Work on the budget which reduce spending and cut state subsidies  and revenue sharing to municipalities for a long and arduous process ably assisted by veteran Appropriations Committee members Rep. Sawin Millett, Rep. Bob Nutting, Rep. Pat Flood and Sen. Richard Rosen who worked tirelessly with their colleagues on the other side of the aisle, the governor’s office and Commissioner Ryan Low and other key committee members to hammer out a plan that would be reasonable and workable. The Leadership of Appropriation chairs Sen. Bill Diamond and Rep. Emily Cain were instrumental in managing the process and allowing for public in put during the course of the debate, as well as keeping members engaged and on task.  The matter of bonds raised its head again in late part of session and created some challenges. I will address this in more detail in a later post. Best to say that we agreed to disagree and threw it to the body to sort out.  In hindsight the 124th Legislature helped Maine government to weather one of the toughest economic storms most of us have seen in our lifetime and come out of it in a fairly good state. That is not to say we don’t have problems on the horizon.

On Thursday January 21st, Governor John Baldacci delivered his eighth and final state. He noted that Maine was facing some extreme challenges and fiscal struggles. He spoke of the turmoil incumbent in these issues and  the need to seek new solutions and new directions for our state government, our industries and our economy.

Within this message was a call to address our energy needs and break our dependence on foreign oil. Another component of his address was the need to improve Maine’s home energy needs through weatherization. He spoke of the promising opportunities in wind power and its auxiliary industries.

He also spoke of the importance of changing our state government and his efforts to consolidate services and departments. He referenced the number of jobs supposedly eliminated from state employment and the cuts to funding.  The changes incumbent in this course has set many communities, school systems and counties on a new and uncharted path, the results are yet to be determined but the changes will offer some interesting opportunities for discussions and hopefully creative results.

Unfortunately at one point the governor felt a need to inject a sharply political point into his address and advocate against the upcoming June referendum on the tax package passed by the Democratic members of the Legislature on the final day on last session.  I feel although it was his right to speak to this matter it was an inappropriate moment to inject a political announcement into his address on the state of our state.

The Governor also spoke to some other issues related to health and wellness, the tradgey in Haiti and Mainer’s who have been serving overseas in the mid-East. He touched on the large amount of Maine lands now in conservation and a plan being worked on

Below is a link to read the text of his address:

http://www.maine.gov/tools/whatsnew/index.php?topic=Gov_Speeches&id=89383&v=Article

There were several matters to make technical changes to issues relating to the retirement system and unemployment as it related to federal legislation. We also saw proposals to change the minimum wage, more enforcement authority for the workers comp commission,  changes to how unemployment is paid in relationship to use of vacation time and issues relating to bonded laborers in the forest industry.

Early in the sessio nwe were informed of a problem relating to legislation we approved at the end of last year LD 1468 was a clearer definition of independent contractors. The result was a new form for pre-determination which required far more data, including 3 years of tax returns and a filing on a per job basis as opposed to the prior process which allowed for annual pre-determinations. This caused much consternation and confusion in the construction industry as many saw this as a added burden which did little to improve the process. After much deliberation and several meetings with stakeholder groups a good resolution was found and a committee bill was drafted to correct the problem.

The most visible issue was the discussion of Senate president Elizabeth Mitchell’s bill LD 1665 titles an Act to Prevent the Spread of the H1N1 Virus" which was commonly referred to as "paid sick leave". It generated the largest turnout for a public hearing with many business and industry representatives in attendance. The sponsors and the national group heading the effort lobbied aggressively but failed to bringing compelling evidence of real problems here in Maine. Unfortunately they chose to try and push their way through with a twice amended bill while not reasonably engaging in discussions with the Maine business community. The result was a decision by the Labor Committee to vote it out with a majority report of "Ought Not to Pass". This sent a strong message to the full Legislature that the bill had limited merit in its present form. To me this showed an example of how the business community can effectively express themselves on issues of concern and how the process will work well in limiting legislation that does not respect our state. I feel many efforts like this to use Maine as a platform for social experiments in launching "first in the nation" landmark bills only works when there is a true and broad problem affecting Maine people.

Overall this session’s Labor Committee continued in its efforts to hear legislation and come to a decision in a thoughtful and respectful manner.  My thanks to my colleagues on the committee and my compliments to the chairs for the manner in which they conducted themselves. I want to give special thanks Rep Tuttle for his willingness to take some positions which were difficult but appropriate during these challenging times.

Two good examples of this were a bill to require all rental units and  homes sold after Oct 31st 2009 to have a functioning carbon monoxide detector installed. There is no doubt that this can be a real and concerning life safety matter, however in the rush to pass the final version many changes were made which left unanswered questions as to how to enforce the new statute.

We also passed legislation to prevent the unauthorized use of information regarding minors, it was to prevent various entities from misusing data acquired from publicsources. The final version of the bill has caused concerns from legitimate organizations such as colleges seeking to work with those applying for entrance and even news organizations seeking to publish students information for athletic or academic accomplishments. We are regularly told by some we can’t let “perfect be the enemy of good legislation” however my thoughts are that we sometimes rush to complete a bill before it has been properly reviewed and considered by many parities who will have to apply the “unintended consequences” of our action.

All in all this second session promises to offer many challenges as we seek to do the people’s business in an uncertain economy.

