My First Bills
March 22, 2009 -
In the last email, I told you about two bills I had submitted that had public hearings, LD 678, "An Act To Provide Middle School Students with Access to Innovative Science Education," and LD 773, "An Act To Increase Funding for Higher Education". LD 678 would have provided $251,000 to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute for their middle school science programs, and LD 773 would have sought to require the State pay for 55% of higher education operating costs by 2012. Unfortunately, when it came time for a committee vote, both bills were defeated. While I am disappointed that neither bill was reported out of committee, there are some positives.
First, I learned some incredible lessons by seeing the defeat of both bills. I will work with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute and the Department of Education on a Local Innovative Grant that is part of the American Stimulus package. Finally, the three heads of Higher Education Institutions (Chancellor Patenaude, President Fitzmonds, and President Tyler) will report back to the Education Committee on the best funding models from other states.
And now for some more good news: Another bill I introduced, LD 606, "An Act To Enable the Maine Employers' Mutual Insurance Company To Better Serve the Needs of All Employers", passed unanimously out of the Insurance and Financial Services Committee. LD 606 seeks to remove the employee limit currently capped at 100 for businesses that want to use MEMIC's (http://www.memic.com/) Employment Practices Liablity Insurance, or EPLI. This bill will allow MEMIC to offer EPLI insurance with existing worker's compensation coverage. It is a win-win for Maine's larger companies wanting this coverage as well as for MEMIC to increase their market share.
