Legislative Update - May 13, 2011
CYNTHIA DILL (D) WINS SENATE SPECIAL ELECTION LEGISLATIVE DATABASE
A special election for the Senate District 7 seat (Cape Elizabeth, South Portland and part of Scarborough) was held on May 10, 2011. Then-Representative Cynthia Dill (D) won this race with over 65 percent of the vote. Now-Senator Dill was sworn in on May 12, 2011, and replaces former Senator Larry Bliss (D). The composition of the Senate remains as it was before Senator Bliss gave up his seat. Before Senator Dill was sworn in, she had to resign her seat in the House, which will have to be filled by another special election. There is no requirement that this seat be filled immediately and a special election may be held in the fall.
COMMITTEES ALMOST FINISHED WITH THEIR WORK
The deadline set by legislative leaders for committees to complete action on all of their bills was May 13, 2011. As usual, permission has been granted for some bills to be considered after this deadline, but committees will be finished with the vast majority of their work by the end of this week. Attention will then turn to the floors of the House and the Senate as the full Legislature completes its work before adjourning in mid-June.
PUBLIC NOTICE LEGISLATION
A number of bills (LD 392, LD 940 and LD 1445) have been proposed that would change the way State and local governmental entities would be required to provide public notice. Specifically, these bills would require that public notice be published via the internet as opposed to newspapers of general circulation. The Maine State Bar Association joined a number of groups including the Maine Press Association, the Maine Daily Newspaper Publishers Association, the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, the Maine Civil Liberties Union, Maine Equal Justice Partners and the Natural Resources Council of Maine in opposing these bills. Though electronic publication may save the State money, there are access to justice concerns, given that not every Mainer has internet access.
While these bills have been making their way through the committee process, the Governor has also included language in budget legislation that would require electronic publication as opposed to newspaper publication for all legislative, judicial and executive branch entities by July 1, 2012. This is projected to save the State $200,000 annually. It is uncertain what will happen with these proposals. It is worth noting, however, that it is difficult to defeat these types of measures when they are built into budget proposals.
GOVERNOR’S CHANGE PACKAGE
The Governor has submitted a “change package” to his biennial budget request. This change package was necessitated by a projected shortfall of over $164 million in the Governor’s original budget proposal. Given this deficit, most of the proposals in the change package are related to savings and spending cuts. There is, however, a request to increase funding for the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services by $182,000 over the biennium. This is in addition to the $700,000 increase over the biennium proposed in the Governors original biennial budget request.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LEGISLATION
The Judiciary Committee held a public hearing on LD 1365 on May 10, 2011, and held a work session on this same bill on May 13, 2011. As introduced, this bill would have created a new hearsay exception in cases of domestic violence, allowed the introduction of prior convictions for domestic violence at hearings for protection from abuse orders and required a model policy for serving protection from abuse orders in an expeditious manner. The Maine State Bar Association testified in opposition to this bill, given concerns about the proposed hearsay exception and the proposed admission of prior conviction evidence. The Criminal Law Advisory Commission, the Maine Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Maine Civil Liberties Union all raised similar concerns at the public hearing. At work session, the bill was amended so that the bill now only addresses developing a model policy for serving protection from abuse orders in an expeditious manner.
UPCOMING ISSUES
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