October 16, 2009
MSBA Legislative Update
October 16, 2009
As you may know, the Maine Legislature's ten-member Legislative Council must approve all bill requests prior to their introduction in the upcoming second regular session. The Legislative Council met this week to vote on which bills would be allowed to be introduced in January 2010. Yesterday’s decisions of the Legislative Council give us a good idea of what bills will be considered next session. We, however, do not know the definitive list of bills for next session, as the Legislative Council will consider appeals of today's decisions on November 5th. Even so, the linked list of bill titles gives you an indication of the areas of interest which will be before the Legislature in 2010.
We do know the titles of legislation being proposed by agencies, which do not need Legislative Council approval. We have included those titles on the lists. Click here to open the list.
All of these bill titles are in addition to the 88 bills carried over from the 2009 session, recommendations which may be proposed by all of the various stakeholder groups, task forces, study commissions, and reports submitted by agencies. Oh, and of course there will be the issues before the Appropriations Committee seeking to close a $200 million budget shortfall.
It will be an extremely busy "short session", which usually adjourns in mid-April, but Legislative leaders are hoping to conclude by early April 2010. It is safe to say, we don't expect to be bored.
REGULATORY DATABASE
We did not identify a newly adopted or proposed regulations of interest to the MSBA for the week of October 15, 2009, but have linked a copy of the most recent Regulatory Database.
MEETINGS OF INTEREST DATABASE
We have linked an updated Meetings of Interest Database for your information.
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions:
Pattie Aho at 207-622-6311 or paho@pierceatwood.com