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| 📷 Assistant House Majority Leader Kristen Cloutier, D-Lewiston, is pictured in the House chamber at the State House in Augusta on June 30, 2021. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett) |
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📣 Two key Democrats meet the press on paid family and medical leave.
◉ Assistant House Majority Leader Kristen Cloutier, D-Lewiston, and Assistant Senate Majority Leader Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick, will take questions from the media at 1 p.m. Monday on their new paid leave proposal being scrutinized now by progressives and the business lobby.
◉ We gave you the lay of the land on their bill last week. It is an attempt at a middle ground between the concerns of certain businesses and the progressives who are planning a 2024 referendum on paid leave if they do not like how the Legislature addresses the issue. But Gov. Janet Mills has not commented on it yet, and her opinion will loom large.
◉ The bill hues closely to the referendum and the work of a state commission by capping total payroll taxes used to fund the program at 1 percent. But it breaks from it by stripping job protections for workers at firms with fewer than 15 employees, something progressives are wary of. Only one Republican — Sen. Rick Bennett of Oxford — is co-sponsoring the measure alongside virtually all legislative Democrats. Read the bill.
📇 Here's what the groups are saying on paid leave.
◉ "We want to ensure you are aware of this proposed legislation as it represents the largest change to the Maine employment landscape in decades and will have a significant impact on your business," the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce said in an email to members on Thursday.
◉ "Still: opponents are asking for (unnecessary) exemptions and carveouts, and there is no funding for this essential program in the Governor's change package," the progressive Maine Women's Lobby, a group behind the referendum drive, said in a Monday alert to supporters. "That means we need *every voice* to help this get over the line."
◉ These postures indicate a delicate effort led by Daughtry and Cloutier. They are trying to assuage businesses and the governor while fending off a referendum. Polling on the issue has been good for leave proponents, but those questions have not focused on the new tax needed to fund the program. |
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What we're reading
⚫ Mal Leary, the longtime dean of Maine's political press corps, died at 72. Here's your soundtrack and remembrances from Maine Public's Steve Mistler, retired News Center Maine anchor Pat Callaghan, former Republican operative Chris Averill and Rep. Drew Gattine, D-Westbrook.
⏭️ Tribes' sweeping sovereignty effort will be pushed into 2024.
🚨 The attorney general said this police shooting was justified. Details were missing.
🌅 Staffing and housing shortages are hounding Bar Harbor's tourism season.
🧾 A local Maine assessor owes $10,000 in back taxes. |
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