Legislature Adjourns....For Now

With the Legislature poised to finally adjourn after veto day on April 29, Tanya Emery joins Rebecca Lambert and Amanda Campbell to highlight the successes, disappointments and near misses of the 2026 session.  

Transcript

Welcome everyone to Potholes & Politics, Local Maine Issues from A to Z. I am your co-host, Rebecca Lambert. And with me as always is the incredible Amanda Campbell. 

Good morning, Rebecca, and thanks everybody for listening. 

Yes, thank you for listening. 

On our last episode, we talked about the work the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee was doing particularly on the supplemental budget, and we described the process for the special appropriations table. We also gave some updates on bills that have been moving through the House and the Senate. If you haven't had a chance to listen, it's available now for your listening pleasure on whichever platform you use for podcasts. As always, please consider liking and subscribing to our podcast so you never miss one of these episodes. 

We have some exciting news to share today. The legislature officially adjourned one day early last week until veto day, which is scheduled to be held on April 29th. After many late nights watching the Appropriations Committee and House and Senate's debate, the team is looking forward to getting a little rest and not listening to those bells ring. For this week's discussion, we're going to highlight some of the bills that either made it over the finish line or didn't as the session is wrapping up. We'll also give you a rundown of what will be happening during the interim, the time between now and when the new legislature is seated. And as luck would have it, our colleague, Tanya, has been able to join us to assist. Welcome, Tanya. 

Thanks for having me join the party this week. Glad to be here. 

Anytime. We're always happy to have you join us. But before we dig into the bills, I want to mention that MMA's Legislative Policy Committee will be holding elections this year. The LPC consists of two members from each of the 35 Senate districts for a total of 70 members. They are the group that's responsible for developing the legislative platform, which are the bills that the LPC put forward on behalf of Maine towns and cities, and they also take positions on bills of municipal interest. These are the bills that the advocacy team watch and testify on during session, depending on the position. To learn more about serving on the LPC, it might be helpful to reach out to a current LPC member to ask about their experience with serving on the committee and see if it might be something you'd be interested in participating in. Our team is always available to answer any questions you may have about serving on the LPC. Last week, a mailing went out to key municipal officials with nomination information, and it has a return deadline of Thursday, June 4th. These should be in members' mailboxes now, and we wanted to draw attention to that. If you're interested in running for a spot on the LPC, please reach out to your town leaders soon to express your interest. Once the nomination forms have been returned, ballots will be mailed to key municipal officials with a return deadline of Monday, July 27th. Once ballots are returned, staff will tally them up and results will be sent to the candidates on July 28th and then will be posted to our website shortly after. The LPC will start meeting in August for an orientation meeting and to start developing the platform. So, Amanda, do you wanna kick us off with an update on bills we are watching on the special appropriations table? 

Okay, let's do it. So, you've heard me talk a lot about jail funding this session, and this likely won't be the last update, but it is the last one for this legislative session. I'd like to first thank all of our members who acted in response to our action alert for LD 2232, which would've increased the baseline state funding for county jail operations, among a few other things. Legislators heard you and while the bill as drafted, didn't make it over the finish line, the jails will receive the $4 million that was missing from the last biennial budget. So even though this measure doesn't really move the funding in a forward direction, it doesn't set it back. The positive that came out of this process was increased cooperation between stakeholders, conversations with leadership about the value of the programs provided at the jails, and education to both legislators and local officials regarding the impact of county jail operations on municipal budgets. As I said, this conversation isn't going away, and stakeholders will now be strategizing how to figure out the best avenue forward with an upcoming new administration. LD 2232 was signed by the governor on April 16th as an emergency measure, which means it is effective immediately, and those funds should be available through regular disbursement channels soon. 

