🛻 A deal to raise vehicle inspection fees barely held together in the House.
◉ After members of the Legislature's Transportation Committee made a deal to raise vehicle inspection fees from $12.50 to $20 to fund an electronic inspection system favored by the Maine State Police, the House only just kept it on track for passage in a narrow 74-68 vote. It faces further action in both chambers.
◉ It cut deeply across party lines, with 58 Democrats and 16 Republicans backing the measure and 50 Republicans and 17 Democrats voting against it. That will make for an interesting vote in the Senate coming up soon.
◉ "We don't want garages to find problems," Rep. Wayne Parry, R-Arundel, a transportation committee member who voted for the bill. "We should at least cover their cost of labor to do inspections."
◉ "That is going to affect a poor population that is struggling maintaining their cars and getting their cars inspected," freshman Rep. Cheryl Golek, D-Harpswell, who wants to eliminate insepctions, said in opposing the measure.
🪧 Both sides of Maine's abortion divide get ready for a major vote.
◉ Legislative Democrats only gave short notice last week before moving Mills' signature measure allowing doctors to perform post-viability abortions that they deem necessary through a committee last Friday.
◉ A vote is expected in the next few days, though the measure has technically not left the committee yet. Republicans and their anti-abortion allies were buzzing on Thursday that a vote could be coming Friday. Nothing is scheduled.
◉ Both sides are readying for a vote. Some on the anti-abortion side were staying at the State House on Thursday in case the matter was brought up. Abortion-rights groups asked supporters this week to flood lawmakers' inboxes with messages lobbying for passage. |
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