Legislative Scorecard

123rd Legislature: 1st Session

Find out how your legislators voted on key bills this past session:
Scorecard for the Maine House of Representatives
Scorecard for the Maine Senate

Helpful links:

Who is my legislator?
Maine Legislature website

Highlights of the recent session

The Environment, Health Care, Affordable Housing, Other Key Bills

Environment

LD 1658 – An Act To Protect Pregnant Women and Children from Toxic Chemicals Released into the Home
In 2004, the Maine Legislature banned two toxic brominated flame retardants (BFRs), “Penta” and “Octa”, and established a goal to phase out a third widely used toxic BFR, known as “Deca”, by January 2008. LD 1658, sponsored by Rep. Hannah Pingree, gets this unnecessary toxic chemical out of our homes by prohibiting any new uses of Deca in mattresses and home furniture, and phases out Deca in electronics (primarily the plastic casings of televisions).
Outcome: Passed and signed into law

Health Care

LD 431 – An Act to Enable the Dirigo Health Program to be Self-Administered
Sponsored by Rep. Jill Conover, this bill allows Dirigo Health to provide DirigoChoice health coverage through a self-administered plan if, after evaluating bids for coverage from other providers, the board finds it favorable to do so. MPA supported this bill because we believe the best way to strengthen DirigoChoice, and protect the health coverage it offers thousands of Mainers who wouldn't otherwise have it, is to uncouple it from the profit motive and high administrative costs of Anthem, the current private provider.
Outcome: Passed and signed into law

LD 1072 – An Act to Establish a Single-payer Health Care System
Sponsored by Rep. Paulette Beaudoin, this bill would have established a universal single-payer health care system that channels all health care dollars through a dedicated fund. While the bill was never voted on, it provided advocates of single-payer the chance to educate legislators on the failings of our present healthcare system and the need for broad-based reform.
Outcome: Carried over until next session

Consumer Protections – Preserved!
This session saw the defeat of dozens of bills that would have dismantled Maine’s hard won consumer protections such as guaranteed issue and renewal, modified community rating, and mandated benefits, along with numerous proposals to weaken or eliminate the Dirigo Health reforms. Two bills (LDs 1760 and 1047) were not defeated, however, and have been carried over until next year. These bills attempt to establish high risk insurance pools, which are state-subsidized coverage for people insurance companies are permitted to exclude. Usually due to preexisting conditions or age, these people are denied coverage. Insurance companies love high risk pools because they shift the responsibility of caring for the sick onto taxpayers and the state, leaving them to cover the people least likely to need medical care.
Outcome: Carried over until next session

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Affordable Housing

LD 936 – An Act to Protect the Housing Opportunities for Maine Fund
Sponsored by Rep. Mark Bryant, this bill makes it more difficult for revenues set aside for the Housing Opportunities for Maine (HOME) Fund, the state's affordable housing trust fund, to be used for things other than affordable housing initiatives.
Outcome: Passed and signed into law

LD 441 – Act to Restructure the Board of Commissioners of the Maine State Housing Authority To Closely Match Local Authorities
Sponsored by Sen. Barry Hobbins, this bill changes the number of commissioners on the Maine State Housing Authority appointed by the Governor from 7 to 10. It requires that at least one commissioner be elderly, at least one be a low-income resident of subsidized housing, and at least one represent people with disabilities.
Outcome: Passed and signed into law

LD 1869 – An Act To Protect Maine Homeowners from Predatory Lending
Sponsored by Speaker of the House Glenn Cummings, this bill aims to stop predatory mortgage lending practices, which currently cost Maine's working families and senior citizens more than $23 million every year. The bill helps guarantee that access to mortgages continues to grow, and preserves access to low interest rates for homebuyers and homeowners seeking to refinance. To reduce abusive lending practices, the new law requires a lender to evaluate a borrowers ability to repay a loan, and prohibits loan "flipping"—repeated refinancing of a loan—without tangible benefit to the borrower.
Outcome: Passed and signed into law

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Other key bills

LD 1854 – An Act Regarding Campaign Finance Reporting and the Maine Clean Election Act
Introduced by Senator Lisa Marraché, this bill extends the so-called “rebuttable presumption” period from 21 to 35 days before the general election. This new law extends the timeframe during which Clean Election candidates receive matching funds when independent PACs (or others) produce campaign materials or advertisements that mention the candidate's opponent by name, even without an explicit campaign endorsement.
Outcome: Passed and signed into law

LD 1925 – An Act To Cut Taxes on Maine Residents by over $140,000,000
This bill represented a bold step in tax reform and tax fairness. The legislation targeted tax reductions to low- and moderate-income families, and benefited all Mainers by lowering property and income taxes while generating the revenue needed to support programs Mainers value. While this bill did not pass, MPA members generated hundreds of calls to senators and representatives urging them to support the bill.
Outcome: Did not pass

LD 1810 – An Act To Enact the Informed Growth Act
Sponsored by Christopher Barstow, this bill provides Maine communities with much needed information to assess the impacts of proposed large-scale retail developments on their towns, taxes and local economies. It establishes a transparent and uniform process for evaluating these impacts. The legislation requires independent comprehensive impact studies for big box stores over 75,000 square feet. These studies must assess such factors as the projected impacts on existing businesses, jobs, wages, vacancy rates, and municipal services. In addition, permit approval requires that the local permitting authority find that the project will not have an undue adverse impact on the local economy.
Outcome: Passed and signed into law

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Other important bills that passed this session include:

LD 375, which adds domestic partners and their children to the list of family members for which workers may take job-protected time off;

LD 416, which helps protect seniors from sales tactics that are confusing and potentially coercive, and which could lead to the unintentional purchase of unnecessary or inappropriate insurance and financial services products;

LD 841, which extends health insurance coverage for dependent children up to age 25;

LD 1445, which defines a livable wage standard for Maine;

LD 1611, a general bond package that includes funds to support research into bio-based products from Maine potatoes and other agricultural and forest sources;

LD 1849, which charges the Advisory Council on Health Systems Development with the duty of making recommendations to the next session of the Legislature on specific methods to control rising health costs;

LD 1851, which addresses global warming by having Maine join the 10-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the nation's first cap-and-trade program designed to reduce power plant pollution by 10% over the next decade.

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