123rd Legislature - Second Session - Bill requests

Tedious, very tedious! I would like to submit a bill requiring that for every bill submitted, two already enacted must be repealed! :)

A few of my favorites:

Watson
LR: 2779
An Act To Require Boating Safety Education

Tuttle
LR: 2935
An Act To Require Helmets for Motorcyclists

Sponsor: Senator Strimling
LR: 2753
An Act To Require the State To Divest Itself of Funds from Companies Doing Business with Iran
LR: 3131
An Act To Diminish Global Warming
LR: 3222
An Act To Require the State To Consider Carbon Dioxide Effects when Permitting Projects
LR: 3358
An Act To Protect the Health of and Prevent the Incidence of Skin Cancer for Maine Adolescents

Sponsor: Representative Priest
LR: 2752
An Act To Protect Homeowners from Equity Stripping during Foreclosures
LR: 2824
An Act To Establish an Office of the Health Care Insurance Advocate in the State
LR: 2825
An Act To Appropriate Funds to the Dirigo Health Program

Ole Rep Tuttle didn't get too far with his legislative pay increase proposal. I think he probably caught a lot of flak with that. I know I outed him in his local newspaper about it. That episode will pale in comparison to the flak he gets over trying to pass a motorcycle helmet law! The Sanford PD will have to put 24/7 coverage on his home. What is he thinking :?:

Point of clarification to J. McKane or anyone else knowing the answer:

If memory serves, Bills submitted for Second Sessions of the Maine Legislature are supposed to fall into only two categories:

* Emergencies, and
* Constitutional amendments

If my memory's correct, why are these legislators wasting taxpayers' time and money submitting the bulk of these bills?

Thank you.

skf

I've been told that more than 100 bills were submitted dealing with school consolidation.

Many are "placeholder" bills, submitted by cloture, which are little more than titles at this point.

Doubtless this involves a significant number of parasols, yes? Or, perhaps a sunblock dispenser on every street corner.

Section 1. To meet annually; power of Legislature to convene itself at other times; extent of legislative power. The Legislature shall convene on the first Wednesday of December following the general election in what shall be designated the first regular session of the Legislature; and shall further convene on the first Wednesday after the first Tuesday of January in the subsequent even-numbered year in what shall be designated the second regular session of the Legislature; provided, however, that the business of the second regular session of the Legislature shall be limited to budgetary matters; legislation in the Governor's call; legislation of an emergency nature admitted by the Legislature; legislation referred to committees for study and report by the Legislature in the first regular session; and legislation presented to the Legislature by written petition of the electors under the provisions of Article IV, Part Third, Section 18. The Legislature shall enact appropriate statutory limits on the length of the first regular session and of the second regular session. The Legislature may convene at such other times on the call of the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House, with the consent of a majority of the Members of the Legislature of each political party, all Members of the Legislature having been first polled. The Legislature, with the exceptions hereinafter stated, shall have full power to make and establish all reasonable laws and regulations for the defense and benefit of the people of this State, not repugnant to this Constitution, nor to that of the United States

I counted 81 education related bills. I started separating them out and was going to post the list, but it got too long.

If anyone knows me,
32 pages of proposals by idiots.

This one is most excellent:

Sponsor: Representative McDonough
LR: 2774
An Act To Compute Automobile and Boat Excise Tax Based on the Actual Purchase Price

===

LR: 2957
An Act To Inform Patients of Their Right To Decline To Be Vaccinated

(this could be bad, kids would need to be told by Dr that they have a right to refuse a vaccination?)

Oh no, this will cost money:

LR: 3163
An Act To Protect Public Health and the Environment with Safer Alternatives to Lead Wheel Weights

Rep Jackson: This is a bad one:
LR: 2874 An Act To Prohibit the Sale of Energy Drinks to Minors

This one is Communist:
Sponsor: Representative Makas
LR: 2765
An Act To Control the Costs of College Textbooks

WOW WHAT A WASTE OF TIME THIS ONE IS:

Sponsor: Senator Marrache
LR: 3356
An Act To Clarify Procedures within the Bureau of Motor Vehicles for Transgendered Individuals

EJ

Sponsor: Representative McDonough
LR: 2774
An Act To Compute Automobile and Boat Excise Tax Based on the Actual Purchase Price

This one comes up every year. MMA will get it killed, again.

