Session is over for this year. We finished at 2:30 am on Saturday, June 13th. The last day was long and eventful. Early in the day, the transportation budget was debated in the House and then brought back to the negotiation table to rework it so both parties could agree on it. This was done without adding a gas tax. In the evening, after negotiations, we voted again on the transportation budget and received the 2/3rd vote we needed to pass the budget and keep 2,300 people in their jobs.

Bonds were also still being discussed on our last day. It was agreed on that the bond package to go to referendum would be $150 million. You can see an outline of the bonds and when they go to referendum here. Bond Package Outline.

Governor Baldacci at Sabattus Press Conference

Press Conference  In Sabattus

At 10:30 am on Wednesday June 24th, a press conference with the Governor was held at the Sabattus Town Office. The press conference was to announce Recovery Act Projects. Sabattus and Lisbon will be receiving funds for the reconstruction of Route 9. This is a much needed project. The reconstruction will start at Exit 86 and continue along Route 9 through Sabattus and Lisbon to Route 197. This project will bring good paying jobs and it will make the road much safer for local people who travel the Route on a regular basis.

At the press conference, Governor Baldacci also announced that Maine is the first state to get over 50% of the ARRA funds working within the alotted 120 days. Way to go Gov and DOT! This means that we are the first to get people out working and using the funds.

Rep. Stacy Dostie, Governor Baldacci, Senator Nutting

Me and my son Kyle

This week we will be voting on LD 1088 An Act To Modernize the Tax Laws and Provide over $50,000,000 to Residents of the State in Tax Relief. I will be voting for the measure. Though the plan is not perfect, it is a good middle of the road tax reform plan (and it is still a work in progress!). Like any plan, some people will agree and others will disagree. Here is an overview of the bill.

Circuit Breaker: The bill incorporates the Circuit Breaker (property tax relief program) into the income tax form. This will simplify the application process and increase participation in the program.
Lower Income Taxes: The bill will lower income tax rates from 8% to 6%. This reduction will take us from one of the highest rates in the nation to the middle of the pack. This is good for all Mainer’s.

Business-to-Business Changes: The business-to-business burdens from the original bill have been removed. (These include commercial vehicle repair and several items affecting manufacturing.)

New Rule-making Procedures: The bill will develop a new system the will ensure that Maine Revenue Services will not be able to reinterpret the tax laws in the future without Legislative approval.

This is just a brief overview of the bill. The bill will help to export our tax burden. The Androscoggin County Chamber, the Portland Regional Chamber and the Bangor Chamber support the bill. If you would like more information on the bill, please contact me.

It has been a busy week! This week we passed the budget. The cuts that were made in this budget were difficult for all of us. I was impressed with the bipartisan work done in the Appropriations Committee. They had a very difficult job to do and they did it by working together. My hope is that this recession turns around quickly and that as a State we come out of this stronger then when we went in.

This week we discussed clothes lines, solar collectors, sales tax holidays, genetically modified crops, composting, the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission…among other things. We also discussed reducing the size of the Legislature. This sounds pretty cut and dry, but actually this is a very complicated issue and one that I am very torn on. The issue is representation in Northern Maine. With the census coming up Northern Maine already stands to lose representation in the House. When you add reducing the Legislature to this, Northern Maine will lose even more representation and Southern Maine will gain representation. This could mean a large shift of power to the Southern half of that State. I am all for reducing costs in State government, but how fair is that? There must be a better way???

We voted on a Sales Tax Holiday and the measure passed. This is a pilot project for 2009. Here is the info on the bill….

Columbus Day weekend 2009. Sales of tangible personal property from 12:01 a.m. Saturday, October 10, 2009 to midnight Monday, October 12, 2009, except sales of telecommunications equipment, tobacco products, gas, electricity, motor vehicles, prepared food or any single item the price of which exceeds $2,500. Transfer of possession of or payment in full for the property must occur on one of those days and prior sales or layaway sales are ineligible. This subsection is repealed June 30, 2010.

