Bill tightens alien license, ID rules

AUGUSTA (AP) – The state Senate on Tuesday gave its final approval to a bill to tighten up Maine’s requirements for issuing drivers’ licenses and state identification cards to Maine residents who are not United States citizens.

The Senate voted without debate to enact the bill and sent it to Gov. John Baldacci.

If signed into law, it will bar the state from accepting expired visas granted by the United States, expired documents issued by foreign countries and foreign passports showing elapsed departure dates as identification to get drivers’ licenses or state identification cards.

Officials seek to fix Part D problems

AUGUSTA (AP) – Difficulties experienced by elderly and disabled Mainers during the transition to the Medicare-Part D prescription drug program have prompted legislation to fill what sponsors see as continuing gaps in the federal program.

Mainers who were covered under state drug programs encountered problems when the federal program took effect in early January. The names of many recipients weren’t on the federal database, so they couldn’t get drugs they needed. Others were asked to pay much higher copays than they should have.

Federal Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, who met with Gov. John Baldacci last month to discuss the problem, has said the department will reimburse the state for all the costs it absorbed in making sure eligible Mainers got the medicines they needed.

Teacher raise would cost $4M

AUGUSTA (AP) – Gov. John Baldacci’s proposal to give Maine teachers raises would cost $4 million in state funds in the first year, according to his budget, but critics say its impact on property taxpayers would be much greater.

When he advanced the proposal during his State of the State speech last month, Baldacci said it would raise teachers’ salaries from the current average of less than $27,000 a year to $30,000 starting next year.

The administration says higher pay is needed to draw talented young people to teaching and keep them in Maine.

The Maine Municipal Association disputes Baldacci’s figures, saying average teachers’ salaries are actually just under $40,000, while the average starting pay is around $27,000 annually.

MMA estimates that teachers would get raises of $4,000 to $5,000 a year.

“With 15,000 teachers in Maine, the impacts could range from $50 million to $75 million statewide in the few short years it will take the teachers’ real-life pay scales to adjust to the new base,” the municipal association said.

The expenses will be borne mostly by property taxpayers in the earlier years and eventually will be shared by property and state taxpayers, MMA said.

Baldacci says he’d veto governor’s pay bill

AUGUSTA (AP) – Gov. John Baldacci made it clear Tuesday he would veto a bill to raise future governors’ salaries if it reaches his desk.

“Let me make myself clear that I will veto any pay increase,” Baldacci said in a prepared statement. “Until teacher’s salaries, health care and roadways have been taken care of, the governor will not receive a pay increase.”

Republican Rep. Gary Moore of Standish is sponsoring a bill to more than double the governor’s annual salary from $70,000, now one of the lowest for a governor, to $150,000. Maine’s governor also receives perks such as housing and transportation.

The bill to increase the governor’s pay received support Monday of a majority of the State and Local Government Committee’s members. But even if it passed, Baldacci would not be eligible for the raise because the state Constitution forbids a sitting governor from approving his or her own pay increase.