Representatives Josh Tardy and Phil Curtis, leaders of the House Republicans, today congratulated the Maine Republican Party and the Still Fed Up With Taxes coalition on their successful petition drive to overturn a new Maine law that expands the sales tax to scores of services and activities. Needing just over 55,000 signatures of registered voters to put the issue on a people’s veto referendum, the petition organizers turned in some 60,500 signatures to Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap this afternoon.

“This is a truly astounding achievement,” said Rep. Tardy (R-Newport), the House Republican leader. “Hardly anyone thought this could be done – to collect that many signatures in just two months, with scant financial resources. It is a real tribute to party chairman Charlie Webster and Senator David Trahan, who directed the operation. I know they worked incredibly hard, against tough odds.

“Thanks to their tireless efforts, thousands of Mainers who thought they had no voice in Augusta have discovered that they can make a difference,” Rep Tardy added. “Hundreds of working Mainers volunteered their time, right through the summer, to gather these signatures. This is grassroots political work at its best.”

Rep. Curtis (R-Madison) said Maine citizens owe a debt of gratitude to everyone involved in the petition process, including the Maine Green Independent Party, which collected thousands of signatures. “The people of Maine were shut out of this tax deal,” he said. “The Democrats passed it in the final hours of the legislative session, with no public hearings. It’s the biggest tax change in Maine in 40 years, and the Democrats thought they could just ram it through and people would accept it. They obviously did not anticipate that a petition drive would be successful. Great credit goes to Charlie Webster, Senator Trahan and the hundreds of others who proved them wrong.”

Secretary of State Dunlap now has 30 days to certify the signatures. Once they are approved, the new tax law – based on LD 1495 – will be stayed from taking effect on schedule, om January 1, 2010. Its fate would be determined by a people’s veto referendum, which would be on the June 2010 ballot.

State Rep. Ken Fletcher has been appointed to the newly created Broadband Strategy Council, which will play a key advisory role in expanding broadband Internet service to all corners of Maine.

Rep. Fletcher (R-Winslow) is one of five legislators on the 11-member council. The group will work with the ConnectME Authority to efficiently leverage federal stimulus funds and public and private monies to build the infrastructure required to bring fast Internet service to areas that are currently unserved or underserved, primarily rural parts of the state. Rep. Fletcher was appointed to his post by House Speaker Hannah Pingree.

“The entire project could be compared to the campaign in earlier years to bring universal telephone and electricity service to all areas of the country,” said Rep. Fletcher, a four-term veteran of the Utilities and Energy Committee, where he currently serves as the ranking Republican member. “It’s a very worthy project in terms of economic development and I’m excited about being part of it.”

The council was established this year by LD 1012 with the goal of advising the ConnectME Authority on all matters pertaining to broadband opportunities available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) – the stimulus package. Another objective is to work with the University of Maine system with respect to the lease or sale of excess broadband capacity as a result of the conversion of the education broadband spectrum from analog to digital.

“It will be important to utilize the excess capacity from the UMaine system to target areas that would not normally be served by the private sector,” Rep. Fletcher said. “We must realize that the public money used to create the UMaine capacity must produce a valued return in a way that the net result for the state is optimized.”

According to the implementing legislation, the council’s duties range from identifying broadband funding opportunities contained in the ARRA to promoting fair and open competition in the delivery of broadband service. The group also will make recommendations for a strategic broadband infrastructure plan and foster public-private cooperation and co-investment in broadband deployment.

The ConnectME Authority was established in 2006, based on legislation by Governor John Baldacci, with the objective of spurring private investment in broadband and cellular service in Maine.

Governor John Baldacci has signed into law a bill sponsored by State Rep. Mike Thibodeau that changes the position of Maine’s Public Advocate from serving at the pleasure of the governor to serving a four-year term that begins and ends midway through the governor’s term of office.

“The Office of the Public Advocate must be an independent agency that is solely responsible for representing the interests of the ratepayers of regulated utilities,” said Rep. Thibodeau (R-Winterport). “Any obstacles that would impede the Public Advocate from fulfilling his or her duties to ratepayers should be removed, so as to prevent any political or organizational pressures from impacting the welfare of ratepayers.”

The Office of the Public Advocate, located in Hallowell, represents ratepayers before the Public Utilities Commission in such areas as electricity, telecommunications, water, gas and the Internet. By statute, the office argues for the lowest feasible level of rates.

In presenting his bill, LD 954, to the Utilities and Energy Committee, Rep. Thibodeau explained that current statutory language defining the role of the Office of the Public Advocate was somewhat ambiguous and could be interpreted to suggest that the Office may receive approval from the executive branch prior to rendering pertinent opinions.

Rep. Thibodeau noted that the Public Advocate receives no support from the General Fund; all the financial resources come from ratepayers. “By operating autonomously from any influence from the executive branch, the Public Advocate will be in a better position to actively seek the best deal possible for the ratepayers,” he said.

State Rep. Josh Tardy, the House Republican leader, reported today that 85,000 Maine families will see their taxes go up under a tax reform law passed by the Legislature last week.

In a column published in today’s Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel, he cited figures from Maine Revenue Services (MRS) showing that the new system will inflict financial damage on unsuspecting state residents.

“It is unfortunate that after working on this plan for several years, the Democrats in the end concocted something that punishes a large segment of the population,” he wrote in the column. “Perhaps that’s why they pushed the final bill through under cover of darkness, in the waning hours of the legislative session, with no public hearing. The 33-page tome was dropped on legislators’ desks only minutes before the vote was ordered, before legislators even had time to read the summary, let alone the turgid fine print packed into the document.”

The tax bill signed into law on June 12th is entitled “An Act to Implement Tax Relief and Tax Reform.” No Republicans in the House voted for the legislation, which was championed by Democratic legislative leaders. Rep. Tardy suggested that a more appropriate title would be “An Act to Increase Taxes for 85,000 Maine Families.”

According to MRS, he wrote, “some 31,000 families will face an income tax increase.” Mainers who itemize deductions on their federal tax returns, such as mortgage interest and property tax, are most at risk. “Another 54,000 families will lose because the sales taxes they pay on a broader range of items will total more than their income tax cut,” he wrote.

The tax scheme expands Maine’s 5 percent sales tax to scores of services and activities never before taxed, affecting thousands of small companies, trades people, technicians, mechanics and countess others “who will become tax collectors for the state, with all the accounting and paperwork hassles that entails,” wrote Rep. Tardy (R-Newport). He said a heavy burden will fall on people trying to keep older cars in operation; MRS estimates it will collect $25.7 million every year in taxes on motor vehicle maintenance and repair.

MRS also expects to collect $37 million in additional taxes on meals and lodging, where the sales tax rate is going up from 7 percent to 8.5 percent. “The bill’s proponents argued that this tax would fall heavily on tourists,” he wrote, “but roughly 80 percent of restaurant customers here are Mainers.”

State Rep. Kerri Prescott says the Legislature scored a victory for accountability and transparency when the House and Senate passed her bill dealing with interscholastic organizations that regulate school sports. The bill passed June 4, and the governor signed it into law June 9.

LD 1306 was introduced in reaction to a recent controversy involving the Maine Principals’ Association (MPA). Looking for ways to cope with tight school funding, the MPA proposed cuts in school athletics, touching off a firestorm of protest across the state. Most Maine public high schools and some private high schools belong to the MPA, a private organization whose mission is to promote, organize and regulate interscholastic activities in Maine.

Rep. Prescott (R-Topsham), who has been deeply involved in sports at Mt. Ararat High School, said the core of the controversy was MPA’s refusal to open its meetings to the public. “They would only take input from athletic directors and principals,” she said. “When votes are taken, they are private and not available to the public.

“There may be other answers to resolving the budget crisis by allowing schools to find their own solutions,” she added. “Some things being used by schools now include creative scheduling, ride sharing, fewer officials and reduction in sub-varsity games. The savings are real. I believe that decisions made by the individual schools and their conferences would yield savings with more equity than a one-size-fits-all policy imposed on the whole state.”

Rep. Prescott credited Rep. Henry Beck (D-Waterville) for his help in solidifying support for LD 1306 in the House, where it ultimately passed overwhelmingly. “I was so proud to work on this bipartisan legislation with Rep. Prescott,” he said. “Transparency in high school sports is important and relevant to students, their parents, educators and taxpayers. Adding the MPA to the narrow list of organizations subject to public proceedings laws will strengthen their mission and guarantee confidence in their programs, which mean so much to the people of Maine.”

The bill is entitled “An Act to Require Interscholastic Athletic Organizations to Comply with the Public Proceedings Provisions of the Freedom of Access Laws for Certain Meetings.” Under the terms of the legislation, the MPA and similar groups would have to open their meetings to the public whenever they pertain to interscholastic sports. It also stipulates that records and minutes of the meetings are public records. The only meetings exempted are those limited to eligibility rule violations and personnel issues.

Washington County’s Republican state representatives said they are gratified and delighted by the decision to resume operations at the Domtar pulp mill on June 22nd, saying the reopening will bring economic benefits to the county beyond the 200 to 300 mill jobs that will be restored.

“This welcome news not only rescues the jobs at the mill but also adds to the trucking and shipping business mostly through the port of Eastport,” said Rep. Harold McFadden (R-Dennysville). “The reopening of Domtar is a tremendous shot in the arm to help lower the double-digit unemployment rate in the Washington County area.

“I’m optimistic that the reopening will be for the long term and will enhance the economy in the most economically depressed part of the state,” he added. “Both our legislative delegation and our federal delegation need to keep the Domtar mill on the front burner.”

Rep. Dianne Tilton (R-Harrington) said the economic impact of a restarted Domtar “literally affects workers all over Washington County.” She said the Domtar “scare” demonstrates the vulnerability of the county’s economy. “We need to remain committed to long-term investments in infrastructure that will make our economy more diverse,” she said. “We will remain vulnerable until we are able to create more opportunities in Washington County for Domtar, and hopefully other new industries, to succeed.”

Rep. Dave Burns, a first-term legislator from Whiting, has been deeply involved with the Domtar situation. “In meetings with management, the governor’s staff and our congressional delegation, we turned over every stone to get the mill back up and going,” he said. He credited County Commissioner Chris Gardner and Harold Clossey, executive director of the Sunrise County Economic Council, for the level of cooperation and determination they demonstrated to keep jobs in Washington County stable during the Domtar shutdown. “All of this provides incentives for industry to survive and stay with us,” he said. “Domtar has a great workforce and an energy advantage in the county; and with an improved market and support from all of us, it can continue to exist in our community.”

The Domtar reopening throws a lifeline to Washington County families and will encourage other efforts to bring economic development and jobs to the area, according to Rep. Burns. “The Domtar restart also supports between 35 and 100 jobs around the greater Eastport area and will help truckers, woods workers and related industries,” he noted.

“We must, however, continue our efforts to bring along other industrial activity, including offshore wind power, tidal power and LNG,” Rep Burns added. “All these initiatives have great potential for Washington County families and the State of Maine. We are on the cutting edge of these endeavors. Our higher education institutions also are positioned to train the necessary workforce to support these industries. Our port in Eastport puts us in a unique position to support these opportunities and, with some minimum investment, will further position us to be able to handle all types of cargo. We look toward a bright future for our area.”

Rep. Everett McLeod (R-Lee) also picked up on the theme that Washington County needs to diversify. His list of possible industries includes building wind turbine blades that could be shipped around the world through the port of Eastport. “We have the resources here in Washington County to do just that,” he said. “Let’s get the ball rolling.”

State Rep. Dianne Tilton has been selected as one of only 50 state legislators in the country to participate in the 2009 Program for Emerging Political Leaders, sponsored by the State Legislative Leaders Foundation and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

This prestigious program is held every year on the campus of the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, for a select group of state legislators who have been nominated by the speaker of the House, president of the Senate or minority leader from their state. Legislative leaders are asked to nominate one or more members who have demonstrated those qualities typically associated with leadership—integrity, compassion, intelligence, vision and common sense.

“I’m very honored to be selected for this program,” said Rep. Tilton, a first-term Republican legislator from Harrington. “I’m looking forward to meeting legislators from other states to exchange solutions to common problems. They say the states are laboratories of democracy, and some of the best ideas percolate up from the state level rather than come down from Washington.”

As a member of the Marine Resources Committee, Rep. Tilton has been instrumental in successful efforts this year to protect Maine’s shellfish industry. “Rep. Tilton has built a reputation as a very thoughtful and conscientious legislator in a short time,” said Rep. Josh Tardy (R-Newport), the House Republican leader. “She is an effective and respected member of the Legislature.”

The University of Virginia conference, set for July 12-15, involves study in such topics as values and ethics; the art of political leadership; action steps to make a difference; personal leadership in a changing world; and the art of compromise and coalition building. Discussions will be lead by Professor Ed Freeman, the Elis and Signe Olsson Professor of Business Administration at the Darden School, and other University of Virginia faculty members.