One bill I wanted to highlight for our listeners was one sitting on the appropriations table that would incrementally increase the minimum teacher salary to $50,000. This initiative was included in the supplemental budget, so the concept did pass, but the additional standalone bill, which was LD 34, was left to die on the appropriations table. In a similar fashion, LD 2159 is the bill that would require school buses to be equipped with and to use crossing arms. This initiative was also put into the supplemental budget and like the minimum teacher salaries bill, the standalone bill was left to die on the appropriations table. 

Another bill that met the fate of dying on the table was LD 13, which is the bill that would've provided funds for producing and delivering election materials by the Secretary of State. As a side note, the LPC was neither for nor against this initiative, but this bill would've appropriated $410,000 for this year and another $410,000 in the 27-28 fiscal year coming from an other special revenue account to pay for election materials.

Moving on to the data center bill, you have some news to share about that one, right, Tanya? 

I sure do. LD 307, An Act to Establish the Maine Data Center Coordination Council and Place a Temporary Limitation on Certain Data Centers turned into quite a saga after beginning as an empty concept draft early in the second session. After being amended to include a data center coordination council, say that three times fast, and then a moratorium on the creation of new data centers over 20 megawatts, this bill morphed into a very controversial one. Given the pipeline of data center projects, some communities, most notably Sanford and Westbrook, were opposed to a moratorium or at least one that didn't create exemptions for projects already in the works. Debate over the bill got pretty heated and a strong lobbying effort was made to support an amendment creating an exemption for some projects. Ultimately, those efforts failed and as finally passed, LD 307 hits pause on large scale data centers in Maine. It would block permits for projects over 20 megawatts until November 2027. During that time, the state's Department of Energy Resources would bring together the Data Center Coordination Council to study the impacts, both the upsides and the risks, and deliver recommendations to the legislature by February 2027. The Data Center Coordination Council does include a seat for a representative of MMA. The remaining wild card is the governor's action on this bill. After public comments seeking an exemption for the proposed Jay project, which was not included in the final measure, there are questions about whether Governor Mills will sign or veto the measure. We will be waiting to see what happens here, as will many others. 

The other data center bill that we're waiting on, LD 713, was a bill to remove data centers from being eligible from the BETE and Dirigo Business Incentive Programs, which has also not been signed by the governor, although it was passed to be enacted. This bill aligns data centers with other technology based industries that are excluded from BETE, which is the Business Equipment Tax Exemption program. The argument for this bill was that BETE wasn't designed for industry this large or expansive. Several other states are considering limiting incentives also, which business and industry advocates argue will prevent data center corporations from wanting to come to Maine. So, while there is disagreement on this principle, the bill also directs DECD to investigate what kinds of incentives, if any, may be appropriate for data centers. 

There were also several bills put on the special study table for review. To briefly explain this process, the special study table is a procedural mechanism used by the legislature where bills that propose studies are reviewed for funding, staff capacity and relevance. Before final passage, the legislative council is tasked with reviewing the bills that have been placed on the special appropriations table. The council consists of legislative leadership members for both Democratic and Republican caucuses. At the legislative council meeting, only one caucus was present to vote on the initiatives. They did have a quorum, but only six members were there to vote on measures on the table. With that said, our team was hopeful that LD 634 would pass, which is a Resolve, to Establish a Commission to Study the Reduction of Unfunded and Outdated Municipal and County Mandates. This would've been a positive step to considering and with any luck, addressing, the outdated and unfunded mandates that municipalities and counties have seen throughout the years. Unfortunately, this one did not make it over the finish line, and in fact garnered zero votes of those council members present. However, the real estate property relief task force will continue its work in the interim. Right Amanda? 

Indeed, they will. Much to my excitement. The bill relating to the task force, LD 2244, was signed by the governor on April 16th and allows the task force to meet a total of eight times during the 2026 interim and also directs Maine Revenue Services to conduct a survey, in conjunction with other stakeholders, to ask assessors about the tree growth tax program. We anticipate that the task force will begin meeting sometime mid-May.

There's one additional study from the table that the team is covering as well, which is LD 646. That one is in your portfolio, Amanda, do you wanna tell our listeners what that's all about? 

