Opening Week of the 132nd and We're back....

In the return episode of 'Potholes and Politics,' hosts Rebecca Graham, Rebecca Lambert, and Amanda Campbell dive into the latest happenings as the Maine legislature kicks back into gear. At the time of this recording they've printed a whopping 139 bills already, with 29 needing immediate attention for their significant impact on municipalities. Now in week 2 we are at 293 bills printed.

The hosts discuss first week bills related to municipal operations, transparency, education, and military vehicles, among others. They delve into quirky anecdotes, from military tanks on highways to the symbolism of the Maine State House architecture. They also joke about interpretive dance and limericks as a fun way to present at committee meetings.

To read an on going list of the bills we are watching check out our website here: MMA LD List

Subscribe to our Legislative Bulletin by emailing our Advocacy Associate Laura Ellis at lellis@memun.org

Transcript

Opening Week of the 132nd

 [00:00:00] Welcome, everyone, to Potholes and Politics. Local Maineeeeee issues from A to Z. I am your co host, Rebecca Graham. And I'm Rebecca Lambert. And I'm Amanda Campbell. And we are back on the podcast and so is the legislature. So nothing is more telling that the legislature has returned than the printing of bills.

They, started in earnest on Wednesday, back to school day one. We spent some time on the third floor connecting with some of the sponsors for our platform bills, but 139 bills have already been printed. Out of those 139, 29 of them we've hoppered as, officially needing an LPC position. Meaning that there is some, [00:01:00] recognizable significant impact that is, Or potential for, municipalities statewide.

40 of them we've flagged to watch on top of that 29, meaning that there is some sort of nexus with municipal government operations, or it pertains to a specific community. And it's not something that we. Necessarily need to take a specific position on but it does have a municipal impact. It may be just the naming of a bridge or it could be something that affects our operations like I think LD 12 the attempt to make legislative caucuses.

Adhere to the Freedom of Information Act. And that would be cool. Yes, so that would be very different. No more behind closed doors. Everything's transparent, similar to the way that it operates on the municipal level. Which is very helpful for everybody. It would be very helpful for the transparency of policymaking.

We'll see how, things change. I think that it's [00:02:00] a very positive start. Everyone always is very happy to be back to school, lots of smiling faces. , there were lots of smiling faces. Come June, You'll see municipal officials in the hallway. Yes, there's a lot of municipal officials, that are now in the legislature and a significant number that have some sort of municipal government service history, which is great news, so that we have some folks that are in the legislature with some understanding of municipal operations.

Also some folks who are recently or even currently members of our LPC. Yes. We have Liz Caruso from Carton who has been on our LPC for a couple of sessions now. I think this is her second, her second session.

Think she started when I started on the LPC. Did you go over on the first day last time? You did? Yes. I got to connect with Mike Wright. A former LPC member who is now a legislator. He's really looking forward to connecting with municipal officials under the dome. And reinstating [00:03:00] the municipal caucus.

. Former Mayor of Augusta, Dave Rollins. Former Augusta City Manager, of course. We would be remiss to not call out Bill Bridgeo.

 It was also a good time to connect with other lobbyists and talk to them about their priorities. I was surprised by it. I didn't know what to expect, so I can't really say I was surprised, but I will say I was surprised by what appeared to be a receiving line for what could have been I perceived it more of a gauntlet It was that was crazy and I did not expect that Yeah, I think legislators probably consider it a gauntlet too because there's no way you're getting through That horde of people in the hallway without someone grabbing you, right?

And then I was even more surprised when Rebecca, you said that it wasn't just a first day occurrence that happens all the time. No, the third floor on any session day looks just like that.

And sometimes gets hairier. 

Happy cloture day is what I [00:04:00] heard yesterday from another, one of our, municipal experience legislators. It's, representative Sachs. Who's on one of your committee's she's on. I think. So we've got kind of like this sprinkling of municipal officials throughout all of those subject areas. It'll help balance the conversations with, this is what we can do.

This is what we do do. And this is how this might impact that. Those will be helpful, really helpful conversations. So do you guys got a chance to Have some assigned bills out of this 139 that have been printed already. Yes give me some breakdown. What are flags for your committee's Lambeau?