The State Legislative Leaders Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, independent organization committed to providing specialized educational and enrichment programs for state legislative leaders.

Republican legislative leaders Sen. Kevin Raye and Rep. Josh Tardy today called on Governor Baldacci to veto LD 1088, the tax shift bill that passed last week along partisan lines in both bodies of the Legislature.

“LD 1088 is not a good deal for Maine,” said Rep. Tardy (R-Newport). “It raises taxes on more than 100,000 Maine families and creates additional burdens for small businesses trying to hang on in this economic turmoil. It also will be very hard on older Mainers living on fixed incomes. They will get limited benefit from an income tax reduction but will feel the full brunt of the additional sales tax on a huge range of services. I believe the governor should veto this bill.”

Sen. Raye (R-Washington) emphasized the negative impact on employment. “At a time when we are experiencing job losses at an alarming rate across the state, it is unbelievable that the Legislature voted to raise taxes on so many small businesses who tell us that these proposed new and increased taxes threaten their survival in this bleak economic climate,” he said. “It flies in the face of the often-stated goal of ensuring a better climate for Maine’s small businesses.” He noted that a survey of Maine members of the National Federation of Independent Business found 82 percent oppose the change.

LD 1088 lowers Maine’s income tax rate and expands the state’s 5 percent sales tax to a extensive range of services that have never been taxed before. The bill also raises the meals and lodging tax from 7 percent to 8.5 percent, jacks up the tax on candy from 5 percent to 8.5 percent and taxes auto rentals at 12.5 percent.

But the largest impact involves the sales tax on scores of ordinary and often essential services, including car repair, house cleaning and boat mooring, along with admission fees to movies, sporting events and exhibitions such as home and boat shows. Golf greens fees and ski lift tickets would also be taxed.

Rep. Tardy said the timing for such a massive tax overhaul could not be worse. “With this deep recession and continuing erosion of state revenues, this is the worst possible time to do radical surgery on our tax structure,” he said. “It is inconceivable that we could predict revenues considering economic conditions and consumers’ reaction to the tax increase.”

Sen. Raye said that ramming this bill through in a partisan fashion mars the reputation of a Legislature that has otherwise been distinguished by a constructive bipartisanship approach.

“I hope the governor will veto LD 1088 so that during the next legislative session we can enact true bipartisan and effective tax reform that does not impose new job-killing burdens on small businesses,” he said. “The Taxation Committee has carried over to the next session LD 1279, Sen. Jon Courtney’s bill dedicating the future growth in state revenues to buy down the income tax rate from the current 8.5% to just 4.5%. That approach reflects the unanimous bipartisan recommendation of the Joint Select Committee on Prosperity, and offers a far more rational way to lower Maine’s income tax rates.”

Education Commissioner Susan Gendron has agreed to “stand alone” status for SAD 44 under the school consolidation law, according to State Rep. Jarrod Crockett. The official agreement means that the SAD 44 schools in and around Bethel will retain the status quo, immune to any financial penalties and exempt from pressure to find a consolidation partner.

“This is the outcome we have been working to achieve,” said Rep. Crockett (R-Bethel). “The commissioner made it clear that the SAD 44 ‘donut hole’ was driven by the change in status of School Union 37, in the Rangeley area. That system was exempted from the consolidation mandate based on a bill that I and other legislators sponsored and which is now law.”

The decision on SAD 44 was reached at a June 9 meeting in the House Republican Office in the State House. Besides Rep. Crockett and Commissioner Gendron, those present included Rep. Sawin Millett (R-Waterford); Sen. Bruce Bryant (D-Oxford); Rep. Matt Peterson (D-Rumford); SAD 44 Superintendent Dave Murphy; and Dick Spencer, attorney for SAD 44.

“While we all were involved in bringing this to fruition, Rep. Millett worked hard behind the scenes to get us across the goal line,” said Rep. Crockett. “As a former education commissioner and former commissioner of finance, he understands the intricacies involved. He was indispensable to the process.”

“Having worked hard to meet the consolidation criteria, we believe that SAD 44 should be a donut hole,” said Rep. Peterson. “We appreciate the commissioner’s recognition of the district’s hard work and geographical challenges.”

“We appreciate that Commissioner Gendron listened to our concerns and found that the SAD 44 school board had done their due diligence in trying to comply with existing statutes,” said Sen. Bryant. “We are delighted that she has foregone any penalties and allowed SAD 44 to become a donut hole.”

SAD 44, with schools in Bethel, Andover and Bryant Pond, had tried unsuccessfully to find consolidation partners in neighboring areas. In one attempt, the communities of SAD 44 voted to consolidate with School Union 37, but Rangeley communities rejected the partnership.

“We certainly tried to make this work,” said Rep. Crockett. “The voters in the Bethel area played by the rules, but it just didn’t work out. I think the commissioner’s decision today was a breakthrough for common sense.”

With the proposed 5-cent gas tax apparently dead in the Legislature, State Rep. Doug Thomas has proposed an amendment to the Highway Fund budget to redirect approximately $34 million to fund repaving and maintenance over the next two years. The money would come from current fuel taxes that now flow to a separate account.

Rep. Thomas said he applauded the Senate action today that indefinitely postponed LD 1487, the legislation that would have added a 5-cent surcharge on gasoline starting on July 1. The fiscal impact statement on the bill estimated that the new tax would have generated $79.4 million over the two years.

“I’m glad to see that bill gone,” said Rep. Thomas (R-Ripley), a veteran member of the Transportation Committee. “It was a tax increase on Maine people of nearly $80 million during a recession. But the Highway Fund will still need money, and what I’m proposing is an alternative that uses existing money and does not increase taxes.”

The Thomas amendment would redirect some $34 million from current fuel taxes to fund maintenance paving or maintenance surface treatment projects over the two years of the budget.

“We already have $40 million going to the Maine Bond Bank to cover off-budget revenue bonds from increased license and title fees,” said Rep. Thomas. “That fund is currently authorized to issue $210 million in bonds. That’s enough for now. We can’t take all of our maintenance money and put it into long-term capital projects. We need some of it now so we can take care of our roads.”

The amendment also would restore $5 million to municipalities that would otherwise be allocated to the Highway Fund.

Republican legislative leaders Sen. Kevin Raye and Rep. Josh Tardy expressed thanks today to Governor John Baldacci for vetoing a bill that would have resumed Maine’s former practice of awarding driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. The measure, LD 1357, landed on the governor’s desk yesterday after passing both the House and Senate on mostly party line votes. The Senate later upheld the veto.

“Governor Baldacci deserves our thanks and gratitude for standing firm on license security,” said Sen. Raye (R-Washington), leader of the Senate Republicans. “It was just last year that we fought a major battle over this issue. Against fierce opposition from the majority party, we were able to tighten our licensing requirements to make sure illegal immigrants could not obtain these crucial documents. It would have been unconscionable to retreat from that policy.

“In the wake of the 9-11 terrorist attacks, we learned that the 19 hijackers had more than 60 valid licenses between them,” he added. “Eight of them were actually registered to vote. In light of those shocking revelations, states with lenient licensing policies clamped down to safeguard this credential.”

Rep. Tardy, leader of the House Republicans, said the governor deserves great credit for vetoing a bill that was strongly favored by his own party. “I was astounded by the audacity of this move,” said Rep. Tardy (R-Newport). “The people of Maine and citizens in general don’t want driver’s licenses in the hands of illegal aliens. This effort by the Democrats would have posed a national security threat and exposed Maine to higher levels of illegal immigration, fraud, identity theft and other crimes.

“Not all illegal aliens represent a threat to American citizens, but many of them do,” said Rep. Tardy, an attorney. “We know there is a huge and growing problem with violent alien drug gangs spreading across the country. The last thing we’d want to do would be to encourage them to come here and stay here, equipped with valid licenses.”

Maine’s licensing problems came to a head last year, when the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Maine licenses had been so badly compromised that they would no longer be acceptable ID for boarding flights and entering federal buildings. For years, Maine had handed out licenses to illegal aliens and people who didn’t even live in Maine.

As other states tightened license requirements, Maine became the state of choice for illegal immigrants who needed documentation. Vanloads of illegals routinely traveled to Maine from New York and elsewhere, often recruited by ads in foreign language newspapers. At Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) offices, they gave fake home addresses, including cruise ships, the State House and even the BMV offices where they filled out the paperwork. With BMV staffers barred from asking about immigration status, the applicants left with licenses good for six years.

House Republican Leader Josh Tardy and other top GOP legislators said the House vote today to fund Dirigo Health by taxing medical claims paid reveals the bankruptcy of the governor’s signature program. The House voted 84-58 to approve LD 1264, which would levy a 2.4 percent “access payment” on all paid claims by health insurers. The vote followed party lines, with Republicans on the losing side.

“The Democrats repeated attempts to prop up Dirigo clearly ignore the voters’ message from last fall,” said Rep. Tardy (R-Newport). “I doubt the voters will be amused to see the same tired tactic being rolled out again. In the last election, voters rejected not only the beer and wine tax but also the health access surcharge.”

Rep. Wes Richardson (R-Warren), the ranking Republican on the Insurance and Financial Services Committee, said the 2.4 percent fee amounts to “a tax on doctors’ bills. They can dress it up any way they want,” he said, “but the fact remains that they are taxing health care by some people to pay for health care for other people. Health insurance in Maine is already the second-highest in the nation. I can’t understand why Democrats think it’s smart policy to make it even more costly.”

Rep. Jon McKane (R-Newcastle), who has sponsored major health care reform legislation, said the tax on medical claims shows that the Democrats are “bankrupt” when it comes to ways to fund Dirigo Health. When the program was launched in 2003, amid great fanfare, proponents boasted that it would eventually cover all 140,000 Mainers without health insurance. “Instead, they have around 10,000 people enrolled,” said Rep. McKane. “The program fundamentally does not work, but it sucks up huge amounts of money from Maine taxpayers.”

Rep. McKane introduced a bill this year to allow Maine residents to purchase health insurance out of state, where rates are generally much lower. Although the bill enjoyed strong public approval, House Democrats killed it on May 13. “It’s very unfortunate that we won’t have that out-of-state option,” he said. “It would have saved Maine families thousands of dollars a year. It would have brought insurance competition back to Maine and would have made programs like Dirigo unnecessary. That’s the real tragedy of our insurance fiasco.”

The Maine House today voted 81-65 to create a tax holiday over the Columbus Day weekend, in an initial show of support for a pilot project. To become law, the bill still must survive a legislative gauntlet that includes additional votes in the House, votes in the Senate and action in the Appropriations Committee, which will examine the fiscal impact on state revenues. Finally, Governor Baldacci must sign the bill into law.

“The message to everyone who wants a tax holiday is to call your state senator,” said Rep. Meredith Strang Burgess, who sponsored the legislation. “Tell them this is a great opportunity to keep our retail dollars in Maine. It’s a chance to jump-start the Maine economy and help out our retail sector, which has been hit hard by the recession.”

The House vote today signaled strong support for the bill. All Republicans and 25 Democrats voted for the measure which would establish the first-ever tax holiday in Maine. Massachusetts has had a tax holiday since 2004. Vermont joined in last year. Since 1996, when New York established the first tax holiday, more than a dozen states have followed suit, often to help parents buy back-to-school clothing for their children or help homeowners buy energy-saving products for the winter.

Rep. Strang Burgess (R-Cumberland) spoke on the House floor before the vote and said afterward that she was delighted by the result. “Similar legislation has been proposed before but died in committee,” she said. “I’m very encouraged.”

The original bill, LD 1148, would have set two sales-tax free weekends in Maine every year, with the dates determined by the Bureau of Revenue Services and the Maine Merchants Association and approved by the Joint Standing Committee on Taxation. Legislators on the Taxation panel trimmed the proposal down to a one-time pilot project to take place over the long Columbus Day weekend, which falls this year on October 10, 11 and 12.

Rep. Strang Burgess said the Columbus Day weekend is an optimum time for the first tax holiday. “It would give retailers a strong flurry of business at the outset of the holiday shopping season,” she said. “I believe a sales tax holiday would be good for consumers, good for retailers and good for our overall morale.”

Rep. Strang Burgess added that a Columbus Day tax holiday also would attract a lot of Canadians to travel to Maine. “The holiday would coincide with the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend; and with the sales tax rate in New Brunswick at 11 percent, I think we’d gain a lot of business,” she said.

“We know the idea is wildly popular with consumers and merchants,” she added. “It is especially favored by southern Maine merchants, who have to compete with sales tax-free New Hampshire. This is all about stimulating the Maine economy, saving retail jobs and providing instant savings for Mainers at a time when every penny helps.”

The new state biennial budget, signed today by Governor Baldacci, includes a provision to delay financial penalties for so-called “orphan schools,” those which have been spurned as consolidation partners. The budget writers moved in language from LD 635, sponsored by Rep. Stacey Fitts, which gives 17 school administrative units an additional year to find consolidation partners.

