By GLENN ADAMS,Associated Press Writer

AUGUSTA – Motherhood to Moxie, public phones to pill boxes, ID “skimming” to insurance “steering,” Maine lawmakers covered it all in 2005.

They avoided broad-based tax increases during the session that began in January, but approved a number of fee increases. Getting married will be pricier, as marriage license fees rise from $20 to $30. Burial permit fees jump a dollar to $5.

Lawmakers also voted to prop up a two-year, $5.7 billion state budget with $450 million in long-term borrowing but are reconsidering that approach in the final days of the session in the face of a possible people’s veto.

One of the most prominent issues of the session was gay rights. Lawmakers once again enacted a law to protect homosexuals from discrimination in employment, housing, credit, and public accommodations.

Consumer issues occupied a considerable portion of the 2005 agenda as lawmakers passed a bill to outlaw “steering,” in which insurance companies imply to customers who have claims for auto crashes that they must go to designated shops to get their cars repaired.

To help towns and cities cope with rising expenses, lawmakers allowed municipalities to charge higher fees for copies of birth, marriage and death certificates. The same law will also allow higher burial permit fees.

Responding to pleas from dairy farmers, lawmakers clarified a law ensuring that bull semen is not subject to the sales tax. The product is critical to financially fragile dairy farms for which feed, fertilizer and other agricultural products are already untaxed.

Legislation of interest to hunters will allow the use of electronic moose-calling devices, which are placed a distance from the targeted animal and already are allowed for other big game and coyotes.

With an overpopulation of wild turkeys this year, a law that took effect earlier this spring authorized 3,500 additional turkey hunting permits.

Effective July 1, what is now a $50 fine for failing to use a safety belt will rise to $125 for a second offense and $250 for subsequent offenses. But police must have another reason to stop a motorist in order to issue a ticket for not using a seat belt.

Radar detectors were on lawmakers’ radar screen. A bill sent to Baldacci prohibits anyone under 18 who has an intermediate license from driving a vehicle that’s equipped with a radar detector.

With hopes of putting cigarettes even further out of the reach of youths, minors will be barred from entering tobacco specialty shops unless accompanied by a parent.

Recognizing health risks from machines that vaporize alcohol so it can be inhaled through the lungs, lawmakers voted to ban the devices. A bill that awaited Baldacci’s signature also sets fines for violators.

Addressing particularly troubling cases of domestic violence, “An Act to Protect Motherhood” instructs judges to apply special weight to homicides involving women who are pregnant.

Finally, what started out as a patent medicine that could cure everything from loss of manhood to softening of the brain became Maine’s official soft drink.

Moxie, developed by Dr. Augustin Thompson of Union in the 1870s, has come to symbolize Mainers’ feisty spirit, sponsors said.