January 30th Update
I hope everyone has enjoyed their week and the new snow! My kids are happy!
As most everyone knows, we voted in the supplemental budget (really a supplemental reduction) on Tuesday evening. The vote was pretty much unanimous. I voted for the budget… let me reword that, I voted for the hard, painful work that was done to get our state back in the black and on track. In a perfect world, this would not have be the budget I would have like to see for the State. Now we will be doing committee work and working on the budget for 2010-2011.
We started public hearings in the Utilities and Energy Committee this week. One public hearing that is very interesting and surprisingly controversial is LD 73 An Act To Protect the Right To Use Solar Energy. I was very surprised by how many people showed up in support and opposition of this proposed bill. The bill would allow people to install or use solar collectors or clothes lines or other equipment for the solar drying of clothing. (To put it simply, it allows you to have an outdoor clothes line!) This bill brought out a lot of people… some even had props. We will be having a work session on this bill in the next couple of weeks.
You can see a schedule of public hearings or work sessions at http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/phwkSched_ps.asp?snum=124&PID=1456. I will post this link on my links page for future reference. If you will be coming up to the State House, please contact me and if I am available I would love to meet you!