“The budget provision essentially buys more time for school districts that tried to consolidate with other districts but were rejected,” said Rep. Fitts (R-Pittsfield). “My school district, SAD 53, is a good example. It could have lost $180,000 in state aid, even though our communities voted to consolidate with SAD 59. The SAD 59 voters turned down the measure. But the way the law is written, SAD 53 faced a big fine. It is profoundly unfair to penalize schools and taxpayers who tried to do the right thing. Now that my bill has been included in the budget, we’ll have an extra year.”

According to the Maine Department of Education, a total of 17 school administrative units statewide are caught in the same trap as SAD 53, facing fines for non-conformance after being rejected by potential consolidation partners. The other 16 are in Castine; Deblois; Gilead; Highland Plantation; Madawaska; Stacyville; Fort Kent; Harrington; Bethel; Dover-Foxcroft; Anson; Millinocket; Moro Plantation; Surry; Upton; and Vanceboro.

Under LD 635, the original bill, orphan districts would receive an extension to July 1, 2010 to try again to consolidate with the same districts that rejected them or with different school administrative units. The Department of Education would be directed to help prepare another reorganization plan. To qualify for the extension, a school administrative unit must have approved a reorganization plan at a referendum prior to January 30, 2009. The bill’s language has been incorporated into the budget.

Under the terms of Part KKKK of the budget, subsequent reorganization plans must meet the same requirements as those filed prior to the January 2008 referendum deadline, except that the timelines are adjusted to reflect a July 1, 2010 reorganization plan. The financial penalties will resume for any school administrative unit that fails to approve a reorganization plan on or before January 30, 2010 and to implement that plan by July 1, 2010.

House Republican leader Josh Tardy said today that Maine residents were the big losers when the Legislature killed a bill to allow the purchase of health insurance from companies operating in other New England states.

The House voted down the bill, LD 290, on May 13, although 10 Democrats joined with Republicans in voting for passage. The Senate shot down the bill 19-16 on May 20, with Sen. Bill Diamond (D-Cumberland) joining with Republicans on the losing side.

“I’m very sorry for the people of our state that we were not able to get this outstanding bill through the Legislature,” said Rep. Tardy (R-Newport). “It was not for lack of trying. We’ve been highlighting this bill for months, because we all know that Maine’s health insurance system is in crisis. The Democrats dealt a severe blow against freedom of choice, common sense and financial security for Maine families.”

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jon McKane (R-Newcastle), would have allowed Maine residents to shop around for insurance anywhere in New England and find the best prices and plans for themselves and their families. Insurance coverage is less costly in states that have competitive markets and mainstream regulatory systems. New Hampshire, for example, has 11 companies selling individual policies. Massachusetts has 21. Maine, which had at least a dozen carriers prior to insurance reform, currently has two.

Rep. Tardy said the cost of insurance is staggering for Mainers buying individual policies. Rates as high as $15,000 or $20,000 a year for family coverage are common, he said, even with high deductibles.

“It’s no mystery why we have 140,000 state residents with no insurance,” he said. “They just can’t afford it. This bill would have saved working families thousands of dollars a year. We can buy car insurance, life insurance and property insurance from out-of-state companies, but when it comes to health insurance, the majority party digs in and says no. This bill would have provided an escape hatch out of a failed system. Instead, Maine residents are left shackled to a system they can’t afford.”

Rep. Tardy said the bill was extremely popular with the general public, topping 95 percent approval ratings in legislative surveys. “When a bill is that popular, and would save so many people significant amounts of money, you have to wonder why the Democrats would want it defeated,” he said.

The top Republican leaders in the Legislature are hailing the bipartisan agreement on the two-year state budget.

“The bipartisan budget agreement is an example of how the people’s government should work,” said Sen. Kevin Raye (R-Washington County), leader of the Senate Republicans. “State revenues have fallen below projections by over one billion since last November, so obviously the committee had to make many difficult choices, but we believe that it is on balance, a responsible and affordable spending plan.”

“From the outset of the legislative session, Republicans pledged that we would work in good faith with the Governor and the Democratic majority to craft a responsible budget that reins in the unsustainable growth of state government, prioritizes public safety, education, and a safety net for our most vulnerable citizens,” said Raye. “We are proud that we were able to inject the principles from our common sense agenda into the budget.”

Rep. Josh Tardy (R-Newport), leader of the House Republicans, said GOP leaders staked out budget priorities after reviewing the governor’s budget proposals. The latest, released May 1, reduced total state spending over the next two years from $6.1 billion to $5.8 billion.

Raye echoed his House counterpart’s statement: “We took seriously our responsibility to help improve the Governor’s original proposal in a number of ways, including:

Preserving the standard deduction for Maine taxpayers who do not itemize; significantly restoring income tax indexing; lessening the cut in revenue-sharing with municipalities; reducing the cuts to the Circuit Breaker and Homestead programs; honoring our commitment to reimburse the hospitals for past Medicaid services; building in structural reform that puts us on a path toward a more affordable MaineCare program in the future; and asking state employees to share in the reform and savings of state government.”

When the Governor unveiled his initial proposal, Republicans immediately expressed their determination to soften the impact on taxpayers and increase the amount of ongoing savings in the budget. Following through on those commitments, GOP legislators were able to save Maine taxpayers $34 million from the governor’s proposal in the areas of tax indexing and preserving conformity to the federal tax code. They also championed a provision to bring state employee health insurance more in line with the private sector, by requiring state employees to contribute to the cost of their health care.

Based upon income, state employees will pay between 5% and 15% of their health insurance premiums, with the ability to buy back a portion through wellness incentives. “This really is an issue of equity with the general public,” said Tardy. “Very few private employers pay 100% of an employee’s coverage. This initiative builds upon the measure advanced by Rep. Windol Weaver (R-York) who sponsored legislation requiring state employees to pay 15% of the cost of coverage.”

Another area of savings pushed by Republicans resulted in a 5% reduction in taxpayer funded campaigns. “At a time when we are asking Mainers to tighten their belts, it is only fair to ask candidates for office to contribute as well,” explained Tardy.

Sen. Raye added: “We are pleased that, working together, the committee was able to restore some funding for adult education, reduce cuts in funding to children in residential care, and fund the Health Info Net, an electronic medical records system which will provide quicker more reliable information to doctors and hospitals. These programs are vital to the future health and economic success of all Maine people.”

Both leaders agreed that Maine is facing unprecedented times which call for real bipartisan cooperation to make sure the state weathers the storm and emerges stronger. “Republicans, while working with our Democratic colleagues, held firm to our principles of a more caring, responsible, efficient, affordable, transparent, and effective government. We believe that through the structural reforms we were able to secure, that we have preserved the safety net for our most vulnerable citizens, started our education and MaineCare systems on more sustainable paths, and moved Maine toward a stronger financial future,” concluded Raye.

House Republicans reacted with deep disappointment today to the defeat of a bill that would have given Maine residents the ability to purchase health insurance from companies operating in other New England states. The bill, if approved, could have benefited thousands of Mainers by saving them thousands of dollars a year in insurance premiums.

By a vote of 82-63, the House voted to accept a committee report recommending that the bill, LD 290, be rejected. The vote largely followed party lines, although 10 Democrats and one independent legislator joined with Republicans in support of the bill.

“The Democrats had no legitimate arguments against this bill,” said Rep. Josh Tardy, leader of the House Republicans. “This was all about common sense, expanding choice and saving people money. For years now we have offered solutions to Maine’s health insurance fiasco, and the Democrats have blocked every single one. They seem determined to keep Mainers shackled to a failed system.”

Rep. Jon McKane, the sponsor of the bill, said he was disappointed by the outcome and felt badly for the thousands of Maine residents who have lost the chance to find affordable insurance. “Our over-regulated health insurance market has simply priced coverage out of reach for the average working family in the state,” he said. “Maine families and individuals pay a higher percentage of their incomes for health insurance than anyone else in the country. Maine businesses are strained to the breaking point.”

In a floor debate lasting more than an hour, a dozen Republican legislators spoke out for the bill. Rep. Kerri Prescott (R-Topsham) said her constituents want a choice in health insurance products. “Mainers do not want to be held hostage to a system they can’t afford,” she said. “Insurance premiums here can be more than mortgage payments. If you want to stay with your Maine insurance, that’s fine; we are not taking anything away. But people are demanding that they be given an option.”

Rep. Bernard Ayotte (R-Caswell) said there is no reason to deny Maine residents the right to voluntarily purchase insurance in other New England states. “I don’t see why this is even controversial,” he said. “If it doesn’t work out, we can end it. Who are we to tell people they have to remain handcuffed to a system that has spiraled out of control? It makes no sense.”

State Rep. Jon McKane is taking the offensive to save his proposal to allow Maine residents to purchase health insurance from companies operating out of state.

To counter the expected arguments from opponents when his bill comes up for debate on the House floor, he plans to distribute a list of “red herring” objections and then refute them with the facts. Every member of the House will receive a copy.

Rep. McKane’s bill, LD 290, would permit Mainers to buy insurance from carriers in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. It was voted down 8-4 by the Legislature’s Insurance and Financial Services Committee on March 24 on party lines. As a divided report out of committee, it will come up for debate in the House, where Republican leaders are expected to ask for a roll call vote.

“This is a matter of giving Maine citizens freedom of choice,” said Rep. McKane (R-Newcastle). “This bill could save Maine families thousands of dollars every year. Everyone knows that Maine’s insurance system is broken, yet the majority party is determined to keep everyone handcuffed to it.

“This bill is very popular with consumers,” he added, “but that doesn’t seem to matter to the people ruling Augusta. They have no legitimate arguments against it, so they throw up lots of noise and static to get their way.”

The McKane fact sheet lists several red herrings that opponents may deploy to kill the bill. The first is that Maine consumers will be unprotected from unscrupulous out-of-state insurers.

“Consumers are protected when other items are bought out of state,” said Rep. McKane. “If a Maine resident purchases a car in New Hampshire, real estate in Vermont or legal services in Massachusetts, they are protected from unscrupulous business practices by existing law. Why would health insurance be any different? It wouldn’t.”

Another red herring is that Maine’s Bureau of Insurance will have no authority over out-of-state insurers. “Wrong again,” said Rep. McKane. “Out-of-state insurers would have to abide by Maine’s minimum capital and surplus laws, reserve requirements, disclosure and reporting requirements and grievance procedures. We can design the system any way we want.”

A third objection is that giving consumers the choice of where to buy coverage would cause a health insurance death spiral. “It’s too late for that one,” Rep. McKane said. “The death spiral began a long time ago with the implementation of the ‘consumer protections’ of guaranteed issue and community rating. Thousands have dropped out of the individual insurance market since then. We need dramatic action now.”

Rep. McKane said his bill stems from a simple fact: Maine people pay too much for health insurance. “By joining together with the other New England states, we would be part of a huge insurance pool and would have the advantages of much more competition,” he said. “We would have all of the consumer protections that these states offer, as well as those we wish to impose.”

He said constituent surveys by House Republicans consistently find that more than 90 percent of Maine residents want the right to buy health insurance coverage out of state. Also, the Lewiston Sun Journal recently published an editorial in favor of the legislation, writing, “There are details to be worked out, but the principle is sound.”

In the wake of the Judiciary Committee’s unanimous rejection of LD 1353, House Republican leader Josh Tardy hailed the panel’s action as a victory for openness and honesty in government. The committee voted 13-0 on Wednesday to kill legislation that would have kept the names and salaries of government employees from public disclosure.

“I thank the Judiciary Committee for standing up for transparency in government,” said Rep. Tardy (R-Newport). “This is a victory for the taxpayers of Maine, who have every right to know the names and salaries of people who are paid with tax dollars. This bill was a misguided attempt to make government more secretive, and I’m glad it was shot down at the committee level.”

Last year, a website called MaineOpenGov.org began posting the names and salaries of everyone on the public payroll, some 90,000 people, including state employees, school employees and other public employees. While the salary information was already in the public domain, the website made it easily accessible.

In response to complaints by some public employees, a Democratic legislator introduced LD 1353 – “An Act Regarding Salary Information for Public Employees.” Under the terms of the legislation, “Salary information as it relates to an individual state, county, municipal, school, University of Maine System, Maine Community College System or Maine Maritime Academy employee is confidential.”

“Transparency in public spending is a Maine tradition that dates back to the earliest town meetings,” said Rep. Phil Curtis (R-Madison), the assistant House GOP leader. “It’s unfortunate that a bill like this was even brought forward. It’s clear to most of us that open government is good government and closed government breeds suspicion and distrust.”

“Obviously, the bill’s sponsor was on the receiving end of some complaints from people who didn’t like their salaries being made so public,” said Rep. Tardy. “You can understand their feelings, but the term public employee says it all. If you work for the public, the public has an expectation of full disclosure.”