A bill that came out of my committee (Utilities and Energy) is LD 73 An Act to Protect the Right to Use Solar Energy. I am on the minority report out of our committee. This bill is about having the right to put up a clothesline or solar collector. The majority report allows renters, people leasing, and property owners living in a municipality the right to put up a clothesline or solar collector if they choose. The minority report allows property owners living in a municipality the right to put up a clothesline or solar collector if they choose. I am on the minority report, becuase I believe if you are an apartment renter or condo owner then in most cases before you sign on the dotted line you are fully aware of your landlords or condo associations rules and regulations. The issue here is about property owners rights. I expect the bill to come back to the floor next week. The vote this week was very close. I am hoping we can defeat the majority report.

This Thursday was color day in the House. We all wore our best colorful outfits. Even the men got in on the fun!

Legislative Color Day 2009

Our last day this session is expected to be June 12th. I have really enjoyed the experience so far this session and I just want to thank you all who voted for me. I am very honored to be representing you all. My roll call right now is 94.7%. I missed several days in February because we were passing the flu around at our house. I hope to bring up my roll call even more in the next couple of weeks.

Oldest Greene citizen, Barbara Nelson and Rep. Stacy Dostie at Greene Memorial Day celebration.

Senator Nutting speaks to the kids at the Sabattus Memorial Day celebration.

Yesterday, I attended the Sabattus and Greene Memorial Day celebrations. It was a beautiful day.

The Sabattus event started at 9 am with a parade from the Legion. From there we marched to the memorial on the corner of Elm and Greene Street’s. The ceremony was led by our Legion Commander. Sabattus had a very good turnout. An American Legion member from Lewiston was very impressed. He said that Sabattus had more attendees than the Lewiston parade on Saturday.

At 11 am in Greene, a small ceremony was held at the memorial by the VFW. It was a very nice ceremony. At the ceremony, I met Greene’s oldest resident, Barbara Nelson. Barbara is 99 years old. She recently received the Boston Post Cane. She is quite a lady!

VFW members at Greene Memorial Day celebration.

There is a lot to talk about this week! First off, Appropriations unanimously voted out the budget early Tuesday morning. Next week, we will start voting on the budget on the floor of the house. We will also be full time, starting on Tuesday. This means morning, afternoon and evening sessions. Wish me luck!

Congressman Mike Michaud has released a Resource Guide to HR 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The guide lists helpful resources for individuals, families and small businesses. Check out the guide here. ARRA offers help for families with first time home buyer credits, tax credits, weatherization assistance, etc. It is worth a look to see if ARRA could help you or your business.

Over the past couple of weeks, I heard from quite a few state employees who were concerned about the 5% pay cut. Appropriations reconsidered the pay cut and state employees will now have shut down days. This makes more sense to me. A friend of mine who is a state employee put the situation into perspective for me. She said, “at least with the shut down days we can make money in other ways if we choose.” I am pleased that Appropriations listened to the people and reconsidered their actions.

At this time, most committees have finished their public hearings and work sessions. On the Utilities and Energy Committee we finished up our work on Wednesday. We saw many bills and worked very hard to move them through the process. One bill that we had numerous committee meetings on and that the committee is very proud of is LD 1075 An Act to Promote Community-based Energy. It is a bill to encourage communities to invest in renewable energy projects.

The work session for my LD 1300 was held. This is my head concussion bill. The bill passed as a resolve. The new title is a “Resolve, To Create a Working Group on the Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Concussive Head Injuries in Student-athletes.” The working group is already established and they will be meeting regularly. The group is made up of representatives from the Maine Principals’ Association, the Maine School Superintendents Association, the Maine School Boards Association, the Maine School Management Association, the Acquired Brain Injury Advisory Council, the medical director of health services at Colby College, sports medicine practitioners, medical providers and school athletic directors and trainers and representatives of any other stakeholder group or interested party the Education Commissioner considers appropriate. The group will be reporting back to the Education Committee on their progress next Spring.

A lot of people are still having FairPoint issues. If you are still having issues that you cannot get resolved, please call the Maine Public Utilities Commission’s Consumer Assistance Hotline at 1-800-452-4699 or you can find them online at http://www.maine.gov/mpuc/consumer/file_complaint.shtml.

That is all for this update. I will keep you posted on the progress with the budget.