AUGUSTA – Members of the incoming Legislature have lots of ideas.

This year 2,135 bills, or proposed laws, have been filed: 1,900 from legislators, the rest from Gov. John Baldacci and his departments.

The theme of many are taxes, health care and the environment, said House Speaker John Richardson, D-Brunswick.

By contrast, two years ago there were 1,700 legislator-filed bills. Two years before that, 2,050.

The number of bills filed this year is not a record, but it is high.

Senate President Beth Edmonds, D-Freeport, said the high number means a challenging workload. “The legislative committees will have to be more efficient and work harder,” she said. It also means less attention will be paid to each bill, she and the speaker said.

The bountiful bills have Richardson concerned about the legislative budget, now proposed to grow at 10 percent for the biennial budget and which needs to be trimmed – especially as legislators tell everyone else in government to keep spending growth at about 3 percent a year.

Each legislative bill costs on average $10,000, Richardson said. He cautions that legislative leaders will cast a sharp eye at legislators’ requests for new bills after deadline, and hopes lawmakers will back off frivolous ideas.

Each year there are always some fringe ideas.

One that could be considered on the light side this year is from Sen. Ethan Strimling, D-Portland. In a recent newspaper story, Strimling said he filed a “lighthearted” bill to annex part of New Hampshire, musing if Maine could get a hold of New Hampshire’s turnpike tollbooth “it would sure help us pay the bills.”

It’s amusing, and most can relate to the frustration of forking over $1 for driving a few miles on New Hampshire’s turnpike. But few would expect Maine to actually take over part of that state.

“If you’re filing a frivolous or humorous bill, one needs to consider whether the joke is on the entire state of Maine because of the cost associated with filing a bill,” Richardson said.

Because the bills will add to costs, and because there’s a need to cut the legislative budget, Richardson said the Legislative Council will consider eliminating one legislative week. That would mean the year ends June 8 instead of June 15.

Rep. Rodney Jennings, D-Leeds, said he had proposed a bill to overhaul Maine’s excise tax, but withdrew it after discovering three other legislators were proposing the same thing. The other three bills were from newcomers, he said.

Term limits, which brings new legislators into office, may be one reason for a lot of bills, Jennings and Richardson said.

“I’m not suggesting new legislators don’t have good ideas. I’m suggesting that because of their lack of experience they may be offering the same bills, which have been plowed under time and time again,” Richardson said.

But many of the bills don’t come from freshmen. Veteran Sen. Peter Mills, R-Cornville, is typically among the more prolific writers of new laws.

Mills estimates that this year he is introducing between 30 to 40 bills. His topics range from helping dairy farmers to extending term limits to 10 years to having the Department of Conservation take, by eminent domain, paper company roads that lead to rivers.

He agreed that 2,135 bills “is a big number,” but the number will come down as officials whittle down duplications, Mills said.