The Legislature’s State and Local Government Committee voted unanimously today for a bill to require that state employees pay a portion of their health insurance costs. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Windol Weaver, said it would save money for the state and mesh with Governor Baldacci’s proposal on health insurance costs for new state workers.

Rep. Weaver’s bill, LD 417, was changed in committee to set the top employee contribution level at 10 percent, not the 15 percent originally proposed. Under the terms of the revised legislation, state employees will pay 5 percent of their insurance costs starting on October 1, 2009 and 10 percent beginning July 1, 2011. The bill now moves to the full House and Senate.

Rep. Weaver (R-York) said the new requirement would apply to legislators and employees of the executive, legislative and judicial branches whose health insurance is paid out of the General Fund – a total of 5,633 people. In a budget revision released May 1, the governor has proposed that state employees hired after July 1, 2009 pay 15 percent of their health insurance premiums.

“I understand that state employees won’t like this idea,” Rep. Weaver said after the committee vote. “But the simple fact is that the state can’t afford to pay 100 percent of their health insurance premiums. Considering the state’s fiscal predicament, the program as it exists is no longer sustainable.”

Senate Republican leader Kevin Raye (R-Washington) said he is very pleased with the committee’s unanimous support of the Weaver bill. “Private employees all across the state are contributing to the cost of health insurance, and at much higher rates than the ones in this bill,” he said. Sen. Jon Courtney (R-York), the assistant Senate GOP leader, called the legislation a simple matter of fairness. “We applaud Rep. Weaver for his leadership in bringing this matter forward,” he said, “and we are thrilled to see the bipartisan support for this commonsense initiative.”

According to figures provided by the Office of Employee Health and Benefits (OEHB), the monthly premium for a single contract as of July 1, 2009, will be $687, which works out to $8,244 per year. At the 5 percent rate, an employee would pay $412. By 2011, when premiums are projected to be $772 a month or $9,260 per year, an employee would pay $926 at the 10 percent rate.

The OEHB statistics show that the General Fund would save $1.7 million with employees paying 5 percent of their premiums and $4.9 million at 10 percent. The 7,467 state employees whose insurance is paid from other sources would not be affected by the change. These workers include many employees of the Department of Transportation and the Department of Health and Human Services, whose health insurance is paid for by the federal government, the Highway Fund and special revenue accounts.

Republican legislative leaders said today that Governor Baldacci’s plan to close a $569 million budget gap relies too heavily on one-time savings and not enough on the kind of structural changes needed to put Maine in a stronger financial position going forward.

“It’s an underwhelming attempt at preserving the status quo,” said Rep. Josh Tardy (R-Newport), leader of the House Republicans. “It solves the immediate problem, but it fails to prepare the state for the future. The Revenue Forecasting Committee predicted this week that the next biennium – for fiscal years 2012 and 2013 – will bring a budget shortfall of $459 million. The governor had an ideal opportunity here to propose long-term solutions, but instead the next governor and the next Legislature will have to make some hard choices.”

Sen. Kevin Raye (R-Washington), leader of the Senate Republicans, said the governor’s proposal will require close scrutiny in the days ahead. “We will work to craft a responsible budget that can garner the two-thirds support needed for enactment,” he said. “Many of the provisions appear to be reasonable and are likely to be adopted. But we had expected the governor to propose more significant structural change to put Maine on sound financial footing for the long term. A number of the provisions proposed by the governor appear to be a series of measures designed only to get us through the immediate crisis.”

Both Republican leaders suggested that major changes may have to be made to the governor’s plan to win the votes of Republican legislators, whose support is essential to achieving a two-thirds majority budget. While not appearing to propose any new broad-based taxes, as promised, they said, the governor’s proposal needs to be reviewed closely in terms of its impact.

“We appreciate the governor’s effort,” said Rep. Tardy. “It’s disappointing that he decided to balance the budget on the backs of small business owners, working families and others who already are under tremendous stress. We’re also concerned that he left a $37.5 million placeholder, money to be saved by streamlining state government. We have the Brookings report and the McKinsey report on strategies to save significant amounts of money. We need to be implementing some of those ideas.”

“We need to look to the future and make the tough and responsible decisions necessary to avoid a repeat of these problems in the next biennium,” said Sen. Raye. “Leaving the problem for the next governor and the next Legislature should not be an option.”

According to State Rep. Dean Cray, 175 state employees with fully paid health insurance are instead using the MaineCare system, the state’s name for Medicaid. He said full-time workers with an excellent health plan prefer Medicaid because there are no co-pays, while the state health program requires co-pays of $10 or $15.

Rep. Cray said some state employees are “scamming the system,” and he hopes to end it with LD 1302 – “An Act to Prohibit Full-time State Employees from Enrollment in MaineCare.” He formally presented the bill on April 28 to the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee.

In committee testimony, he explained that he learned about the co-pay avoidance scheme last year while handling a constituent service matter. “In casually talking with the state employee,” he said, “she divulged that she used MaineCare for her insurance so that she would not have to pay co-payments for medical services. I hung up the phone, hardly believing what I had just heard.”

Rep. Cray told the committee that further investigation revealed that approximately 175 state employees were receiving MaineCare benefits, along with and 85 retired state employees. He attached a list for the committee’s review.

Private sector employees are exploiting Maine’s generous Medicaid system, too, he said. “Some employees have the option with their employers to receive additional pay in lieu of receiving insurance coverage under their employer’s plan,” he said. “They pocket the money and then turn around and enroll in MaineCare. That should not be allowed to happen and needs to be one of the first areas of the MaineCare system we fix.”

Rep. Cray has bipartisan support for the proposal, and he think his bill’s chances are good due to the state’s massive budget shortfall. “We need to look at restructuring MaineCare,” he said. “When the safety net is bigger than the net itself, maybe we need to look at what we are doing and who is actually receiving state-paid benefits that are supposed to be going to Maine’s poorest citizens.”

MaineCare has about 270,000 enrollees and costs about $2.4 billion per year, with some of the expense paid by the federal government. The last time Maine experienced a major budget crisis, in 1991, MaineCare had 110,000 members.

State Rep. Doug Thomas called on his fellow legislators to vote down the budget for the Maine Turnpike Authority (MTA) and replace it with one that repeals the recent toll increases. The MTA’s $44 million budget later passed on a largely party line vote, 94-52.

Rep. Thomas (R-Ripley) said the new toll increases are excessive. In a floor speech, he cited the nearby Gardiner toll plaza, where the rates for a passenger vehicle jumped from 60 cents to $1.00. “That’s a 66 percent increase at a time when prices and wages are falling,” he said. “The Turnpike is going to argue that not all of their tolls went up that much, but many did, and the MTA ought to be ashamed of itself.”

Rep. Thomas is a member of the Legislature’s Transportation Committee, which has jurisdiction over the MTA. He said he has been bothered for the past several years by questionable spending by the Turnpike Authority’s management.

“A week or two ago, the Transportation Committee had a number of bills concerning the Turnpike,” he said in his floor speech. “The Turnpike had more paid staff there to support their position than I’ve ever seen at any public hearing in our committee in my five years here. One of the law firms they used to prepare testimony has offices in London. When I asked what it all was costing, I was told it didn’t matter.”

Rep. Thomas cited other examples of dubious MTA spending as he continued his criticism. “How long ago was it,” he said, “when we read in the newspaper that a $200 bottle of wine was being served at a Turnpike function?”

He reserved some of his sharpest criticism for the high toll prices that are forcing more traffic onto secondary roads. “Those roads will need to be widened and improved to handle the increased traffic,” he said. “This is traffic that should be on the Turnpike, but drivers are staying on secondary roads and bridges because the Turnpike Authority can’t get its spending under control. It’s putting a real strain on these other roads.”

Rep. Thomas concluded his floor speech with these words: “Let’s start today and send a message to the people of Maine that we can control spending, we can hold people who work for us accountable, and we can roll back this new tax.”

State Rep. Windol Weaver made a strong case today for his bill to require that state employees contribute to the cost of their health insurance. His proposal, LD 417, would increase an employee’s share of the premium by 5 percent a year for three years, finishing at 15 percent. The change also would apply to state legislators, who are covered under the state health insurance plan.

Speaking before the Legislature’s State and Local Government Committee, Rep. Weaver said the cost to taxpayers has climbed too high to continue with the current system. “It is a valuable and costly subsidy that has become unsustainable in the state’s present fiscal predicament and into the future,” he told the committee at a public hearing. “Now is the time for sensible action to alter the existing benefit package offered to state employees.”

The Maine State Employees Association (MSEA) opposes the plan, according to a statement by Ginette Rivard, vice president of the MSEA. She termed the plan “unacceptable,” saying, “It will take money out of our members’ pockets.” If the 15 percent contribution level were in place now, it would cost a state worker about $1,200 a year.

The State and Local Government Committee has scheduled a work session on the bill for May 4, when members are expected to vote on the measure before sending it on to the full House and Senate. The legislation, entitled “An Act to Require State Employees to Pay 15% of their Health Insurance Costs,” has nine cosponsors in the House and Senate. All nine are Republicans, including Rep. Josh Tardy (R-Newport), leader of the House Republicans.

According to figures provided by the Office of Employee Health and Benefits, the bill would save $2.34 million in the first year, with state workers paying 5 percent of the premium cost. The savings to the General Fund would rise to $4.72 million in the second year and $7.089 million in the third year, when the employee contribution would hit the maximum point of 15 percent.

A fact sheet produced by the Legislature’s Office of Fiscal and Program Review shows that premiums paid by the state this year reached $109.9 million to cover 13,340 active state employees. Premiums average $687 a month, or $8,244 for the year. The state also provides family coverage, with 50 percent of the cost paid by employees.

Rep. Weaver said the 15 percent level would put state employees on a par with the national norms for the private sector. A March 2009 report by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that, on average, employees with company-sponsored insurance pay 16 percent of the cost of their own coverage and 27 percent of the cost of family coverage.

Republican members of the Legislature’s Committee on Appropriations and Financial Affairs said today that the projected $570 million revenue shortfall over the next two years may not be the end of the state’s financial difficulties. The Appropriations Committee is working to produce a state budget for the 2010-2011 biennium, which starts on July 1.

“The Legislature has a bipartisan obligation not just to produce a balanced budget for this biennium but to come up with a game plan for the long term,” said Rep. Sawin Millett (R-Waterford), the House GOP lead on the panel. “This is not a one biennium problem. We could be facing another three to five years of economic uncertainty before Maine returns to the statewide employment levels of early 2008. We anticipate that the associated declines in General Fund revenues could last through the 2012-2013 biennium, which would carry the problem through the next Legislature.”

Rep. Millett noted that the deterioration of the state economy may be intensifying. “We understand that the current situation will likely worsen in the second year of the next budget cycle, when the revenue decline is expected to be even more severe,” he said. “The situation cries out for structural change, not just a one-time belt tightening approach to budget balancing.”

State Sen. Richard Rosen (R-Hancock County), the Senate Republican lead on Appropriations, said Republicans continue to oppose raising broad-based taxes to plug the budget hole, a position shared by Governor Baldacci. “We recognize that every family in Maine is struggling in this recession and we will approach it the same way,” he said. “We need to prioritize state spending to balance the budget, but do that in a way that protects vulnerable residents.”

Sen. Rosen also noted that the stimulus funds coming from the federal government provide one-time money designed for “front-loaded” spending. “The stimulus money ends in 2011, when we will face a cliff-like falloff in available funds,” he said. “I would recommend that municipalities, school systems and other institutions that rely on state spending work with us cooperatively to use this stimulus interlude to plan for leaner times ahead.”

State Rep. Joan Nass says she is down but not out in her crusade to bring life skills education to Maine schools. On April 16, the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee voted 7-4 against her bill to integrate family and consumer science subjects into the state’s system of Learning Results.

“I regret the committee’s action, but the bill is still alive,” said Rep. Nass (R-Acton). “I am optimistic that we can make a strong case for this legislation on the floor of the House.

“It’s very important that our young people learn some of the basic things you need to navigate today’s world – financial literacy, parenting skills, nutritional information and other core skills,” she added. “Too many young people are not learning the basics. But with creative and innovative planning, Maine teachers could integrate a lot of this information into high school courses in math, science and social sciences.”

The 7-4 vote in the Education Committee came after an amendment was added to Rep. Nass’ bill, LD 1027, “Resolve, Directing the Department of Education to Include the Study of Family and Consumer Science in the System of Learning Results.”

Maine’s Learning Results, established in the 1990s, were designed to help educators identify the knowledge and skills essential to prepare Maine students for work, higher education, citizenship and personal fulfillment.

The amendment to LD 1027 would involve members of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences in the development of scoring guides for performance indicators in Learning Results. They would address such components as standards, implementation and assessment of such skills as parenting, personal finance, nutrition and family dynamics.