It sounds good, on paper. The problem is, human nature being what it is, if this passes there'll be a whole lot of used cars "selling" for $1, at least according to the bill of sale. That will cost the towns a LOT of excise dollars.

Now, do you really think any town will just cut the revenue losses from its municipal budget? Most towns, at least in my area, are pretty frugal as it is. What will happen is that every dollar lost to reduced excised tax revenue will be shifted to the property tax.

Hildy Johnson

It is fraud to not pay taxes on what you sell a used car for.

Maine is good at going after fraud. Ever try to register a car you 'bought' for 1$. I am sure someone in Augusta gets a list of all such people and looks at their bank accounts.

This is for New Cars.

That being said, if I buy a car and spend 10,000 but the sticker is priced at 15,000 why should I pay a tax on 15,000

I can have hope can;t I?

Ed

This in a way shafts the tax payer as well because if they dicker the price down with dealer then they still get the sticker shock when they register it. A few years ago I bought a car stickered for 19,302 and actually paid $15,351 cash on the table with no trade. When I went to register it, I got hit with shock of the excise tax and it was based on the sticker price not the price I actually paid. There should be some sort of middle ground. You would be surprised what our neighbors in Vermont and New Hampshire pay on excise tax. This starts to ponder thoughts of how much more we pay in health insurance compared to those two states, but I will not go there right now.

I see Rep. Duprey has a bill in to "protect children" and two other bills mentioning children. I assume this is his usual anti-gay stuff? If so, they'll probably never make it past the legislative council.

Holy mackeral...that list of "575" requests is another kettle of stinking fish and the few good fish in the pot sure ain't gonna change the flavor!

My Representative has only submitted one "request" "An act to allow the use of heavy equipment on private roads for emergency access" Sounds reasonable doesn't it?

I'm scared to read what it is really about :shock:

By SUSAN M. COVER
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 10/17/2007

AUGUSTA -- From cribbage tournaments to energy-efficient light bulbs, central Maine lawmakers are hoping a variety of topics will be considered when the Legislature reconvenes in January.
...snip

In total, 575 bills from lawmakers have been submitted for consideration by the Legislative Council, which meets next week to decide which bills are in and which ones are out.

Source

Anyone have a list of what the Legislative Council threw out today, as well as which bills made the grade for consideration this session?

Good question, I can't find anything that has been updated either.

I find it hard to believe that there are over 120 that made the cut and were selected as "Emergency"

Legislators trim list of bills for '08
By BDN Staff
Friday, October 26, 2007 - Bangor Daily News

Legislative leaders Thursday reviewed 566 bill requests for next year. Leaders voted to allow in 148 of the requests, according to a preliminary count by legislative staff.

http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=155790&zoneid=500

Has the Maine Gov site updated the list for the new improved voter list of bills?

EJ

EJ

http://janus.state.me.us/legis/lio/publications.htm

From Editors BDN source:

Oh, so trying to fix the school consolidation mess would "take up too much time"! Well cry me a river. Legislators: YOU CREATED THIS PROBLEM IN THE FIRST PLACE, now you don't have the time to fix it! There's never enough time to do it right, but there's always time to do it over. :twisted:

Anyone have a list of the 46 bills, previosly rejected by leadership, the legislature voted today to consider?

SOURCE

The final list of accepted bills is available on the Office of Legislative Information’s website at the following link:

http://janus.state.me.us/legis/lio/publications.htm The top link on that page is the list updated following last week’s appeals. You can view the list by subject area or sponsor. 194 bills were accepted—not including Agency bills.

I can't get the link to work?

Should work now.

The legislature couldn't deal with education, but they've got time for chasing down dog breeders and trying to squeeze them for a few bucks in fees.

Thanks,

Lots of stuff that seems unnecessary.

I wish the legislature would just give it a rest for about 10 years, so we'd have a chance to catch up with what they've already put on the books. Compliance with, and knowledge of the laws by the citizens is inversely proportional to the number of laws.