District 8 Legislative Update - Happy Holidays & Updates
December 17, 2009 -
With the holiday season upon us, we gather with our friends and family to celebrate the year and remember what is truly important in our lives. I hope everyone has a fantastic holiday and that this season is filled with light and cheer.
Happy Holidays!
Community Update
Last Thursday and Friday, I joined over 100 people, including students, parents, school officials, business leaders and elected officials at a two-day conference geared towards developing a vision of the future of Portland schools.
It was wonderful bringing so many dedicated and interested minds together to confront the challenges our schools face and find new, creative ways to make our schools relevant and effective. Be on the lookout for Portland Future Vision in 2010!
Click here for the first article on the event.
Click here for the second article on the event.
State Budget Worsens
As 2009 draws to a close, I must state the obvious: it's been a challenging year for Portland and Maine. Last year saw one awful economic report after another. Although a full-scale economic depression was avoided, we are now in the more familiar old-fashioned recession. Yet the pain is far from over. As I get ready to return to the Legislature full-time in January, the economic outlook is bleak.
When we passed the budget last May of 2009, we included a $30 million placeholder, requiring the Appropriations Committee to find $30 million in savings from the 2011 budget. To date, the Appropriations Committee has found about $25 million in savings, mostly from a reduction in debt service, which leaves an additional $5 million to be found.
Next, the biennial budget inherited a $25 million shortfall from the 2009 budget.
Finally, in additional to $35 million in cuts, Maine has an even bigger problem looming on the horizon: an approximately $400 million revenue shortfall which will require even more cuts.
Click here to read more about the budget.
Bills for 2010
The second session of the 124th Legislature starts on Jan 6th. The second session is usually shorter than the first, and we hope to be done with all of our work by April. Per Legislative rules, only emergency and structural bills are allowed, and three of my bills were voted in by the Legislative Council to be considered over the coming months.
LR 2251 - An Act To Increase Maine's High School Graduation Rates
This bill will mandate that our statewide graduation rate be 90% by 2016, raise the minimum age for a student to leave school from 17 to 18 years old, and create a stakeholders group to examine and create policy to change the regulations and barriers in law around at-risk and drop out students. Each year 3,000 Maine students leave our schools.
LR 2276 - An Act To Improve the Availability, Efficiency and Cost of Services for Infants, Young Children and Their Families
This bill will take the best practices of our current early childhood system and combine it with the newborn, infant, toddler and family services. Creating a unified system will eliminate duplicative bureaucracy and enable better child-focused services.
LR 2277 - An Act To Create Jobs and Stimulate Economic Development by Making Captive Insurers Eligible for Pine Tree Development Zone Benefits for 10 Years
This follows a bill that I introduced and was passed last session. This structural change will allow this new insurance industry to establish itself in the Pine Tree Development Zone program and therefore create good-paying jobs.
Closing
This will be my last email update of the year. I'd love to hear your thoughts on my first year as your State Senator. I wish you and your families a safe, happy, and healthy 2010.