One of the the great joys in a parents life is to see your children grow and achieve success in their lives. All three of ours are now young adults. Grace has completed college and is working in Washington DC. She has a position working at the Republican National Committee helping with the next National Convention. Andre & Gerald are attending St. Joseph’s College where they both are members of the men’s soccer team. Gwen and I had a wonderful fall as we travelled around watching the team progress through a very good season. It was not without some challenges including last spring’s announcement that the college had to reduce expenses which resulted in the coach’s full time position being cut. A new part time coach stepped in during the summer and life when on. These young men turned adversity into triumph as they went on to win their conference title and be selected for an NCAA playoff berth.  During which they set 21 team and individual records.

Below is an article from the Bangor Daily News.

Brothers help St. Joseph’s into NCAA tourney

Cushings and Monks join Division III field

St. Joseph’s College of Standish will be making its first NCAA Division III Tournament appearance in men’s soccer after winning the Great Northeast Athletic Conference tourney title.

And two brothers from Hampden, senior Andre Cushing and freshman brother Gerald, have played key roles for the 14-7-1 Monks.

St. Joseph’s will travel to play Wesleyan (Conn.) on Saturday.

“They’ve both had a huge impact on our team,” said Monks coach Steve Babineau. “Andre was a first team all-conference choice. He scored some great goals and had a bunch of assists. With his work ethic, he leads by example in training and in games.

“Gerald has come such a long way since day one. He’s a great young man who is always working hard and always asking what can he do to get better,” Babineau said. “He’s willing to play different positions and he competes with the best of them.

“We’ve used him at outside midfield and in the back and he’s done well,” he added.

“This [title] has been something we’ve been working for over the past three years,” said Andre Cushing, who has scored two goals and notched four assists. “We felt we should have won it last year so we’ve played with a chip on our shoulders this year.”

He said being named All-GNAC was nice “but it was a collective team effort. I was just able to make some key plays in key situations. It’s a reflection on how well we’ve played together.”

He said he has been motivated by a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to Greely of Cumberland Center in the 2004 Class A state title game, in which Hampden squandered a 2-0 lead. He has also been motivated by a frustrating 2008 season.

“That [Greely] game has been eating at me for five years and I told the guys [in the 2-1 GNAC title game win over Emerson] that wasn’t going to happen to us,” said Cushing.

He said he didn’t play as well as he wanted to last season “but I’ve been more consistent this year.”

Cushing added that the season has been “very rewarding” and getting to share it with his brother has added to it.

“It’s cool. He was a JV when I was a senior at Hampden Academy. It’s nice to share something like this with him,” said Andre Cushing.

Governor Baldacci declined to sign the legislation as presented so an intense effort to negoiate a compromise was undertaken by Democratic leaders bent on passing a bill before the end of session. The result was a proposal, LD 1495 “An Act To Implement Tax Relief and Tax Reform”. This legislation was deposited on our desk 15 minutes before a vote was expected. There was not the customary public hearings nor even a review by the full Taxation Committee. It was an last minute attempt to craft tax reform in a very closed environment.
On a strict Democratic vote it passed the House and won the support of only one Republican, Sen. Peter Mills, in the Senate.

Following the Governor signing the bill a coalition of concerned legislators and citizen’s mobilized a petition drive to allow Maine voters a chance to have a say on the newly passed tax bill. Over a short time more than 70,000 signatures were collected and in September they were submitted to the Secretary of State for review and certification. After a delay which resulted in a lawsuit being filed by the group’s spokesman Charles Webster the courts found the Secretary of State had not properly fulfilled his duties and ordered that the petitions be certified. The vote will take place in June of 2010.

I spent a busy summer working on personal and family business and dealing with some items on my Legislative schedule. Not too many trips to Augusta were necessary but we did have some hearings before the LAbor Committee for Gubernatorial appointments.

Governor Baldacci delivered his 7th State of the State address on Tuesday March 10th. Below is a link to the text of his speech if you would like to review it:

http://www.maine.gov/tools/whatsnew/index.php?topic=Gov+News&id=69160&v=Article-2006

 As the date for cloture was moved back so too has the flow of bills ready for consideration, the result  has slowed down the committee process and meant we spend more time driving to and from Augusta then we do in session. It has been somewhat frustrating for those of us who are busy but we have learned to be patient, the Legislature runs on  its own special time.

With over 2,000 bills you can see the benefit of this process, as you have a full plate just researching issues before your committee and bills you are sponsoring, it is near impossible to read every bill that will come up for a vote let alone all proposals submitted for consideration. You come to rely on the process to do its work and bring forward a reasonable and well researched product. If a committee unanimously supports a proposal it gives you some assurance that the process has run its course and likewise a unanimous report of ought not to pass tells you this issue may not yet be ready for consideration.

In fairness the clerks and staff have use some of this time to provide more training for new members, we have had various groups hosting events to bring us more information on issue that will come before the Legislature so there has been productive opportunities.

During these challenging economic times we are dealing with the need to reduce spending to accommodate reduced revenues. The Appropriations Committee has been going full tilt and we can be thankful for some of the veteran members like Senators Bill Diamond and Richard Rosen and Representatives Sawin Millett, John Martin, Bob Nutting and Peggy Rotundo, they understand the process and how to ask the right questions. I will continue to outline aspects of the supplemental budget in a future posting.