AIA Maine’s Advocacy Newsletter - February 8, 2022
Introduction
Welcome to the second edition of AIA Maine's Advocacy Newsletter, which will be regularly released during the current legislative session. We hope you find this information useful and as always, recommend reviewing the accompanying AIA Maine Legislative Database for more specific updates on legislation we are following!
Advocacy Update
Legislators met in person for the second time this year on Wednesday, January 26 to consider some bills as well as nominations and confirmations. To take votes as a full body - either House or Senate or both - the legislators must meet in person by order of the Maine Constitution. Fortunately, committee meetings are being held virtually and that continues to be where the bulk of legislative work is done during these early weeks and months of the Second Regular Session.
AIA Maine has been tracking a handful of bills, including:
LD 1795 - updates to statutory references to building codes to reference the Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code (MUBEC);
LD 1695 - A redevelopment land bank modeled on a current program in Sanford, Maine;
LD 1429 - implementation of a carbon neutrality goal for the State of Maine by 2045;
LD 489 - an effort to advance a constitutional amendment to a right to a healthy environment;
Legislation to enact some or all of the recommendation of the Maine Housing Commission; and
Several bond bills including for school and career and technical education centers, a conference center in Portland, and more.
Unfortunately, given the significant amount of federal money coming from the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and the $830 million state budget surplus, it is unlikely the legislature or Governor will have much appetite for bonding - this may be exacerbated by a pending rise in interest rates recently announced by the Federal Reserve.
This is a relatively slow legislative session with a complete legislative docket of about 600 bills to date. These include bills carried over from last session, many of which were carried over on the Special Appropriations Table and won't be further debated until the end of session. The delay is to allow time for a supplemental budget to be drafted, and to determine how much money will be held in reserve for spending items on the Special Appropriations Table.
Despite the relatively low number of bills on the docket, there will undoubtedly be controversy as legislators determine how best to spend the surplus dollars and what priorities are the most essential to constituents as we head into an election year. Additionally, legislators have a short period of time in which to complete their work - April 20th is the statutory adjournment date. That date can be extended, but legislators and the administration will be eager to wrap up and hit the campaign trail.
The AIA Maine Legislative Database
This document serves as a one-stop-shop for AIA members to see what bills have been identified by our advocacy team as potentially relevant to our organization.
View the database here.
In the database, you will find the bills listed numerically by their “legislative document” or “LD” number. This is the standard reference number of items of legislation in Maine. The title, sponsor, and summary are also provided.
In the “Status” column, you can see the current procedural posture of a bill. The following notations and abbreviations may be used:
SAT Carry-over: bills carried over on the Special Appropriations Table. These are LD’s that have moved all the way through to final enactment but have not yet been finally enacted for consideration of their price tag (known as the fiscal note). Currently, there are about 237 bills on the Special Appropriations Table with an aggregate price tag of over $1 billion. We do not yet know how much money the Legislature will have to spend on these bills but in recent years the total has been as low as $10,000.
Carry-over; Concept draft: concept drafts are bills that were printed with no language, just a summary. Many of these bills will not have language presented until a public hearing has been scheduled. We watch diligently for language to be released by sponsors and committees.
Carry-over on unfinished business: bills that were moved through the committee process to the floor of the House and Senate but not finally enacted on by those bodies after having been placed on the unfinished business calendar. These will be taken up again by the House and Senate when they reconvene in person.
PH: public hearing date and time - when public input will be taken
WS: work session date and time – when legislators discuss the merits of a proposal and ultimately vote on the committee’s recommendation. Committee recommendations can be unanimous, or “divided.” When a report is divided, it means that the committee was not unanimous. Typically, one report will be the “majority report,” meaning it received a majority of support on the committee, where one or more additional reports will be “minority reports.” Both unanimous and divided reports take the following form, which can also be seen in the status column when a bill has been reported out of committee:
Ought to Pass – A supportive vote that the language of a bill as printed ought to pass to be enacted
Ought to Pass as Amended: A supportive vote that the language of a bill ought to pass to be enacted as amended by one or more amendments offered by the Committee.
Ought not to Pass: An opposing vote that a bill should be rejected by the legislature.
The “Position” column indicates AIA Maine’s position on a specific bill. The position may be one of the following:
Support with testimony
Oppose with testimony
Monitor/Support – indicates AIA Maine leans toward supporting but will not actively engage unless necessary (typically a matter of interest to members for business reasons but not necessarily specific to architectural professional matters).
Monitor/Oppose – indicates AIA Maine leans toward opposition but will not actively engage unless necessary (typically a matter of interest to members for business reasons but not necessarily specific to architectural professional matters).