Well, I noticed right off that there is a bill that is very similar to our platform bill MMA's platform bill the special education funding MMA's platform is to request or to propose 100% special education [00:05:00] funding outside of the EPS formula. This proposal, LD 71, beginning in fiscal year 2026, would require the state to fund no less than 55 percent under the essential programs and services funding model.

So there's a few differences, but I suspect there's going to be a lot of education bills. As well as election bills because I also noticed that the requiring photographic identification for voting has come up again. 

Are there any good ones? These are Hoppard. Yeah. Those are Hoppard. Yeah. Yeah. So our LPC will be taking a position on that.

This is a new LPC as well. So we've got a lot of new members on it and we're trying to wrap that up in terms of giving them all of this information ahead of time as we are getting it as well. So there are a number of criminal justice bills that were printed, the perennial or what has become a perennial bill has been introduced to transportation is [00:06:00] LD2, that's an act to allow military vehicles purchased for civilian use to be registered and operated on Maineeeeee roads. One of the bigger issues historically is that the feds do not have to adhere to their own federal safety standards.

For military vehicles, so they often are built without the same structural elements that might be necessary, or they might be more robust in areas that for are fit for operation and in hospitable environments while they are actually detrimental to paved road systems. So that will be an interesting one.

That is an attempt to go around the existing safety standards that Maineeeeee kind of relies on for the inspection purpose and just kind of grandfathers them in. That's been historically something that's been problematic because again, they don't meet federal safety standards. And they're not required to in their use, so you can use them often [00:07:00] on farms and off road type stuff, but they aren't actually built to a standard that is appropriate for our roads, even as inhospitable, as our roads can be at some point sometimes.

But since it keeps coming back, that means it hasn't passed historically, is that safe to say? Some versions of it haven't passed. Yeah. The rub has consistently been that you can, because the federal government opened up those purchases, buy these military vehicles. Right now they're kind of exempt for use for fire protection, for example.

So you could get a robust military truck that doesn't meet a standard. Federal safety standard because it's, fire department's gonna use it to bring in water tanks into the woods, you know, that kind of stuff. They're going to, they're going in and those ones are allowed. 

However, the general public can buy these vehicles. Including tanks, and therein lies the rub. Previous, attempts have defined it so [00:08:00] broadly that you could purchase the tank and it would be allowed to operate on highways. It looks like the current bill is attempting to narrow that, we should get a company tank.

 That would, give new meaning to shot across the bow, wouldn't it? . So what about you, Amanda? Out of that big pile of lists, what do you have coming? Well, we're going to see, I think everybody is expecting a literal ton of property tax bills. We've already seen one to amend the Homestead Exemption.

In addition to our platform bill that would amend the Homestead Exemption and our other platform bill, which would be a constitutional amendment that includes changes to the Homestead Exemption, but of the ones that are out and already printed, there's a department bill from DAFs that I think the assessors will be really happy with [00:09:00] that changes the application date for Betty, exemptions to May 1st, current law, the application deadline is April 1st with an automatic 30 day extension.

I've heard in several trainings with the assessors that why don't we just make the deadline May 1st instead of having to add that administrative, yeah, you have extra 30 days to finish it. So that's kind of nice, but that's LD68. Some of the other pieces need some review, but that one I think is a, is a good start to cut down on some of that administrative burden for the assessors.

There is one taxation bill already printed that I think we'll definitely need some input from LPC members on, and that's to eliminate the camper excise tax, which, vehicles that have living quarters, so trailers that have living quarters, which would be campers.

Those RVs, those kinds of things, [00:10:00] are eligible for a local excise tax, and this would take that away. There is some significant excise tax to be collected in some of those rather large, fifth wheels, towable campers nowadays are, Quite pricey and can collect a significant amount of excise tax, which of course is one of our few revenue streams.

So, I have a feeling, certainly can't speak for the LPC, but historically we don't support things that are going to limit our revenue streams. We'll need some data. from our municipalities on how that elimination might impact their budgeting. Do you have any idea as to why? I know that we haven't had a lot of time to actually pivot to gathering intelligence on the impetus for some of those bills.

Do you have any idea why? Not really. The sponsor sat on taxation last year is not on taxation this year. And I think it was just one of those. Too many taxes. And this is a easy place to [00:11:00] get rid of one, but it's, you know, unfortunately I don't think a lot of people understand how big of a piece of revenue stream that can be for, for communities.