“We would have a voice in the development of the program if the bill passes,” said Rep. Nass. “It would be part of a revision of education standards. But I think these core skills are important enough to have a specific section within Learning Results. We need to educate the whole child. In just the nutritional area, we’re now dealing with childhood obesity, heart problems, depression and many other maladies, all driving our health care costs higher.”

There is currently no representation of family and consumer science within the Maine Department of Education, she said, reflecting a serious deficit in nutrition, financial literacy, child development/parenting and related education within the Maine Learning Results program.

Rep. Nass said that Governor Baldacci believes the basic skills problem is severe enough that he declared April to be Financial Literacy Month. In his declaration, he noted that only 40 percent of Americans use a budget to keep track of household finances.

“What we really are talking about is teaching people to be smart consumers, so their money goes further and they can afford other basic expenses,” said Rep. Nass, who taught high school courses in family and consumer science for 30 years. “Young people need the skills to be savvy consumers. It’s vitally important that we give today’s youth the foundation for a healthy and productive life, and I think the people of Maine agree.”

In a statement to the Judiciary Committee on April 16, State Rep. Jayne Crosby Giles made a strong case for her bill to protect Maine businesses from unfair treatment under eminent domain proceedings. Her proposal would base compensation on a “going concern” value when the state needs to acquire business properties for roads, bridges and other public projects.

Her statement to the Judiciary Committee came during a public hearing on the bill, LD 1207, “An Act to Base the Value of Eminent Domain Takings on Going Concern Value.” The 14 members of the committee will convene on April 29 for a work session and committee vote on the measure before it advances to the full House and Senate.

Rep. Giles (R-Belfast), a veteran community banker, submitted similar legislation during the last Legislature. “That bill proposed that a different means of appraisal be used in business takings – to have the business appraised using a going concern value that gives full valuation to the business, versus the current method of appraising only the real property,” she told the committee. “A fiscal note killed that bill. However, the fiscal note proved the case that the State of Maine is not properly compensating business owners for the loss of their property, their business and their livelihood.”

Reinforcing testimony was provided by Dick Dyer, of Winthrop, whose family owned the Sail Inn restaurant, which the state seized in a controversial case to make way for the Waldo-Hancock Bridge. “This bill is proper because it pays the landowner/business owner what the business truly is worth,” he said. “Eminent domain law specifically says that when taking property, the taking agency must pay just compensation. This does not restrict payment to a simple real estate appraisal. It can and should include value for the going concern.”

LD 1207 would establish an impartial ombudsman to ensure that business owners who lose property by eminent domain are properly compensated. “The burden to prove loss remains on the business owner and the business owner must make a request for the additional review,” Rep. Giles explained to the committee. “The use of an impartial ombudsman provides a fairer means of addressing the loss of the going concern value. I believe this bill creates a fairer process for the business owner; plus, this legislation will save the state money by eliminating prolonged and expensive legal proceedings.”

Rep. Giles told the committee that a successful business will have a higher business valuation, and thus a higher amount of the intangible quality known as “goodwill,” if it has been well run and profitable. The location of the business is critical to this success, she said.

“The business owner faces a severe loss in this value if forced to move,” she continued. “Thus, it seems reasonable that proper compensation from the state be provided as determined by the going concern value. Through the loss of the business location, the business owner has lost the income-producing potential from that location for 10, 20, 30 years or more.

“The governing body in an eminent domain proceeding has literally taken a lifetime of earnings from a business owner,” she said, “a lifetime of earnings that includes providing for family members, sending kids to college, employing workers, donating to local community organizations and so much more.”

The State of Maine pays 100 percent of the cost of health insurance for state employees. Rep. Windol Weaver is looking to change that with a bill to require state employees to pay part of the cost of their health insurance, starting at 5 percent and reaching 15 percent in the third year.

The issue will reach high visibility on April 27, when the State and Local Government Committee holds a public hearing on the legislation. It has already gained attention in the halls of the State House, because the bill would require legislators to contribute to their insurance coverage for the first time.

Rep. Weaver (R-York) knows the bill, LD 417, is controversial; but he believes it is the right thing to do at a time when state revenues are very tight. “I might not win any popularity contests with the state employee unions,” he said, “but I think it’s time for state workers to contribute towards insurance costs the same way private sector employees do.”

The legislation, entitled “An Act to Require State Employees to Pay 15% of their Health Insurance Costs,” has nine cosponsors in the House and Senate. All nine are Republicans, including Rep. Josh Tardy (R-Newport), leader of the House Republicans.

According to figures provided by the Office of Employee Health and Benefits, the bill would save $2.34 million in the first year, with state workers paying 5 percent of the premium cost. The savings to the General Fund would rise to $4.72 million in the second year and $7.089 million in the third year, when the employee contribution would hit the maximum point of 15 percent.

A fact sheet produced by the Legislature’s Office of Fiscal and Program Review shows that premiums paid by the state this year reached $109.9 million to cover 13,340 active state employees. Premiums average $687 a month, or $8,244 for the year. The state also provides family coverage, with 50 percent of the cost paid by employees.

Rep. Weaver said the 15 percent level would put state employees on a par with the national norms for the private sector. A March 2009 report by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that, on average, employees with company-sponsored insurance pay 16 percent of the cost of their own coverage and 27 percent of the cost of family coverage.

Led by Senate Republican Leader Kevin Raye (R-Perry) and House Republican Leader Josh Tardy (R-Newport), Maine’s GOP legislators assembled on the banks of the Kennebec River in downtown Augusta today to announce their vision for Maine under Republican leadership, guided by a commitment to “Common Sense Solutions for Maine’s Future.”

Speaking for Senate and House Republicans, Raye presented a series of core principles that unite Maine Republican leaders, using the acronym CREATE to describe the GOP vision of a Caring, Responsible, Efficient, Affordable, Transparent, and Effective state government.

He also addressed the disconnect evidenced in the November 2008 election when Maine voters overwhelmingly voted to repeal taxes that were a centerpiece of the Democratic agenda in the last Legislature and yet, on the same ballot, re-elected the Democratic majority with strengthened numbers.

“The result of the November election made it painfully clear that our party has not done a good job of communicating what Republican leadership would mean for Maine people – and for their children,” said Raye. “What the election told us is that the people of Maine are with us, but until we do a better job of conveying our message, they don’t even know it.

“So we’ve made a concerted effort to get out from under the dome and actively listen to the people. What we heard has clearly confirmed for us that the people of Maine are with us, but until we do a better job of conveying our message, they don’t even know it. We’re here today to mark the start of a new era. And to begin to clearly define for the people of this state what Maine Republican leadership stands for,” said Raye.

“This is about a true long term commitment to the people of Maine to offer common sense solutions that will help Maine residents reach some common goals – a strong employment base and better jobs, greater prosperity for our citizens, more affordable insurance, a sensible plan for our energy future and lower taxes,” said Rep. Tardy.

“The next two months will be packed with action on all fronts. There are hundreds of individual bills that will come before us, and we have identified 19 or 20 Republican bills that represent sound principles of responsible government. This is not a one-time shot just for this session and this is not about controlling the legislative agenda, because we don’t control the agenda. We are here today to lay out the ideas that capture our vision for Maine – now and into the future,” Tardy said.

“Our overall goal is to have a well-run state that does the essential work of government, but does it efficiently and at the least possible cost to the taxpayers. We know that we can’t tax and spend our way to prosperity,” noted Tardy, who went on to say “we are not here today with a laundry list of legislative proposals, but we do want to highlight a few of the measures that exemplify the Maine Republican commitment to common sense.” He went on to cite:

LD 290, a bill by Representative Jon McKane (R-Newcastle) that would allow Maine residents to buy health insurance from outside the state.

LD 254, sponsored by Representative Rich Cebra (R-Naples) that would reform Maine’s costly welfare system that currently penalizes people who leave welfare to go to work

LD 1027, sponsored by Representative Joan Nass (R-Acton) that would ensure that Maine’s young people leave high school with basic knowledge about personal finance, money management, parenting, food science, and consumer science.

LD 1279, sponsored by Senator Jon Courtney (R-Sanford) that would reduce Maine’s top income tax rate from 8.5 percent to 4.5 percent and remove low-income families making less than $30,000 from the tax rolls entirely.

“If we were in the majority in the Legislature, these things would be happening. But for now, all we can do it draw a bright line between us and the other party and hope that the people of our state understand that there is a difference – a big difference,” Tardy said.

“While Democrats have held complete one-party control of the Blaine House, Senate and House of Representatives for the past six and a half years, Republicans last won complete control of state government in 1962 – when I was a year old and Rep. Tardy hadn’t even been born,” Raye noted. “It’s time we effectively convey that Republicans are the party that best represents Maine’s working men and women. Maine Republicans offer the common sense leadership that the working people of our state demand and deserve.”

State Rep. Kimberley Rosen’s proposal to protect victims of domestic violence is progressing through the legislative process and is expected to come up for a vote in both the House and Senate in the coming weeks.

The bill would allow a court to order that a person charged with a domestic violence crime be required to wear a GPS electronic monitoring device as a condition of bail. The bill also stipulates that a person charged with a domestic violence crime or violation of a protective order undergo a “dangerousness” assessment to gauge the likelihood of further attacks.

The bill, LD 567, is entitled “An Act to Provide Increased Protection for Victims of Domestic Violence.” It has attracted bipartisan legislative support.

“We’re all well aware of the dire statistics regarding domestic violence and the resulting consequences of the tragedies caused by the perpetrators,” said Rep. Rosen (R-Bucksport). “This bill is an attempt to help us use technology to solve a serious problem. We have an opportunity here to identify high-risk cases and use GPS monitoring when necessary. Maine can become one of the leaders in the fight to end domestic violence.”

On April 1, Rep. Rosen formally presented her bill during a public hearing before the Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety. The committee met again in work session on April 8 to gather more information about the technical aspects of the bill.

During her testimony before the Criminal Justice Committee, Rep. Rosen explained that the bill is modeled after the Cindy Bischof Act, which took effect in Illinois in January. That law allows courts to order that abusers wear GPS tracking devices as a condition of bail in stalking situations. Cindy Bischof was killed by an ex-boyfriend, despite the knowledge among local law enforcement that the estranged boyfriend had violated orders of protection at least three times.

She also told the committee that similar programs in Massachusetts and other states have been successful. During the last two years in Massachusetts, for example, there have been only two re-assaults in the 42 cases identified as high risk, a 95 percent success rate. Of the offenders monitored by GPS, there have been no re-assaults.

Rep. Rosen said the GPS monitoring will alert law enforcement the moment a batterer has entered a prohibited zone, allowing police to intercept him or her before reaching the victim. Under the program, a participant would wear a global positioning anklet or bracelet that alerts law enforcement and the victim if the participant is violating restricted area boundaries. According to Rep. Rosen, judges may favor this sanction because it allows batterers to avoid incarceration without endangering their victims. They could then maintain employment and pay child support obligations.

“This program could save money for the state prison system and county jails for suspects awaiting trial,” she said. “GPS monitoring also effectively prevents further violence and possible escalation into domestic violence homicides, and it provides a valuable method of enforcing the terms of an order by notifying law enforcement and the victim if the offender breaches a forbidden zone.”

LD 567 also establishes the Electronic Monitoring Fund, which will use the proceeds of $200 fines from domestic violence and protective order offenders to help pay the expenses of the Electronic Monitoring Program.

State Rep. Jon McKane said he was stunned today when the Maine House voted along party lines to reject his proposal to take 10 percent of the funds for state employee travel and use the money to help 60 elders living in seven small group homes in Lincoln County.

“Frankly, I am stunned that the majority party would put travel for state employees over the well-being of our elderly,” said Rep. McKane (R-Newcastle). “The residents of these homes are over 90, and money is so tight that staff is being laid off and the heat has been turned down. The people of Maine would be shocked to know that the legislative Democrats think that their travel perks are more important than the health and safety of impoverished senior citizens in our ElderCare Network.”

State Rep. Josh Tardy, leader of the House Republicans, said he was appalled by the outcome. “The majority party constantly preaches compassion and concern for our most vulnerable citizens,” he said. “But when asked to give up a tiny portion of their travel budget to help out Maine seniors in a time of crisis, they turned a cold shoulder.”

Rep. McKane’s bill, LD 416 – “An Act to Provide Funding to the ElderCare Network” – was shot down today by an 89-55 vote. It would have taken about $300,000 from the state employee travel budget, or 10 percent.

Maine spends about $3 million a year on travel for state employees, Rep. McKane said. “We send them to Las Vegas, we send them to Honolulu and we send them to countries all over Europe, South America and the Far East,” he said. “These trips may be important, but they do not rise to the level of need that ElderCare does.”

Founded 12 years ago. ElderCare provides residential living primarily for low-income elders in Lincoln County – Maine’s oldest county. Rep. McKane said there are no other homes in Lincoln County that take elders on state assistance. The network consists of seven small homes and the 60 residents are mostly 90 years old and older.