Sure. That bill proposed this study, which was a Resolve, Establishing the Commission to Study Unmanaged Stormwater Pollution, and was sponsored by Representative Bell on behalf of the Friends of Casco Bay. I testified neither for nor against on behalf of the LPC, but was sure to relate to the ENR committee that officials were concerned about the potential for additional legislation that may arise from the commission that could place administrative, financial and resource burdens on communities that are not currently part of the municipal separate storm sewer permit, which is an MS4 permit. Likewise, any potential additional requirements placed on current MS4 communities causes concern. Our municipal stormwater partners testified in force that this additional commission was unnecessary, and DEP testified that because they're currently already revising the Chapter 500 stormwater rules, the commission was not only unnecessary, but the department was in no position to assist with further research. The ENR committee questioned me about my preemptive concern and observed that I might be concerned about potential mandates in the future, to which I responded that indeed I was. Since this bill did not have an emergency preamble, no work can begin until after the 90-day period from adjournment, which is likely to be April 29th or veto day, but we don't know that for sure. 

In the housing realm, the fix bill that we've talked so much about has finally been enacted and was also signed by the governor on April 16th. After all those work sessions and language reviews, did our members get what they were hoping for, Tanya? 

Well, that's hard to say actually. LD 2173 was a real rollercoaster. After much testimony and those five work sessions, our members do feel some relief given the return of growth caps and improvements to state mandated minimum lot sizes over those that were codified by LD 1829. The final version of LD 2173 passed by the legislature pushes back the implementation date for all of the provisions of 1829 and several other land use bills to July 1, 2027. That was a primary concern of many of our member communities. The emergency preamble was stripped, however, meaning the repeal is not effective prior to the implementation date of the previously enacted laws, and the final wording of the bill is incredibly confusing given that it modifies previously enacted statutes. We suggest that members stay tuned and take note of the upcoming technical assistance sessions from the Maine Office of Community Affairs on LD 1829, 997 and 427, all of which are impacted by the passage of LD 2173. The next technical assistance session is May 5th, and we will put a link to these in the show notes. 

Several other bills resulted in an end that we didn't want. For example, there was no additional funding for general assistance and the two bills that would've addressed a non-transport emergency services reimbursement and paramedicine both died on the table. But for now, while we're cleaning up our legislative files and waiting to see what happens on veto day, the team is also looking ahead to what work will happen during the interim. 

Between the three of us, there are multiple task forces, commissions, committees, councils, and working groups that either include municipal representatives or that staff will monitor. 

Some of those are standing groups like the Right to Know Advisory Committee, the Abandoned and Discontinued Roads Commission, the County Corrections Professionals Standards Council, and the Maine Education Policy and Research Institute steering committee. Others are the result of legislation like the work group to study inland moorings, the Cannabis Advisory Council, the stakeholder group to modernize subdivision laws and potentially the data center coordination council. The team will be watching them all and if the need for municipal representatives arise we’ll be sure to let you know. And I don't know about the two of you, but after this session, I am exhausted. 

Well, we just had a long weekend and with some great weather too, so it's nice to have some downtime to just rest. I got outside and did some spring cleanup in my yard, and although that doesn't really sound like rest, it was really nice to be outside and have a campfire and spend some time with my family who really haven't had a lot of my attention while the legislature's been in session. 

That is true, Rebecca. It was nice to have that extra day. 

Well, this will do it for this episode of Potholes & Politics. Please look for the new laws article that will be published in an upcoming issue of the Maine Town and City Magazine. And as always, feel free to reach out to any of us on the team with any questions, comments, or fan mail. 

Yes, we are always happy to hear from our members about any topic, including what you might like to hear more about. Let us know your podcast episode suggestions. No promises that your idea will make the cut, but we wanna know what you wanna know about. Most of all, we hope you find this information helpful, and thanks so much for listening. We appreciate you all. 

Thanks for listening. Have a great week everyone.

MOCA Technical Assistance Information