Maine legislature

Recent stories

Criticism of tax breaks growing in legislature

By: |
Cain-headshot

AUGUSTA – Over the past 50 years, Maine legislatures and governors have added millions of dollars in tax breaks for businesses without ever doing the detailed analysis to find out which are effective and which are wasteful. But now that may be changing. In recent weeks, a growing list of legislators have called for a review of programs that leading economists have critiqued for not delivering on promises to create jobs. “We put a lot of stock in these programs, but we never go back to see if they work,” Sen. Emily Cain, D-Orono, told the legislature’s taxation committee last week. Cain has proposed a bill, LD1488, that would require the tax committee to recommend which tax expenditure programs should be kept, repealed or changed and then would require the full legislature to hold an up or down vote of them as part of the budget approval. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Money, Stories, economy, Emily Cain, job creation, Maine legislature, Paul LePage, tax break

Legislators vote to restart climate change planning

By: |

AUGUSTA – A state legislative committee voted today to put Maine back on track to develop a finished plan for adapting to its changing climate. “I think the committee understood how much we all stand to lose if we don’t plan for the future,” said Pete Didisheim, advocacy director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, one of the nonprofit groups involved in the creation of the initial report by the state Department of Environmental Protection in 2010. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Environment, Stories, climate change, Maine legislature

University system cuts while reserve fund grows to $177m

By: |
James Page, photo John Clarke Russ, BDN

Four years ago, when the University of Maine System was cutting programs to save money, officials were criticized for not, instead, making up the shortfall by taking money from System reserves. At the time, officials said they needed all of the $88 million in the reserve account as a contingency for the unexpected and other expenses. Now, the System says it is again under financial pressure – Gov. Paul LePage’s budget proposal for the two years starting July 1 calls for no funding increase for the university system. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Money, Stories, Maine legislature, state budget, University of Maine System

Ethics getting statehouse attention, prompted by ‘F’ in national study

By: |
Michael Cianchette, delivering testimony on behalf of Gov. LePage

If you’re paid to regulate widgets for the state of Maine, then you shouldn’t be able to take a new job working for widget makers. That’s what Ann Luther, board member of the League of Women Voters of Maine, told legislators on the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee Wednesday in a hearing on a bill that would stop the so-called “revolving door.” The bill would make it unlawful for executive branch officials to leave their state job and go directly to work for an industry they regulated. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Ethics, Money, Maine legislature, transparency, Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee

Sanford legislator calls for state to help towns plan for climate change effects

By: |
Rep. William Noon, D-Sanford

Two freshman legislators have filed bills to make dealing with climate change once again a priority for state government. Rep. Paul McGowan, D-York, submitted a bill designed to make Maine more energy independent and sets goals such as reducing fossil fuel use by 20 percent. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Energy, Environment, Stories, climate change, global warming, Maine legislature

Governor and Democratic leader announce plans to fix state ethics

By: |
Gov. Paul LePage — Photo Robert F. Bukaty, BDN

AUGUSTA — Two of the state’s top political leaders are vowing a bipartisan effort to make government ethics, accountability and transparency key issues in the upcoming legislative session. Republican Gov. Paul LePage and House Democratic leader Emily Cain are responding to a national report that gave Maine government an “F” for its potential for corruption. Maine ranked 46th in the “State Integrity Investigation” by three nonpartisan good government groups that was released in mid-March. Cain, the Democratic House leader who is running for a Senate seat from Orono, has proposed two linked initiatives that she hopes will lead to government ethics reform. Cain said Tuesday she will ask her fellow lawmakers to form a bipartisan, joint select committee to consider ethics reform and report out a bill in the legislative session that begins in January, 2013. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Ethics, Stories, Emily Cain, ethics, LePage, Maine legislature

Maine faces new power test between executive and legislative branches

By: |

Gov. Paul LePage recently ordered state agencies to submit all proposed rules for his approval before they are made public. His action raises the question of how much power may be exercised by the head of the executive branch of government over state agencies. The governor is following in a tradition started by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. But the theory got its big boost when it was frequently cited by President George W. Bush. It all has to do with a concept called the “unitary executive.”  Here’s the question raised by this concept:  because the president or governor is the head of the executive branch, must any federal or state agency follow his or her orders even contrary to legislative intent? Continue Reading →

Filed under: Ethics, Maine legislature, Paul LePage

Legislators say leak of contract probe designed to “spin” findings

By: |
Sen. Roger Katz, R-Augusta

AUGUSTA — Lawmakers Wednesday strongly condemned the potentially illegal leak of parts of a confidential state investigation of a now-defunct energy group, the Maine Green Energy Alliance, and its state sponsor, the Efficiency Maine Trust. They also said the leak was designed to cast both organizations in the best light possible before the formal release of the full investigation next Tuesday. The legislators were referring to a story in Wednesday’s Portland Press Herald headlined “Probe finds no wrongdoing by Maine Green Energy Alliance.”

That premature conclusion drew the ire of Sen. Roger Katz, R-Augusta, co-chair of the legislature’s

bipartisan Government Oversight Committee, who said neither he nor any of the other committee members have seen the report. “The committee, the members of the public and everybody should be receiving a report at the same time to draw their own conclusions,” Katz said. “For the subject of the report to be pre-empting news coverage by putting their own spin on it before the report is even released doesn’t help that orderly process. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Energy, Ethics, Money, Efficiency Maine Trust, Maine Green Energy Alliance, Maine legislature, Roger Katz

Legislature may use subpoena powers on turnpike spending

By: |

AUGUSTA — The Senate chairman of the Legislature’s Oversight Committee may take the unheard of step of using the committee’s subpoena powers to get to the bottom of spending at the Maine Turnpike Authority. State Sen. Roger Katz, R-Augusta, said the Government Oversight Committee is “unsatisfied” with some the MTA’s answers to questions raised by the recent 88-page report from the Legislature’s Office of Program Evaluation & Government Accountability. He especially cited the authority’s lack of complete records on how it spent $157,000 in gift certificates between 2005-07. He said the committee also has more questions about $900,000-plus spent on travel, including bills at three hotel chains during the same period. Katz said the committee, which will meet Friday with MTA officials, will first ask for the records in writing. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Ethics, Money, ethics, Maine legislature, Maine Turnpike Authority, OPEGA

Energy group funded via state hired Democratic legislators, activists, donors

By: |

CORRECTION APPENDED AT BOTTOM

The Maine Green Energy Alliance, which last week announced it was returning the balance of its $1.1 million government contract to promote home retrofits after it had fallen well behind its goals, says it is a nonpartisan organization. But an examination of the Hallowell-based group shows that of its 13-member staff, seven have or had strong connections to the Democratic Party, including being members of the Legislature. This finding comes a week after the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting revealed that the alliance got its grant with the help of former Democratic Gov. John Baldacci and was founded by Baldacci’s former counsel, also a well-connected Democrat. The seven staff members are:

* Steve Butterfield, who was a Democratic House member representing Bangor and running for re-election when he was hired in August 2010 as a process facilitator. He was not re-elected. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Energy, Ethics, Money, Baldacci, Democratic, Efficiency Maine Trust, Maine Green Energy Alliance, Maine legislature