Action 199 Maine legislation 1/19-1/23

Well, the legislature is in full action mode, and “mischief, thou art afoot”. (1) Many hearings this week, but of course none on MLKing Day, still a federal holiday despite Trump (2). Reading through the list and checking many of the bill summaries, one can conclude that the majority of the bills have few sponsors, many are carryovers, and are not particularly controversial or widely consequential.  With some exceptions.

Tuesday has a hearing on an 8-page bill that was originally a concept draft with a completely different title. If you ever encounter a concept draft, when you go to the page that has the bill text, you can often find the new text in the right-hand column linked in a box below “Documents” and above “Testimony”.  That is the case for LD 838.  The bill now deals with establishing a Maine Clean Energy Authority. The summary reads: “This amendment establishes the Maine Clean Energy Authority, a public entity designed to oversee the development, financing, planning and coordination for the buildout of energy and transmission infrastructure within State borders. By replacing the financing of energy and transmission infrastructure buildout with low-cost revenue bonds, the Authority could drive significant savings for ratepayers and create high- quality union jobs for Mainers on these necessary projects. The Authority is governed by a 7-member Board of Directors with its main function being to run competitive solicitations for electric infrastructure and energy project development financed by a revolving loan fund, and requiring strong labor standards to ensure high-quality, union jobs on the projects it finances including prevailing wage and apprenticeship utilization.” Sounds good to me! Expect rotten tomatoes from the utilities.

Wednesday morning is the hearing on LD 1383, which we mentioned last week (3). The legislative summary reads: “This bill prohibits the State from investing public funds or entering into procurement contracts with companies, entities, persons or financial institutions that operate in, directly benefit from or are associated with perpetrator states, countries or governing bodies that have been determined by independent and credible international bodies to have committed the crime of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, genocide or a war crime. The bill directs the Office of the Treasurer of State to create a commission to monitor human rights reports to identify potential perpetrator states, countries or governing bodies and to report the activities and findings regarding compliance with the provisions of this bill annually to the Governor and the Legislature. The bill creates exceptions for humanitarian aid and allows for a waiver related to an investment, procurement or divestment by the Governor in cases of significant harm to the residents of this State or that undermine national security interests.” The state is given a year to comply.

Wednesday also has a hearing on LD 1059, held over from the last session, sponsored by one Republican.  This bill seems totally unnecessary: an attempt to define how Maine will participate in a mythical “constitutional convention” which has been bandied about in right wing circles for years but has not moved into the realm of reality – yet.  A premature waste of time, IMO. But remain alert on this subject.

Also Wednesday: LD 2000, an act to update (upend?) certain campaign finance law provisions, has one sponsor, a Democrat.  It’s not obvious why this is needed as an emergency measure, we can seek clarification by listening to the testimony at the public hearing, usually available online in real time.

LD 2042, an act to eliminate municipal public notices in newspapers, was discussed in an editorial by Dan MacLeod in the BDN this past weekend.  It’s widely available to read on a Google search, e.g..  https://observer-me.com/2026/01/17/opinion/how-the-current-public-notices-system-pr.  This is important to our newspapers, our contractors, and our elderly who still read newspapers to find out what their town is up to.

Re: LD 1054, one wonders, of course, why we are regulating the ability of Native Americans to serve native food in native restaurants.  But IMO the bill may need to be clearer about harvesting large quantities of game and selling it from the parking lot of an eating establishment.  Potential loophole?

Thursday brings a hearing on LD 2052, the use of technology in the public-school classroom, focusing on (among other things) “gamification, leader boards, push notification alerts, advertising, geolocation, generative and conversational artificial intelligence, use of free online tools and use of unlicensed educational websites or online tools that are not certified as safe for schools...”  Good idea – what about unregulated propaganda in home/private schooling?

Thursday also has a hearing on LD 517, which was originally a concept draft, but now has a new title and text dealing with the use of AI in political advertising. Requires notice on the images. For a wonderful clip that clearly has AI roots, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS0wFiWpU4U

            Check complete bill listing here: https://legislature.maine.gov/Calendar/#PHWS. 
            Find the text of any bill here: https://legislature.maine.gov  Form your own opinions!       

            Instructions for testifying are here:  https://www.mainelegislature.org/testimony/

(1) Marc Antony in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, acknowledging that he has unleased chaos and civil unrest.

(2) While paying lip service to King’s legacy, Trump removed the date from free access to national parks, replacing it with his own birthday.

(3) (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p76fraeYK2kqbkbt-spAKIKiO_NHN-PrhwqVuIcm7nQ/edit?tab=t.0),