“The residents could be any one of us,” he said. “They are good citizens who contributed to our communities and gave to others when called upon. ElderCare provides this critical residential service for 60 percent of the cost of private competitors, but if ElderCare doesn’t find financial help in the immediate future, its residents will be looking for new homes within a year and future residents will have to look elsewhere. They are just barely staying afloat, and this money could have done a great deal of good.”

A bill by State Rep. Meredith Strang Burgess to create a sales tax holiday for Maine is scheduled for a public hearing before the Taxation Committee on April 14 at 1 p.m. The legislation would give Maine shoppers a brief respite from the state’s 5 percent sales tax. The first tax holiday would take place over the Columbus Day weekend, in October 2009.

“We know the idea is wildly popular with consumers and merchants,” said Rep. Strang Burgess (R-Cumberland). “It is especially favored by southern Maine merchants who have to compete with sales tax-free New Hampshire.”

Similar legislation has been proposed during past sessions but died in committee. This bill, LD 1148, will head into the hearing with strong bipartisan momentum. More than 40 legislators have signed on as cosponsors. After the first tax holiday in October, Maine would hold two sales tax holiday weekends per year, with the dates determined by Maine Revenue Services and the Maine Merchants Association.

Rep. Strang Burgess said the Columbus Day weekend is an optimum time for the first tax holiday. “It would give retailers a strong flurry of business at the outset of the holiday shopping season,” she said. “Maine’s retail sector represents a major part of our economy, and it’s been hit hard by the recession. I believe a sales tax holiday would be good for consumers, good for retailers and good for our overall morale. It would help stimulate the economy.

“A Columbus Day tax holiday also would attract a lot of Canadians to travel to Maine,” she added. “The holiday would coincide with the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend; and with the sales tax rate in New Brunswick at 11 percent, I think we’d gain a lot of business.”

Rep. Strang Burgess said any tax revenue lost due to the holiday would be partially offset by an increase in state income tax revenues and by increased meals and lodging taxes from the thousands of shoppers from Canada and other states who would visit Maine that weekend. Maine Revenue Services would be charged with calculating the financial impact of the tax holiday.

The sales tax exemption would not apply to everything. It would exclude tobacco products, gas, motor vehicles, motorboats, meals and any item with a price exceeding $2,500. More than a dozen states have sales tax holidays, often occurring in the fall.

State Rep. Kathy Chase and State Sen. Richard Nass announced today that the Joint Standing Committee on Taxation has approved an emergency provision to a bill that would exempt severance pay from the Maine income tax. The emergency preamble to the legislation means that it would take effect immediately after being enacted by the Legislature and signed by the governor.

Ordinarily, a new law goes into effect 90 days following the recess of the legislative session, which is scheduled this year for June 16. Without the emergency provision, the bill wouldn’t take effect until September. “That’s not fast enough,” said Sen. Nass (R-York). “When you have to pay a mortgage and provide food for your family, you need relief immediately.”

“In this current recession, with so many families losing their incomes, there is no time to waste,” said Rep. Chase (R-Wells), the ranking Republican on the Taxation Committee.

“We expect this bill to pass, and we want it to take effect right away. With the closing of the RR Donnelley plant, 374 employees will be out of work. I just find it unacceptable that the state would move in and take a big chunk of a severance check, which might be the only money left to support a family.”

The bill, LD 197, is entitled “An Act to Provide Tax Relief to Workers Who Lose their Jobs Due to Business Closure.” It is sponsored by Rep. Gary Knight (R-Livermore Falls) and designed to shield severance pay from Maine’s 8.5 percent income tax. The bill, complete with the emergency preamble, passed the Taxation Committee unanimously on March 24. The committee added an amendment to limit the income tax deduction to three years.

Rep. Chase and Sen. Nass attended a meeting in Wells with Governor Baldacci and Wells town officials after the shocking announcement of RR Donnelley’s planned permanent closing of its Wells plant. Sen. Nass represents Wells as well as surrounding towns where some of the employees of RR Donnelley reside.

“Every person losing their job at RR Donnelley wants another job,” said Rep. Chase. “These are not folks who want to rely on the government for support. Yet it is during difficult times when the Legislature must step in and be sure that we support hard-working Maine people who need help until they find employment. I am confident that the full Legislature will move swiftly to pass this legislation to help folks who find themselves out of work through no fault of their own.”

In a vote today in the Joint Standing Committee on Transportation, Reps. Rich Cebra (R-Naples) and Doug Thomas (R-Thomas) voted to strip recently enacted Maine Turnpike toll increases out of the budget. The vote came as the Maine Turnpike Authority, which administers 109 miles of road, sought approval for its $83.2 million budget.

“For the turnpike to increase tolls when Maine families are tightening their belts and trying to balance their budgets is disturbing,” said Rep. Thomas. “Not only will it be a hardship to families, it will add to the costs of products traveling the turnpike to market. It will also increase the strain on other roads as people take alternate routes to avoid the higher fares.”

The rate increases were announced by the Maine Turnpike Authority (MTA) earlier this year and enacted February 1. In some cases, tolls went up by as much as 66 percent. While the MTA has already approved and enacted these increases, the Legislature has the power to reverse that decision as part of the budget process. As a state agency, the MTA’s bonding level and annual operating budget are subject to legislative approval.

“It’s inconceivable that they would increase fares in this economy, when working Maine families are struggling to get by,” said Rep. Cebra. “This toll increase will be a drag on the entire state, whether you use the turnpike or not.”

The Maine Turnpike Authority is an independent agency created by the Legislature in 1941 to construct, manage and operate the toll highway from Kittery to Augusta. The MTA is governed by a five-member board whose members are appointed by the Governor, subject to approval of the Legislature.

Republican legislative leaders reacted sharply today to the news that the state’s MaineCare program has a new budget deficit of $235 million for this fiscal year, which ends June 30. Just six weeks ago, the Legislature closed the supplemental budget, which cut $140 million from the current budget. There was no public disclosure until today that this huge new problem had arisen within MaineCare, as the state calls the Medicaid program, which provides free medical and dental care to low-income residents.

“This is extremely troubling news,” said Senate Republican Leader Kevin Raye. “It is also very disturbing that this information was unveiled on a Friday afternoon, less than 72 hours after the governor’s State of the State address, in which there was no mention of a gaping shortfall. It is doubtful that the administration became aware of a $235 million hole only in the last few hours, and raises serious questions about their professed commitment to transparency.”

State Rep. Josh Tardy, leader of the House Republicans, called the shocking revelation “one of the biggest stories in Augusta in the last few years. The problem stems from overutilization of MaineCare, probably due to the recession,” he said. “The most disturbing fact is that we were not given any cautionary advice about this in January, when we took up the supplemental budget. We have known for months that a Brinks truck was going to arrive in the form of the stimulus funds. But it’s hard to believe that the administration did not know that we were $235 million out of balance with just three months to go in the fiscal year.”

State Sen. Peter Mills, a member of the Health and Human Services Committee, was in the committee room when officials of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) dropped the financial bombshell in the form of a fact sheet about the distribution of stimulus funds. “This comes just three days after the governor’s State of the State address,” he said. “By misrepresenting the real state of the state, it fails to prepare people for the sacrifices we will have to make. I’m also disturbed that the administration didn’t disclose this until a Friday afternoon, during a quiet time in the news cycle.”

Rep. Sawin Millet, the House Republican lead on the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee, said administration officials should have noted the likelihood of program overutilization in January. “The key is that we were not told, even six weeks ago when we closed the supplemental budget, that a cost overrun of this magnitude was anticipated.” According to the DHHS fact sheet, he said, the $235 million hole will be followed by overruns of $90 million in 2010 and $65 million in 2011, at current federal matching rates.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) would be limited in its ability to close down the scallop season if a bill introduced by State Representative Dianne Tilton becomes law.

The bill is LD 836 – “An Act to Amend the Laws Governing the Scallop Season.” It would require the DMR to consult with the industry and the legislative oversightcommittee before instituting an emergency closure. The bill also would prevent the DMR from shortening the season in any way by limiting days at sea.

The Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Marine Resources has scheduled a public hearing on the bill for March 18 at 10 a.m.Rep. Tilton (R-Harrington) said she introduced the bill out of frustration with the way the recent scallop season closure was handled. “By law, the DMR can close a season through an emergency act only if there is an immediate threat of resource depletion,” she said. “The commissioner has the power to do that; and while he does consult withscientists and others on his staff, the committee of jurisdiction has no way to balance that power.”

Rep. Tilton said the oversight provision in her legislation simply allows the DMR’s Scallop Advisory Council, comprised of industry representatives, and the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee to have access to the evidence the commissioner is using to justify the closure. “People’s livelihoods depend on the accuracy of data that the department can barely afford to collect,” she said. “This simply provides checks and balances to be sure we are taking this extreme measure with the best informationpossible.”

The other aspect of the bill would eliminate short or split seasons, where the fishery is managed by limiting how many days can be fished. “If the Department wants to limit a season to 30 days, they normally tell you which 30 days to fish by giving you a month somewhere in the season,” Rep. Tilton said. “Shortening the season to a month puts a lot of pressure on the fishermen to take advantage of every day they can fish in that month. Since weather, market price and other factors can affect a fisherman’s ability or desireto go out, it is safer and more convenient for fishermen to be able to choose which 30 days to fish within the January to April season set in law.”

Rep. Tilton said she expects resistance from the DMR, especially for the days at sea concept, because it would require the department to institute a reporting or monitoring system that they feel could be costly. But Rep. Tilton said she is not convinced that cost should be a barrier. “There are some relatively simple systems that could be instituted,” she said. “In this economy, we need to be able to help people work, not look for reasons they shouldn’t.”

State Rep. Dianne Tilton (R-Harrington) serves on the Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Marine Resources

State Rep. Jayne Crosby Giles made a strong case March 11 for her bill to help small and medium-sized businesses weather the current economic recession. Her legislation, LD 214, would authorize a General Fund bond issue for $20 million to enhance two critical business programs at the Finance Authority of Maine (FAME).

In testimony before the Legislature’s Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee, Rep. Giles said FAME funds are needed now more than ever – “not as a bailout, but as a stimulus to help Maine companies through the toughest economy we have seen.”

Rep. Giles (R-Belfast), a long-time community banker and a former member of the FAME board, told committee members that Maine’s 140,000 small businesses employ 65 percent of the state’s workforce.

As a commercial banker, she said, she continues to meet sole proprietors and companies that need financial assistance – lobstermen, retailers, florists, restaurant owners, manufacturers and more. “Some have cut expenses,” she said. “Others have laid off workers. Many are literally hunkering down while they ride out this economic storm.”

The $20 million bond issue, if approved by the Legislature and Maine voters, would increase two existing FAME business programs. The Economic Recovery Loan Program, which makes direct loans to businesses, would receive $10 million. The other $10 million would go to the Commercial Loan Insurance Program, which provides loan guarantees for banks. All funds would be repaid by business borrowers over time.

“The primary use of the funds is to assist businesses faced with a loss of revenue and profitability that has caused a need to restructure business indebtedness,” Rep. Giles told the committee. “Eligible businesses may refinance existing business debts, such as accounts payable, operating expenses, business credit card debt and other loans due within the current year.”

She added that during the recession of 1991-1992, FAME “played an essential role in preserving Maine jobs and companies during an extremely difficult period.” FAME was established as Maine’s business finance agency in 1983 and charged with supporting the start-up, expansion and growth plans of the state’s business community. It improves access to capital and helps fill gaps in Maine’s capital delivery system. FAME also administers the state’s higher education finance programs.

State Rep. Jon McKane has gathered key bipartisan support for his bill to allow Maine residents to buy health insurance from out-of-state insurance carriers. The bill, LD 290, is scheduled for a public hearing before the Insurance and Financial Services Committee on March 16.

Rep. McKane (R-Newcastle) said the bill would reintroduce insurance competition in Maine and save consumers and businesses significant sums of money. “Maine’s insurance disaster has gone on long enough,” he said. “Our insurance rates are the second-highest in the country, and they have become a crushing burden for businesses and individual citizens. There’s no reason the people of Maine should be held hostage to a dysfunctional insurance system.”

According to Rep. McKane, Maine’s insurance mandates, especially community rating and guaranteed issue, have conspired to drive insurance companies out of the state. “The resulting lack of competition and a captive population,” he said, “have given us rates that are often two or three times higher than in neighboring states, for identical coverage.”

The bill is entitled “An Act to Allow Maine Residents to Purchase Health Insurance from Out-of-state Insurers.” It permits regional insurers to offer their individual and group health plans for sale in Maine, provided those insurers meet certain requirements of Maine law, including capital reserves and grievance procedures. The bill defines regional insurers as those authorized to operate in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Five of the bill’s 11 cosponsors are Democrats, including Sen. Bill Diamond (D-Cumberland), the Senate chair of the Appropriations Committee; and Sen. Lisa Marrache (D-Kennebec), a physician who serves on the Health and Human Services Committee.

