District 8 Legislative Update - May 14th, 2009
May 14, 2009 -
This week in Augusta feels like the calm before the storm. The biennial budget draft will be ready by early next week, and then I make Augusta my temporary home. We will have to work night and day to get the budget passed.
The urgency is extreme because the payments for Medicare runs out next Friday, and if the budget isn't passed, the 7,000 providers in Maine are not going to get paid.
Last Week's Top Issues
1) Maine Learning Results;
2) Maine's Economic Recovery;
3) Adult Education Budget.
Thank you for your interest, and keep it coming!
Community Update - Bayside Cleanup
Saturday morning I had the pleasure of joining dozens of volunteers for the Bayside Neighborhood Cleanup. We picked up hundreds of pounds of trash across Bayside.
It was a wonderful community event with a good purpose. Thank you to all of the volunteers who helped make this a great day for Bayside and the City!
Maine Learning Results
On Tuesday, the Education Committee heard over four and a half hours of testimony on LD 1325, "An Act Regarding Curriculum Requirements and Standards for Awarding a High School Diploma." The bill's goal is to finalize Maine's Learning Results by creating standard base requirements to graduate from high school.
The proposed standards would require that students meet a minimum number of credits and meet minimum standards of proficiency in the following four subjects: English Language Arts, Math, Science & Technology, and Social Studies.
Students must also meet minimum proficiency in one of the following areas, and partially meet the remaining two:
* Heath Education and Physical Education
* Visual and Performing Arts
* World Languages
* National Industry Recognized Standards
The most contentious piece of the LD 1325 is the labeling of the Visual and Performing Arts, World Languages, and Health and Physical Education as partially meets or as a suggested "second-tier" of requirements.
Dirigo
Last Friday, an important bill, LD 1264, "An Act to Stabilize Funding and Enable DirigoChoice to Reach More Uninsured" to Portland and Maine, was passed by a majority vote in the IFS Committee. Currently, over 500 people in Senate District 8 are enrolled in DirigoChoice.
The Governor submitted this bill to change how Dirigo is funded. The proposed legislation ends the contentious Savings-Offset Payment (SOP) and replaces it with a straight assessment of 2.14% to carriers on paid claims. The change brings long sought-after financial stability to the program. If enacted by the legislature, the DirigoChoice product will continue helping people in the district, and current projections will allow the program to reopen enrollment to individuals, sole proprietors and small businesses in the near future. This is a change I voted to support.
My Bills - LD 1100
Last Wednesday, the State and Local Government Committee unanimously passed my bill LD 1100, "An Act to Preserve Governmental Records." I am calling LD 1100 my "un-mandate bill", because it removes work from the City of Portland and gives it to the State. (Often, the state passes laws that mandates work for municipalities.)
LD 1100 will change how candidates running for municipal office and local referendums in cities and towns with over 15,000 people, including Portland, file campaign finance reports. Currently, municipal candidates and local political action committees running referendums file with the City Clerk, while all candidates for State Legislature must file campaign finance reports with the State. The State keeps reports in electronic form, presumably forever, while the City Clerk's office is only required to keep the records for 2 years, after which they are destroyed.
Closing
By this Friday, the Education and Cultural Affairs committee will have reported out almost 141 bills. The process now moves to the House and Senate floors. As always, please send me your thoughts, and if you would like to join in on the fun in Augusta, just let me know.
-Justin