So, we'll have to get some data. I can foresee an argument about people increasingly living in campers and therefore that might be an excessive tax because it is taxed as a vehicle and not as a residence. Were it to meet a residential standard then and be attached to land, it would qualify for homestead exemption in theory.

So that would be a different kind of taxation value, but it's registered to operate. on the highways and roads and therefore the impact, to highways and roads for those large vehicles is what it's intended to offset as well. Correct. And there are in place pieces for things like those, permanent trailer kinds of things at campgrounds and those, you know, historically there have been arguments for, well, no, it's [00:12:00] a trailer, so I'm going to pay the trailer registration fee, even though you know that it's hooked up to watering.

sewer in the campground and so therefore it should be taxed as a dwelling instead. So that's, the assessors, you know, have to make that call and based on the data that they have. But getting rid of the excise, if you're not gonna tax it as personal property or as a dwelling, then you're completely out all of that revenue.

So we'll see what happens.

 That is kind of where a lot of our platform bills are heavily focused on trying to resolve some of those issues. One of the other programs that, I saw published that kind of falls into the emergency preparedness thing is the governor's bill that is to increase the storm preparedness for communities, homes and infrastructure.

I think that's really important, not only because it creates that home resiliency fund to help folks actually address maybe moving out of harm's way. [00:13:00] Or, harm that has happened, but there's not a lot of flood insurance purchasing in the state of Maineeeeee. And in many cases, that wouldn't have even worked after that December flood, because a lot of those floods, as we heard in Vermont as well, were, Incompletely incongruent with the federal flood boundaries and, you can't get insurance without that.

So I'm hoping that that LD1 document I have not read through the entire bit of it, but as part of that resiliency for the homeowners, I hope it's going to require some sort of mitigation for if it's for rebuilding that you have to build it better. So that it doesn't happen again.

Don't just rebuild it the way that it is. Yeah, you know to to sort of stave off the next event. If you're not gonna move out of the way just Bolster yourself so that you can withstand it. You know that kind of I think nothing probably brings that home More loudly than the two, the [00:14:00] difference responses between New Orleans and Hurricane Sandy and the types of dwellings, whether they're seasonal billion dollar mansions that are on the beach that get blown away or whether they are, deeply impoverished community spaces that, might not have.

significant amount of value, but had extreme importance to the livelihoods of individuals there. , it, that kind of test is, I think, is going to be really important and also, um, ultimately reduce flooding insurance for everybody. But I believe, you know, part of the Home Resiliency Fund and that approach also incorporates some of the things that we know create communities.

Particularly in the coastal area, which are those piers and wharfs that have that public good, public use. Aspect but are privately owned, which therefore creates this, uh, problematic gray area for whether or not they qualify for any sort of [00:15:00] emergency government funding as a result of that from that community.

So, and that's what that money at the end of last session, um, was allocated for that that was working waterfront grants, um, could be offered to a private owner if they could prove public good. Um, and so if you were a private owner fishing family that allowed use of your pier to all the other fishermen in your community, you qualified for that, that grant money.

It's interesting how, how far we've come. When you step out on the third floor and you step out onto the balcony, Of the state house and you're looking across Capitol Park and you're looking at what used to be the Am High complex.

The Augusta Mental Health Institution, which is now all state office buildings. The intent for building that hospital there and having that view of that hospital from that space was to remind the legislators that they are there to advance the interests of those that are least able and least capable.

Of and most dependent [00:16:00] upon the government and therefore they need to be advancing that. Now they're looking at DEP marine resources, like all of those offices that are over there. So it gives it a, it kind of changes that history. I'm not saying that that's neither good or bad, but I think that that's, that was kind of an important structural element of placing that.

Hospital in that location, directly across and in the visual line of the Capitol. And, um, that's something that I don't know that actually gets thought of or discussed. That's interesting. I'd never heard that. It's a really interesting, and I have a historical map of Augusta in my office that actually shows the placement, obviously, of those two buildings.

And it never occurred to me their relationship to one another. And so that's really, really interesting history. It's those structural elements, I think, that are important to keep reminding. And I think that that is why we have a lot of pomp and circumstance and a lot of, um, expectations of behavior within those spaces that might seem outdated, [00:17:00] but Historically had been created for that purpose in, in the UK, they have like heavy chains.