Five of the bill’s 11 cosponsors are Democrats, including Sen. Bill Diamond (D-Cumberland), the Senate chair of the Appropriations Committee; and Sen. Lisa Marrache (D-Kennebec), a physician who serves on the Health and Human Services Committee.

Rep. McKane said opening up Maine’s insurance market would double as an economic development stimulus for the state. “You have to consider things in context,” he said. “We have some of the most costly electricity rates in the nation, and our tax burden is also one of the highest. Then our health insurance rates are number two in the nation. When you combine all these factors, you’ve got a formula for failure. That’s why our business climate is rated almost dead last in the entire country. If we want economic growth and job creation in the state, we need to make some changes.”

Rep. McKane said most states have already acted to remove destructive mandates to keep their insurance rates more affordable. “Here in Maine, we worry a lot about the safety net and we spend billions of dollars on Medicaid,” he said. “But we never consider the people up on the trapeze. It’s a high-wire act to support a family or a business in Maine, and the cost of health insurance is way out of line. This bill will provide significant relief.”

State Rep. Stacey Fitts said today that he expects the Legislature to pass LD 635, his bill to delay financial penalties for so-called “orphan schools,” those which have been spurned as consolidation partners. His legislation includes an emergency preamble, which means it would take effect immediately after being signed into law by the governor.

“The bill essentially buys more time for school districts that tried to consolidate with other districts but were rejected,” said Rep. Fitts (R-Pittsfield). “My school district, SAD 53, is a good example. It could lose $180,000 in state aid, even though our communities voted to consolidate with SAD 59. The SAD 59 voters turned down the measure. But the way the law is written, SAD 53 now faces a big fine. It is profoundly wrong to penalize schools and taxpayers who tried to do the right thing. The law is flawed, and this bill will provide a remedy.”

According to the Maine Department of Education, a total of 17 school administrative units statewide are caught in the same trap as SAD 53, facing fines for non-conformance after being rejected by potential consolidation partners. The other 16 are in Castine; Deblois; Gilead; Highland Plantation; Madawaska; Stacyville; Fort Kent; Harrington; Bethel; Dover-Foxcroft; Anson; Millinocket; Moro Plantation; Surry; Upton; and Vanceboro.

Rep. Fitts has plenty of backing to get the bill through the Legislature. He drafted it with the support of Education Commissioner Susan Gendron; and 45 cosponsors have signed aboard, including the speaker of the House and the president of the Senate. “There’s a multitude of bipartisan support,” he said. “It’s hard to imagine a scenario under which this bill would fail.”

LD 635 is officially entitled “An Act to Provide Additional Time to Certain School Administrative Units to Comply with School Administration Unit Reorganization Laws.” It has been referred to the Education Committee, where House Chair Patricia Sutherland (D-Chapman) has assured Rep. Fitts that the bill will be fast-tracked. The intent would be to bring it to a vote before the Legislature considers a bill to repeal the entire school consolidation law outright. If that repeal bill fails in the Legislature, it would become a referendum item on the November 2009 ballot.

Under LD 635, orphan districts would receive an extension to July 1, 2010, to try again to consolidate with the same districts that rejected them or with different school administrative units. The Department of Education would be directed to help prepare another reorganization plan. To qualify for the extension, a school administrative unit must have approved a reorganization plan at a referendum prior to January 30, 2009.

State Rep. Wes Richardson has been appointed to Maine’s 19-member Advisory Council on Health Systems Development, which has a sweeping mandate to examine virtually all facets of health insurance in the state. Speaker of the House Hannah Pingree made the appointment in late February.

“It’s a challenging assignment, but I look forward to getting started,” said Rep. Richardson (R-Warren), the ranking Republican on the Joint Standing Committee on Insurance and Financial Services. “The cost of health care and health insurance is one of the biggest problems in the state. This council is an official channel to make recommendations to maximize the benefit from our health care dollars.”

The council was established as part of the legislation that created Dirigo Health and has been meeting monthly since 2003. The enabling legislation was amended in 2007, when positions for five legislators were added and the council’s duties were expanded.

The council is charged with an extensive set of duties and responsibilities, mostly to measure the current health care system and find ways to economize. For example, one duty requires the council to conduct a “systematic review of the cost drivers in the state’s health care system, including market failure, supply and demand for services, provider charges and costs, public and commercial payor policies, consumer behavior, cost and pricing of pharmaceuticals and the need for, and availability and cost of, capital equipment and services.”

Another area of responsibility relates to the interactions of health care factors, including “cost shifting among public and private payors and cost shifting to cover uncompensated care to persons unable to pay for items or services, and the effect of these practices on the total cost paid by all payment sources for health care.”

“Health care is one of the most complicated industries in the country,” said Rep. Richardson. “The council has already been working on some major projects. I think my experience on the Insurance and Financial Services Committee will help me get up to speed in a hurry.”

Help could be on the way for Mainers who make their living harvesting clams, mussels, oysters and quahogs. Two Republican legislators report progress in brokering a deal to expedite the cleanup of contaminated shellfish flats.

State Sen. David Trahan (R-Lincoln) is sponsoring a bill to overhaul Maine’s water quality testing program within the Department of Marine Resources (DMR).

State Rep. Dianne Tilton (R-Harrington) is the lead co-sponsor. The legislation would direct state agencies to move more aggressively to identify and clean up sources of pollution that have led to frequent closings of shellfish flats along the Maine coast.

“We’re trying to protect a traditional Maine industry,” said Rep. Tilton, a first-term legislator. “Shellfishing is a $130 million business in Maine. Clamming alone brings in between $50 million and $60 million. The problem is that runoff from farms and storm-flooded sewer systems forces state regulators to close the flats for long periods of time. That presents a real hardship for Maine families who depend on shellfish harvesting for their livelihoods.”

The legislation also calls for a vote on a $2 million bond for river cleanup to establish a dedicated fund that would operate under the jurisdiction of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The fund would be replenished by a $2 annual assessment on public sewer bills.

On March 3, Rep. Tilton and Sen. Trahan met with top officials from the Baldacci administration to explain the legislation and solicit support for the plan. The meeting included DMR Commissioner George Lapointe; Karin Tilberg, a senior policy advisor to the governor; and Andrew Fisk, director of the Bureau of Land and Water Quality at the DEP.

Two other legislators attended the meeting – Sen. Stan Gerzofsky (D-Cumberland) and Rep. Peggy Pendleton (D-Scarborough). Reps. Tilton and Pendleton serve on the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee.

“We don’t see this as a partisan issue,” said Sen. Trahan. “We see this as a matter of pulling together to reduce coastal pollution and making sure that shellfish harvesters can make a living. Rep. Tilton and I were very encouraged by the tone of the meeting. I think all of us have a keen interest in solving this problem.”

“Our legislation is a good starting point, but it’s not a finished product,” he added. “We asked for their help with the final language. We want them to help shape the bill.”

The heart of the legislation would set up a dedicated, non-lapsing account that could accept funding from a variety of sources. The $2 million bond, if passed by the voters in November, would be augmented by the $2 annual fee on public sewer bills. All fines for overboard discharge violations would go to the fund. Fifty percent of all future increases in state shellfish licenses also would be deposited in the fund.

On the operational front, the legislation directs that all funding not dedicated to DMR for water testing shall be used for cleaning up polluted shellfish flats, at the discretion of the DEP. The fund would provide grants to municipalities or associations for the sole purpose of identifying and cleaning up polluted flats.

Rep. Tilton said one of her top legislative priorities is to advocate for Maine’s fishing, lobstering and shellfishing businesses. “These are vital businesses for coastal Maine communities,” she said. “Our state needs to protect every job we have, especially traditional jobs like these that help define Maine’s character.”

The legislation currently is LR 418 – An Act Concerning Water Quality Testing of Shellfish Flats. When the official language is finalized, the measure will be assigned an LD number and sent to the relevant committees for public hearings and work sessions before coming up for a vote before the full House and Senate.

Republican legislative leaders Rep. Josh Tardy and Sen. Kevin Raye have issued the following statement regarding Governor Baldacci’s bond proposal:

“We are open to gaining a full understanding of the governor’s proposal and will review it carefully, keeping in mind that bonds represent just one component of the action we must take to protect the jobs of Maine people and foster a climate that will create new ones. Maine state government cannot simply borrow our way to prosperity. It must be just part of a strategy that includes working to improve the business climate and relieve Maine’s high tax burden and energy costs.

We must keep our borrowing to a responsible level that protects the interests of Maine’s taxpayers in future years and ensures that we don’t grow our debt faster than our ability to pay it off. In short, especially in the current economic climate, Maine’s borrowing decisions must be guided by common sense. We believe bonds should be targeted with precision to stimulate job creation, improve Maine’s competitiveness, and produce long-term infrastructure gains that will benefit Maine people for years to come.”

State Rep. Jayne Crosby Giles has introduced legislation to increase the amount of seed money contributions that Maine Clean Election Act (MCEA) candidates may receive. The bill, LD 259, would increase the amounts from $1,500 to $2,000 for candidates for the State Senate and from $500 to $750 for House hopefuls.

Rep. Giles, in testimony prepared for the Joint Standing Committee on Legal and Veterans Affairs, said the bill also would allow candidates to accept both $5 and $10 checks to qualify for Clean Election financing. The legislation has bipartisan support and is scheduled for a public hearing before the committee on March 9.

“Knowing that the state still faces budget issues, I decided to submit this bill in order for candidates to help raise a little more money for their campaigns and for the Maine Clean Election Fund,” said Rep. Giles (R-Belfast). “I want to remain true to the spirit of Clean Election funding. Thus, I have proposed two changes on a voluntary basis so that financial obstacles do not deter Maine citizens from running for state office.”

Maine voters passed the MCEA as a citizen initiative in 1996. Candidates who choose to participate may accept very limited private contributions at the beginning of their campaigns, referred to as seed money. To become eligible, candidates must demonstrate community support through collecting a minimum number of $5 checks or money orders payable to the Maine Clean Election Fund. After a candidate begins to receive MCEA funds from the state, he or she cannot accept private contributions; all goods and services received must be paid for with MCEA funds.

Rep. Giles, who has run as a Clean Elections candidate for the House three times, noted that the cost of campaigning has risen since the inception of the law. “During this time, many campaign expenses have risen, including postage, printing and signage,” she said. “First-time candidates may find a higher limit particularly valuable as they work to become known in the district.”

Rep. Giles said approximately 85 percent of legislative candidates now run “clean,” versus those who run in the traditional fashion. “The Clean Elections Act is a valuable program,” she said. “The two changes proposed under LD 259 are designed to strengthen and sustain this option for future elections.”

State Rep. Jon McKane has introduced legislation to have the State Single Audit performed by outside accountants. He said switching the work from internal to external auditors could potentially save the state millions of dollars and strengthen public trust in the impartiality of the process.

Currently, the Department of Audit, a state agency, conducts the State Single Audit, which is a mandatory compliance audit of all federal assistance funds that come into the state.

The bill, LD 295 – An Act To Contract Out the State Single Audit – has been referred to the Joint Standing Committee on State and Local Government, where a public hearing and work sessions will precede a committee vote on the measure.

Rep. McKane noted that the state’s Department of Audit has two primary functions. “One is to conduct audits of any organization or institution in Maine receiving or requesting federal government funds,” he said. “But by far the biggest responsibility is to conduct the State Single Audit as required by the federal government.”

Rep. McKane said the Department of Audit now has a biennial budget approaching $3 million, adding that “their job is almost entirely to perform the Single State Audit.” He continued: “The State of Kansas, with a population twice that of Maine, contracts its Single Audit for $300,000 for a three-year period. Do we really need to spend 10 times what Kansas spends for a government that is half the size?”

If the Department of Audit were eliminated, he said, any work beyond the State Single Audit could be absorbed by the state controller, the state fiscal office, the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, the Federal Inspector General or OPEGA – the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability.

Besides the financial savings, Rep. McKane said, contracting out the State Single Audit would enhance objectivity. “It is imperative that any financial audit, whether in business or government, be independent and objective,” he said. “In Maine, where one political party chooses the state auditor, the perception of bias, whether justified or not, will continue to erode public trust. We have been fortunate so far to have had many qualified and unprejudiced state auditors, but this might not always be the case.”

State Rep. Rich Cebra has submitted legislation to overhaul Maine’s welfare system to encourage welfare recipients to become contributing members of society. His bill, LD 254, is entitled An Act to Enact a 5-Point Welfare Reform Program.

“Right now our system penalizes people who leave welfare and go back to work,” he said. “We’re holding folks back and it makes no sense. Consequently, we’re now into our second or third generation of a welfare class, and that’s not good for anybody. As a poor state facing huge budget deficits, we simply can’t afford a system that encourages people to stay on welfare.”

