A sampling of the major bills among the 197 enacted during the 2012 session, which wraps up the two-year term that got under way in 2011. Some of the bills await final finding decisions in May.
Transportation
• $300,000 feasibility study authorized into east-west toll highway connecting New Brunswick and Quebec via Maine
• Lengthened the period of restrictions for an intermediate license holders and increased fines for some violations by young drivers
Social services
• Income threshold for parents of children on MaineCare reduced to 133 percent of the poverty level, or $30,657 for a family of four, cutting their ranks by 14,000
• Optional services, such as chiropractic and dental care for MaineCare recipients, are eliminated
• Drug choices for MaineCare recipients further limited
• Enrollment of childless adults in MaineCare capped to lower participation through attrition
Labor
• Workers compensation law overhauled
• Workers’ rights to unionize at a Turner-based egg farm eliminated
• Penalties increased for unemployment fraud
• Collective bargaining rights eliminated for private child-care providers who receive state subsidies
Elections and voting
• Matching funds provision of Clean Elections law eliminated
• Proposed voter ID requirement weakened to study of the broader issue of voter participation
CRIME
• State employees convicted of crimes committed in connection with their jobs forfeit retirement benefits
• Software programs known as tax zappers, which falsify electronic sales records so businesses can cheat on taxes, outlawed
• Law outlawing bath salts broadened to include five more, similar designer drugs
• Bail to be denied in domestic violence cases for defendants alleged to have violated a protection from abuse order
• $25 fees paid by offenders in violent crimes can no longer be waived
• Law prohibiting the sale of stolen scrap metal bolstered
• Verbally soliciting a child to commit a prohibited sex act becomes a crime
• Law to prevent welfare cheating bolstered
Red tape
• Requirement for businesses to publicly display certain permits eliminated
• Paperwork required to qualify for sales tax exemptions for buses cut
• Towns prohibited from collecting fees for ice fishing shacks
Education
• Comprehensive performance evaluation systems for teachers and principals must be developed
• Students can move at their own pace to graduate under performance-based school standards
Gambling
• Charitable nonprofits, including veterans organizations, may operate up to five slot machines
• Impact of casinos to be studied; $5 million casino license fee imposed
Looking at this list, it shows how good these last two years have been. The “extreme” picture the BDN and the Dems have tried to paint really isn’t there. Good job GOP!
to me it looks like a lot of mean people passing vindictive laws. We’d have been better off if the legislature had stayed home all session.
Wow–it reads just like the ALEC playbook.
Well, I hate to say it but the cuts to Mainecare on dental is a BONEHEAD MOVE. Dentition in the State of Maine is atrocious with numerous medical and financial side effects arising from inadequate or absent dental care. Oh, and by the way, these same patients WILL come to the ER’s for care and, GUESS WHAT? We taxpayers will STILL have to pick up the financial burden – but at a MUCH higher cost by going through an ER, which cannot refuse to render care, than an investment in preventive and/or palliative dental care. IS THIS WHAT THE GOVERNOR AND THE LEGISLATURE WANT?