy-duty electric vehicles used in a commercial application. The amended bill would require 50% of the funding be allocated to businesses with 50 employees or less. It would also remove businesses of 500 employees or more from qualifying for the pilot project. The bill became public law with the Governor’s signature on March 14th.
LD 1815, An Act to Protect Maine's Consumers by Establishing an Abuse of Dominance Right of Action and Requiring Notification of Mergers. - The PLC testified in opposition to this legislation. The final bill reported out of committee was an extremely watered down version. The committee voted unanimously to take out section 1 (prenotice of merger and approval requirement) and section 6 (the entire abuse of dominance provision) out of the bill. These were the 2 most concerning sections and once they were taken out, the bill was practically gutted. The bill became public law with the Governor’s signature on March 14th.
Have a great weekend, and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Best,
Dana