So a mayor will have like this really heavy chain and you think, Oh, that's, that's gaudy. , but it is so heavy and made of, you know, precious metals, both, I guess, add the blank factor, but it, the intent is to feel the weight of the decisions that you're making around your neck at all times.

And I thought that was an interesting way to Keep people thinking. Yeah, so the symbol pieces are important in many ways and outdated in many ways But perhaps it you know, there are opportunities to create new Touchstones that will remind everyone what the general purpose is for being there and how to advance those principles But I always every time I am on the third floor, especially in the summer I always step out there and be like, oh my god I think all that symbolism is very interesting and not to make this a discussion about presidents, but the, the state funeral for President Carter when he was laying in state in [00:18:00] the Cabo Rotunda um, the news report I was listening to was talking about how he was on Lincoln's, um, pedestal that where his coffin was and that he was placed, um, in front of where President Ford would have been because they were such great friends so that when the camera was streaming on, the speakers for Carter, it was looking at President Ford behind him.

And so there was just lots of, lots of symbolism that he had inserted into his own service, um, around that building and his, where his, where they were and who they would be looking at. And I just think that that's really, really cool. And so to hear that about our own local buildings, that kind of symbolism in our own spaces, I think is, is representative of the government as a whole, that we take that, um, location and where we are and what our responsibilities are is deeply rooted in how we do things.

Yeah, and how do we create that [00:19:00] new, when now we're looking at state offices? And that thought process, what's the new symbolism? We are going to be doing or are being asked to do a number of introductory orientation sessions before our committees of jurisdiction that we cover.

Um, we've got a couple coming up. We've got state and local government coming up and, uh, criminal justice and public safety. I'll be doing, um, environmental natural resources, taxation, and marine resources next week. That's good. Our, our, ours are postponed. Until the, the following week, but um, Lamba wanted to do an interpretive dance for state and local government.

I mean, who doesn't like ribbon dancing? Let's be honest. I, you know. We've only got five minutes, but, uh, in the spirit of that, she wrote a limerick. Oh. You want to share, you want to share your limerick with us? Oh, sure. I can do that. Since we're both going to state and local. Oh, I think this is great. So, when we get there, We will start with our limerick.

Oh, shit. Time out. Time out. She's going into the desk. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Alright, you good? Yep. Alright. There once [00:20:00] were two girls named Rebecca. One was real sweet, the other would wreck ya.\ We'll let you decide which is which. But don't call either one of us late for dinner. Because girls got to eat.

It's, um, one of the few committees, uh, that we end up covering kind of overlapping. So that one, Where else is there overlap? Sometimes DHHS, there's overlap there, um, with nexus of public safety stuff. I've got roads, you've got cemeteries. So they all tend to meet in Staten Island. So we get to tag team that one.

And I think that would be fun. I like that. Rebecca wrote a limerick for it. I would favor the limerick kind of sorta over the interpretive dance. Well, you can just do the talking and I'll do the dance [00:21:00] behind. Yeah, you recite the limerick and you, That would be hilarious. Now, we usually It's memorable. It is, but I think what we want them to remember is that our positions are not Rebecca Squared's positions.

They are our legislative policy committee's positions. They vet the bills. We tell them what the bills functionally do. do a lot of debate, a lot of really sensible debate, and come to an agreement on a path forward for each bill. And, uh, then they are the ones that give us our marching orders. That's how they get made.

But perhaps we should, you know, do a preview for the LPC of our interpretive dance and testimony. I think that's a good idea. We can do it, uh, to one of the songs that are part of our Spotify playlists. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you're interested in having our access to our Spotify playlist, I understand we have a few listeners out there.

 You can [00:22:00] email MMA podcast at me, mon. org. You can also use that email to drop us a line, send us a note, uh, ask us to cover a topic.\ Perhaps you'd like to be a special guest.

 Well, there we are then, ladies. There we are then. Here we are then. The start to something great.

Uh, it's the start of something. It's gonna be great, Rebecca. It is. It is. Bright lights. It's, it's, yes. Bright lights. It's going to be great. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be, it's gonna be fine. It's gonna be fine. It's gonna be awesome. That's

that's right. One week. First week. That's okay, because when we blink, it will be spring. Weather will be warm. You'll be on your bike again. [00:23:00]