By Glenn Adams,Associated Press Writer

AUGUSTA – Motorists who refuse to stop driving after their licenses are suspended and “environmental terrorists” who damage property in the name of their cause are in legislators’ sights as they prepare to begin their 2006 session.

But there will be a lot more to deal with among the hundreds of bills to be considered during the election-year session. Proposals range from a salary boost for the governor to taxing lobster traps and keeping a closer eye on lobbyists.

And attempts will be made to modify, if not gut, Gov. John Baldacci’s prized program to extend health coverage to Maine’s uninsured and underinsured.

“Clearly, there’s going to be some discussion about Dirigo Health,” said Senate Majority Leader Michael Brennan, D-Portland.

Fuel assistance

The first order of business for the Legislature, which returns Jan. 4, will be easing the burden of home heating expenses for those hit hardest by rising fuel costs.

Lawmakers will be asked to appropriate $5 million for fuel assistance for the needy. Baldacci also has launched a charitable fuel fund to raise $5 million from corporate and foundation donors for the same cause.

Also, efforts will be made to bolster Maine’s laws against profiteering on fuel sales.

Tina’s Law’

Another priority will be to put more teeth into state laws to keep motorists with suspended licenses off the highways. The issue gained importance soon after a wreck on the Maine Turnpike last July 29 claimed the death of a Scarborough woman.

Tina Turcotte died after her car was struck from behind by a truck driven by Scott Hewitt, who had a record of scores of driving convictions and license suspensions, as well as involvement in a previous fatal accident.

The bill, dubbed “Tina’s Law,” calls for impoundment of vehicles of those caught driving with a suspended license. Drivers who have their licenses suspended multiple times due to traffic violations in a three-year period would have their licenses revoked, and could be jailed if caught driving during that time.

Details of many bills were still being worked out. The workload in the final year of the two-year session is supposed to be limited to unfinished business and emergency matters, but subjects sometimes fall outside of those limitations.

“We still have a lot of heavy duty work for this second year,” said Sen. Debra Plowman, R-Hampden.

A number of familiar issues will return to spotlight, such as fingerprinting of school employees. A bill seeks state funding to pay for the procedure, whose purpose is to protect children from convicted molesters.

When school fingerprinting was first imposed several years ago, teachers and other school employees had to pay the cost, but the law was later repealed. As of last September, new school hires were required to pay the $55 fees, which also cover background checks.

A measure to make sure Maine’s chief executive is the best-paid state employee says the governor’s salary – now $70,000 a year, not including perks – must be 10 percent higher than anyone else on the state payroll.

And to keep closer tabs on who’s working the halls of the State House, another proposal calls for an annual register showing pictures of lobbyists. The register would be distributed to each legislator.

Tax proposals

In the area of taxes, a bill seeks credits for companies that make biofuels, while others seek adjustments affecting the brewing industry, garden seeds, motor fuels and snow-grooming equipment, among other items.

An attempt will be made to phase out the state’s business equipment property tax.

Two bills address taxes on one of Maine’s best known symbols: the lobster trap.

Some coastal towns started taxing traps earlier this year, in line with what they saw as a state mandate to tax business equipment. Sen. Mary Black Andrews’ bill would make it optional for towns to tax traps, but Andrews, R-York, would prefer to exempt traps outright from the business tax.

“We tell them where they can fish, how long they can fish, how many traps they can have,” Andrews told the Portsmouth Herald. “These fishermen are working people just trying to make a living.”

Lawmakers will also debate a proposal to exempt military pensions from state taxes.

Another Maine icon, the moose, is the subject of a bill directing state game officials to add 500 moose-hunting permits to the number already awarded through an annual lottery.

The Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Department issued 2,895 permits for the 2005 season, and already proposed expanding the hunt into southern Maine.

Another bill that echoes from past sessions would eliminate coyote snaring and reallocate money for that program to deer management.

Two bills seek to bolster consumer protections by prohibiting merchants from placing holds on credit or debit cards for amounts larger than the actual purchase. Another would protect all retirement funds, including individual retirement accounts, from creditors.

A bill intended to help low-income people would create a prescription drug recycling repository for unused medications to be distributed to the needy.

The environmental terrorism proposal, similar to proposals that have come up in the past, makes its latest appearance months after a wave of vandalism targeting properties associated with Plum Creek proposal for a major development near Moosehead Lake.

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