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| 📷 House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, speaks at a news conference about abortion proposals on Jan. 17, 2023 at the State House in Augusta. (AP photo by Robert F. Bukaty) |
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⏭️ Advocates on one side of a nuanced debate come to the State House.
◉ Paid family and medical leave is shaping up to be subject to some of the most sensitive negotiations around the Legislature this year, with a legislative commission offering arguably a more progressive proposal on the subject than a coalition of progressive groups pushing a 2023 referendum.
◉ The groups behind the referendum will bring supporters to the State House on Tuesday for a news conference and briefing for lawmakers. House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, has a bill in this year to implement the legislative commission's recommendations, but there are other bills in as well.
◉ Gov. Janet Mills will be closely watched. She united progressives and business groups to ink a paid leave compromise in 2019 and may be inclined to something similar this year, although the referendum changes things here.
📝 The proliferation of open-ended bills is a political water-cooler topic.
◉ So-called "concept drafts," which are proposed bills sent to committees carrying only a general topic but no specific ideas, are becoming a large part of the Augusta process. Maine Public reported last week that 28 percent of the first 450 measures printed this year fit that description.
◉ These bills have long been an annoyance to lobbyists trying to demystify the legislative process for their clients. The Maine State Chamber of Commerce flagged them in an alert last year. Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, has proposed a rule change that is aimed at scaling them back, but lawmakers like them in part because they are easy to introduce and can be filled in with details later.
◉ "We’re not going to get rid of concept drafts, at least not while I’m a presiding officer," Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, told Maine Public. "What I want to do is to make sure we are as judicious as possible."
Correction: An item in Friday's newsletter gave the wrong day for hearings on the University of Maine System's two-year budget. They are on Feb. 13. |
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