AUGUSTA – A slew of laws that were passed during the first session of the 126th Maine Legislature, or were included in the state’s $6.3 billion biennial 2013-14 spending plan, took effect on October 9. Here are some of the highlights.

Texting and driving

With the rise in crash-interrupted mobile chats, the state is imposing new, steeper penalties for texting while driving. The attention-splitting trend has been loosely prohibited for several years, first under catch-all “distracted driving” laws, then more aggressively in 2011 when a minimum fine of $100 was instituted. The new legislation brings the minimum penalty up to $250 for a first offense.

Hospitals paid, with liquor sales

A plan to repay a $484 million debt to 39 Maine hospitals is under way. Paying outstanding bills for services to patients covered by MaineCare has been a high priority for Gov. LePage. Democratic legislators unsuccessfully attempted to tie the repayment to an expansion of MaineCare. Under the final bill, the state will kick in $180 million, making it eligible for $305 million in federal matching funds. The state portion is expected to be paid through the sale of liquor revenue bond.

Homeowner and renter rebates

Maine’s “Circuit Breaker” program, which gave rebates to some low-income homeowners and renters was repealed in the current budget and replaced by the Property Tax Fairness Credit. Payments under the Circuit Breaker program were as high as $800 in some parts of the state. Under PTF, payments have been capped at $300. The new law is estimated to save the state government $20-$25 million.

Business

A new economic development law authorizes municipalities to establish revolving loan funds to support local projects.

As of May 3 limited liability companies were no longer required to include the “LLC” suffix in legal filings.

Education

Career and technical education students can now earn college credits in high school, potentially putting them in a position to earn an associate degree after one year of college.

Education spending, including amendments to rules for charter schools, was widely discussed, but much less put into law.

A handful of Midcoast towns that have seen double-digit jumps in their bill to the school district may be heartened by amendments to the state’s Essential Programs and Services formula that would base the school funding equation’s “property fiscal capacity” component on a two-year average of property values for fiscal year 2014-2015 and a three-year average in the following years.

Property owners living on the edge of a school district could stand to benefit from the promisingly named Act to Ensure that the Standard of a Student’s Best Interest is Applied to Superintendent Agreements for Transfer Students. Because districts lose money when students transfer out, superintendents have historically been reticent to let any go, even if it comes at the expense of longer bus rides or schooling the student somewhere other than his or her home community. The new law would establish a new process, allowing a denial from the superintendent to be appealed to the Commissioner of Education and then to the State Board of Education. 

The approved biennial budget included the governor’s proposal that municipalities be required to fund a portion of teacher retirement costs in their districts.

Food labeling and “sovereignty”

An Act to Protect Maine Food Consumers’ Right to Know about Genetically Engineered Food is pending the governor’s signature. LePage has indicated he will sign the bill when the legislature reconvenes in January 2014. A number of proposals around the idea of “food sovereignty” didn’t fare as well. The idea has seen growing grassroots support among small farmers, who oppose some food safety regulations for practical or political reasons. Opposition has come from larger established operations and state officials. A number of Maine towns have written local food sovereignty ordinances that run counter to state laws. This was highlighted in a lawsuit brought by the state against Blue Hill dairy farmer Dan Brown whose raw milk sales complied with his town’s food ordinance but violated state laws.

Cameras, taps and drones

A number of privacy rules went into effect, including laws relating to surveillance cameras being placed on private property, warrant requirements for text message and cell phone record information and warrant requirements to obtain cell phone location information. Other privacy bills, including one to create the Maine Online Privacy Protection Act and another to strengthen Maine’s data breach requirements and one to regulate the use of drones by law enforcement did not pass.

Precious metals

In response to the proliferation of precious metals sales, new laws require dealers to obtain a municipal permit, abide by a holding period of up to 15 days where the dealer may not sell or alter the metals, get reasonable proof of the seller’s identity and keep records of purchases for at least one year for inspection by law. Auctioneers are exempt from the law.

Wind energy 

Laws related to wind energy tended to favor offshore development, putting more burden on land-based developments to minimize impact on scenery and habitat, while streamlining the permitting process for offshore developments.

The state’s “deep-water offshore wind energy pilot project” was amended in order to reopen a bidding process for an offshore wind power contract. The legislation came under strong pressure from Gov. LePage to allow the University of Maine to enter a competitive bid. The amendment nullified a 2012 contract with Statoil, the Norwegian multinational company that has been working on offshore wind technology near Boothbay Harbor. On Tuesday, Statoil announced it was pulling the plug on its $140 million Hywind Maine development. The company cited the state’s decision to redo the bidding process as the principal reason for abandoning the Maine project.

Lobbying/governing/lobbying …

In an effort to close the so-called “revolving door” of government and business interests, new laws were enacted to bar certain employees in the executive branch from becoming lobbyists within one year of serving in state government.

Healthcare, airplanes and jury duty

Post-traumatic stress disorder, inflammatory bowel disease and dyskinetic and spastic movement disorders were added to the list of debilitating medical conditions for which a physician may prescribe marijuana.

Healthcare practitioners will now have to maintain a price list of their most frequently provided services and procedures, based on the cost for an uninsured patent, and must tell patients that the price list exists and provide copies upon request.

If you’re in the market for an airplane, a bill to encourage the aviation industry has extended the sales and use tax exemption for aircraft and aircraft parts until June 2033.

And you’re over 80 and you don’t feel like serving your jury duty, you don’t have to.

Bills of note that failed, were carried over, or were simply proposed

Over 20 bills related to gun control went through the legislature, including a requirement for dealers to conduct background checks and a provision that would have repealed a recently enacted law denying employers the right to stop certain employees from bringing firearms to the workplace. None of the bills made the final cut.

Gov. LePage’s contentious proposal to do away with municipal revenue sharing was mostly rejected in the final budget.

A bill seeking to ban the highly publicized trend of employers and schools requiring employees and students to provide login information to personal social media and e-mail accounts was carried over.

Also carried over was a bill that would have authorized municipalities to charge a fee to owners of tax-exempt property based upon the actual cost of providing municipal services to the property.

Among the environmental bills that were proposed but not enacted were one that would have placed a moratorium on the transportation of tar sands, several that proposed regulating mining of metallic minerals, and a resolution for a Department of Environmental Protection study on climate change.

A proposal to raise the minimum wage incrementally to $9 per hour by the year 2016 passed the House and Senate but was vetoed by the governor and did not have the two-thirds majority in the legislature to override the veto.

Sweeping tax reform proposals that would have lowered income tax and sales tax while increasing the base in each category didn’t win popular support in the legislature, but a temporary sales tax increase and expansion was approved.

A concept bill (no official language) suggested that the state could save $30,000,000 if it reduced the use of offshore tax havens. To this end, the bill proposed creating a task force to review the state’s tax expenditures.

Laws with the most Orwellian names

The Act to Provide Transparency in Public-Private Partnerships for Transportation Projects will allow certain trade secret and competitive materials used in a proposal for a public-private partnership for a transportation project to be confidential unless the private party chooses not to defend the confidentiality, or a court deems otherwise.

Honorable mention in this category goes to the previously mentioned Property Tax Fairness Credit, which achieves fairness by reducing tax rebates to the lowest existing level.

A detailed summary of all new Maine laws enacted during the first session of the 126th Legislature, along with bills that were carried over and links to bill texts can be viewed here.

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com