Rep. Cebra’s five-point reform legislation starts by setting a 90-day residency requirement for all recipients of Maine’s public assistance. “We’ve created one of the most lenient welfare systems in the country,” he said. “People from all across the nation move here for our welfare. As a sanctuary state for illegal aliens – under the governor’s executive order – illegal immigrants who arrive here also qualify for welfare benefits.

“As more people migrate here for welfare,” he added, “we have less money to help truly needy Mainers, such as those who have lost jobs in this recession. My bill would establish a 90-day residency requirement before anyone can start collecting state benefits. Obviously, that would not affect anyone who has lived here at least three months.”

The legislation’s second point would offer targeted tax credits to employers who hire economically disadvantaged Maine residents. An employer who hires a welfare recipient would receive a credit of 75 percent of the employee’s salary during the first year, followed by a 50-percent credit in the second year and 25-percent in the third year.

“This tax credit for employers could slightly reduce state revenues in the short term, but it would increase revenues over the longer term, while permanently lowering our welfare burden.”

Point three would eliminate the 20-hour rule. Currently, welfare benefits are cut off for anyone working more than 20 hours a week. “Under my bill, the number of hours worked or gross wages earned will not affect benefits up to one and one-half times their normal benefit dollar amount,” said Rep. Cebra, a third-term legislator from Naples. “Their hourly pay rate would only determine the amount of benefits they would still receive.”

The legislation would use federal figures showing that a person receiving all welfare benefits “makes” the equivalent of $17.56 per hour for a normal 40-hour week. Under the bill, an employee earning $10 per hour, for example, would still receive benefits equivalent to the differential.

“The recipients will not see a negative impact on their economic situation,” said. Rep. Cebra. “We trying to remove existing barriers and make it economically beneficial for recipients to take a job. It will also raise their self-esteem and have numerous positive effects on their families.”

The bill’s final point would bring Maine law into conformity with the federal Welfare Reform Act of 1996, one of former president Bill Clinton’s landmark achievements. Rep. Cebra’s legislation would establish a 60-month lifetime limit to receive Maine benefits, the same as the federal limit.

“Five years of welfare is much more generous than you find in most states, where they provide two years of welfare before your lifetime limit is reached,” Rep. Cebra said. “The important thing is that we begin to end this culture of dependency we have in Maine and get people back on their feet.”

State Rep. Rick Sykes (R-Harrison), a co-sponsor of the legislation, said the 90-day residency rule is critical to curb abuse. “Emergency room doctors have told me that people come to Maine because it is so easy to get benefits,” he said. “We cannot afford to be a welfare magnet. My constituents say that after taxes and health insurance, the need to reform welfare, including Medicaid, is the most critical problem facing the state.”

State Rep. Gary Knight has introduced legislation to exempt severance pay from Maine’s 8.5 percent income tax, asserting that workers who lose their jobs in this severe recession are unlikely to find comparable employment elsewhere. He plans to tack on an amendment to make the tax-exemption retroactive to include workers let go last year as the big layoffs began to hit.

The bill, LD 197, is entitled An Act to Provide Tax Relief to Workers Who Lose Their Job Due to Business Closure. Rep. Knight (R-Livermore Falls) said he proposed the legislation to ease the financial impact on workers who were let go due to the shutdown of the #10 paper machine at Wausau Paper Company. Displaced workers were provided severance packages based on number of years of service with the company and its predecessors at the Otis site, in Jay.

“What is exasperating to these workers, and to me, is the huge amount of taxes that are withheld when one receives a lump sum severance payment,” said Rep. Knight, a member of the Legislature’s Taxation Committee. “As I understand it, the Internal Revenue Service requires that 28 percent be withheld and the state portion is 8.5 percent. A displaced worker has to hand over more than one-third of his severance in taxes. That is a savage hit. And for many of the older workers, that severance payment could be the last check they receive prior to unemployment benefits.”

Rep. Knight acknowledged that his bill will face tough traveling in the Legislature. Given the state’s grim fiscal situation, any legislation that reduces state revenues will encounter opposition. But he said the state does not employ the same scrutiny to people applying for welfare, Medicaid and other costly public assistance payments. “Our state continues to lead the nation in providing benefits to many newly arrived people, without asking anything in return, not even legal residency,” said Rep. Knight. “Why should we not help our own industrious workers who have paid taxes their entire working lives and now face extreme adversity?”

Rep. Knight said countless Mainers are struggling desperately to “maintain their homes, autos and any semblance of a normal life.” Now, he added, “we are seeing hundreds of billions of dollars handed out to banks, investment firms and other entities that were complicit in creating this economic collapse. Yet when it comes to hammering a hard-working Mainer, the government is right there demanding a huge cut of his severance. Hopefully, the Legislature will find merit in this bill and do right by our citizens.”

State Rep. Josh Tardy and State Sen. Kevin Raye provided testimony today in support of Kenneth W. Fredette, whom Governor Baldacci has recommended for a position on the Maine Human Rights Commission. Mr. Fredette was unanimously approved by the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee today and now awaits confirmation by the Maine Senate.

“I appreciate Ken’s willingness to serve the people of Maine in this important role,” said Rep. Tardy (R-Newport). “His unanimous approval by Judiciary Committee is a reflection on his distinguished professional and public service career. I have no doubt that he will be a tremendous asset to the commission and its important work.”

Mr. Fredette is a lawyer in private practice with offices in Newport. He also serves as a major in the judge advocate general section of the Maine Air National Guard.

He currently serves on the Town of Newport Planning Board of Appeals and as president of the Sebasticook Valley Federal Credit Union. He has been involved in coaching soccer and baseball at the high school and farm league levels. He is a graduate of the University of Maine at Machias, and in 1994 graduated from the University of Maine School of Law. Mr. Fredette also earned a master’s degree from the Ed Muskie School for Public Service at the University of Southern Maine.

The Maine Human Rights Commission, established in 1971, is the state agency charged with the responsibility of enforcing Maine’s anti-discrimination laws. The commission investigates complaints of unlawful discrimination in employment, housing, education, access to public accommodations, extension of credit and offensive names. The panel consists of five commissioners who serve five-year terms.

Rep. Tardy is the leader of the House Republicans in the Maine Legislature. Sen. Raye, of Perry, is leader of the Senate Republicans.

State Rep. Sawin Millett today formally presented a bill to give Maine schools greater scheduling flexibility to help them cope with tight budgets and high heating costs. The bill is LD 96, An Act to Authorize the Implementation of Modified School Year Calendars.

In his testimony before the Legislature’s Education and Cultural Affairs Committee, Rep. Millett said his bill does not prescribe a four-day school week and imposes no mandates on any school system. He stressed that academic quality must not be compromised. Schools would still be under the requirement to provide a minimum of roughly 900 hours of education time, but they could change the current schedule, which requires 180 schools days, to save money. By lengthening the school day, for example, schools could amass enough instructional time to shut down for days or weeks during the coldest weather to avoid heating costs.

Rep. Millett (R-Waterford), a retired educator and a former Maine commissioner of education, said school budgets could be tight for some time. “While the cost of energy fuels has come down significantly since I filed this legislation, I doubt any of us would want to conclude that today’s prices will remain stable into the distant future,” he said.

“Further, the $27 million reduction in General Purpose Aid to local school systems that we will be voting on this week is likely to be reflected in similar funding levels over the next two fiscal years,” he said. “Thus the need for budgetary flexibility in constructing school budgets will be an important local consideration over the next two years, if not for the long term.”

Rep. Millett emphasized during his testimony that this does not mandate that schools do anything different than they are doing now. The legislation only would give schools the option to use their creativity and imagination to devise workable alternatives. “It authorizes the commissioner of education to consider modified school year calendars under the minimum school year statutes,” he said. “I am submitting this bill in the hope that it will provide budgetary flexibility and stimulate creative thinking and positive local discussion amongst school officials, teachers, parents and students as they plan future school calendars in an era of limited resources.”

State Rep. Thomas Watson (D-Bath), a cosponsor of the bill, also spoke at the committee hearing. He said such complications as child care and school athletic schedules would be handled locally.

Senate Republican Leader Kevin Raye and House Republican Leader Josh Tardy today released the following joint statement in response to the Governor's proposed Supplemental Budget:

"At first blush, the package described by the Governor today sounds generally reasonable and balanced, though we do have questions about the impact of the Governor's plan on the ability of Maine's hospitals to continue to provide quality health care across Maine. The State is already in arrears to the hospitals to the tune of more than $426 million, so we must closely examine the potential effect of the proposed policy changes that would reduce reimbursement for hospital-based physicians and critical access hospitals."

"The Legislature now has a responsibility to carefully scrutinize each component in detail before passing judgment. We agree with the Governor' refusal to include tax or fee increases in the Supplement Budget and are pleased that he has ruled out tax increases for the biennial budget. A time of economic crisis is exactly the worst time to raise taxes. The people of Maine spoke loud and clear on Question 1: the people's veto of the ill-conceived tax on health care claims and beverages. Republicans in the Legislature stand with the people of Maine, and agree with the Governor's assertion that Mainers are 'fed up' with tax increases."

State Representative Josh Tardy returned to his alma mater on December 5th, not as a visiting alumnus but as a Distinguished Maine Policy Fellow at the University of Maine’s flagship campus in Orono. He graduated from the school in 1990 with a degree in political science before entering the University of Maine School of Law.

Rep. Tardy (R-Newport), the House Republican leader in the Legislature, is the most recent recipient of the honor. Those selected for the program are individuals with a past or current career as an experienced and distinguished policy maker in Maine. Typically, fellows come to the campus for a day, teach an undergraduate class, engage faculty about research and public policy, and meet with UMaine administrators and graduate students.

The day began with a meeting with university president Bob Kennedy before Rep. Tardy addressed a public administration class of about 50 students. He also participated in a panel discussion about sustainable solutions to problems facing Maine. After lunch he spent 45 minutes at the Forest Bioproducts Research Initiative laboratory with Professor Hermant Pendse.

Rep. Tardy said a highlight of the day was a tour of the Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center with director Habib Dagher, a professor of structural engineering. “Dr. Dagher and his team are doing amazing and breakthrough work on lightweight composite materials that have real world applications,” said Rep. Tardy. “I left there convinced that Maine has a tremendous resource at the university and our state economy will be much stronger due to the fine work being done there.”

The day concluded with a reception in honor of Rep. Tardy at the University Club at Fogler Library.

State Representative Stacey Fitts has been named to Maine’s new Ocean Energy Task Force, a 21-member panel established last month by Governor John Baldacci. The task force will examine the potential for such ocean-based energy resources as wind, tidal power and wave action. It also will update information regarding off-shore oil and gas resources.

Rep. Fitts (R-Pittsfield), who has served two terms on the Legislature’s Utilities and Energy Committee, joins a distinguished group of Mainers on the panel. They include former governor Angus King; University of Maine professor of structural engineering Habib Dagher; attorney David Flanagan, former president of Central Maine Power; and venture capitalist Tim Agnew, of Masthead Venture Partners. Other members include top officials from relevant state agencies, including environmental protection, marine resources, economic development and the office of energy independence.

According to the governor’s executive order, the task force will provide interim findings by April 1, 2009, with the final recommendations due by October 31, 2009. “The recent decline in heating oil and gasoline prices does not change the necessity to free Maine from the unpredictable, costly and dangerous dependency on foreign oil,” the executive order reads. “Furthermore, developing clean, renewable sources of energy off Maine’s coast will grow ‘green’ jobs and businesses within our state and help us address global warming. Maine is blessed with strong wind and tidal resources off-shore that, if properly harnessed, can complement wind and other renewable energy resources on-shore.”

On December 4, Professor Dagher of UMaine Orono explained the urgency of Maine’s situation to a meeting that included most members of the new 124th Legislature. He noted that energy costs required 5 percent of an average family’s income in 1998 for electricity, heating and transportation. This year, he said, the same energy will take 20-25 percent of that income. By 2018, he predicted, energy expenses will grow to about 50 percent of Maine’s average household income.

The solution to such ruinous costs, Dr. Dagher suggested, relies on increased use of electricity for heating and transportation. To generate that much additional power, he said, would require two nuclear power plants or their ocean-energy equivalents in the form of 1,000 wind turbines, each producing 5 megawatts of power, placed off the coast. The Gulf of Maine enjoys some of the strongest winds on earth during the winter. Maine’s coastal waters extend out three miles.

“In reducing our addiction to fossil fuels and petroleum-based energy sources, wind is definitely going to play a big part,” said Rep. Fitts. “Our off-shore wind resources are abundant and in some cases easier to harvest than some of the wind on-shore. The concept of working toward being a leader in the deep-water off-shore industry is intriguing and has the potential to unlock great economic potential. The deep-water wind industry is in its infancy and will need innovation and significant research and development to successfully exploit.

“Off-shore resources are only a part of any energy situation that Maine should consider,” Rep. Fitts added. “Nuclear alternatives still should be discussed. If we started today, we could potentially have steel in the ground in 15 years, if not sooner. But that work would fall to a different task force to consider.”