AUGUSTA — Legislative leaders Thursday rejected a bill that could have put the issue of legalizing marijuana on the lawmaking agenda for the session that begins in January.

Portland voters earlier this month overwhelmingly approved a city ordinance that makes legal the possession of up to 2½ ounces of marijuana for recreational use by adults over the age of 21.

State and federal laws making possession of marijuana illegal still trump Portland’s ordinance, but some believe the more than 60 percent support for the ordinance is a sign Mainers are ready to follow states, including Colorado and Washington, that have legalized recreational use.

However, lawmakers on the bipartisan Legislative Council voted 5-5 against a bill offered by Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland. The vote included both Republicans and Democrats either supporting or rejecting the measure.

Both top Democratic leaders, Speaker of the House Mark Eves of North Berwick and Senate President Justin Alfond of Portland, voted against the bill.

Russell said she was most surprised by Alfond’s vote, especially after the city he represents voted overwhelmingly in favor of legalization.

“His own district supported legalization with between 75 to 80 percent of the vote, and he was the one person who ultimately and surprisingly was voting against it,” Russell said.

Her bill would have allowed the state to legalize and tax marijuana for recreational use by adults. She said conservative estimates showed the change would bring the state up to $13 million a year in tax revenue.

But lawmakers seemed hesitant to tackle such a controversial issue during the relatively short time between January and April 2014 set aside for the so-called “short session” (the second half) of the 126th Legislature.

Russell said she intended to take a comprehensive approach to the issue of legalization, including a review and possible changes to Maine’s medical marijuana laws.  

“I think it’s essential that we take the time and go through and look at the big picture,” Russell said. “Our kids, under the current paradigm, are easily able to access marijuana, and I don’t think that’s anything any of us want to see happen.”

A bill Russell sponsored earlier in 2013 would have put the issue before voters on a statewide ballot, but the bill fell short of the votes it needed to move forward.

Opponents of legalization, including those who lobby for Maine’s medical marijuana dispensary operators, said they were pleased with the panel’s decision.

One opponent said bad implementation of recreational pot laws could lead to a rollback on all marijuana legalization.

“We believe that bad process invites the creation of bad law,” Glenn Peterson, president of the Maine Association of Dispensary Operators, said in a prepared statement following the council’s vote. “The rush to reintroduce legislation did not allow for an inclusive approach to what will be an historic change for the state of Maine.”

The council also rejected, along strict party-line votes, a trio of welfare-reform bills offered by House Minority Leader Ken Fredette, R-Newport.

One of Fredette’s bills would require welfare applicants to show they are looking for work before they can receive benefits. The other would eliminate a phrase in state law that allows welfare recipients who are required to participate in work-search programs to be excused for “good cause.” Fredette has said the good-cause excuse is frequently abused as a way for some welfare recipients to avoid finding jobs.

Fredette also offered a bill that would have created a study of a “tiered” welfare system that would allow those receiving government benefits to not lose all of their benefits at one time, once they reach an income level that makes them ineligible for assistance. The study would aim to solve a problem that some say plagues the system in Maine: People remain on welfare because it’s more lucrative than going to work, especially when they lose state-sanctioned health-care coverage under MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program.

“This is a sad day for the state of Maine,” Fredette said. “Democrats are reverting to their old ways now that they’re back in the majority, stifling reform efforts and defending the status quo at all costs. Maine’s budget needs welfare reform and Maine’s people are crying out for accountability.”

Democrats who voted against Fredette’s bills said they were tired of an endless attack by conservative Republicans on the state’s poorest citizens.

They also pointed to a recently announced contract signed by Maine Department of Health and Human Services officials with a consulting firm. The Alexander Group will be paid $925,000 to study and prepare a report on a host of welfare issues, including Medicaid and welfare-to-work programs.

Democrats have been critical of the spending and the study, noting Alexander’s position supporting conservative viewpoints on welfare reform.

“They want to rattle the sword about welfare reform and how it’s a partisan issue and all that,” said state Sen. Troy Jackson, D-Allagash. “This constant attack by them on working poor people — I’m just tired of that. They think they are going to score points attacking people who are down on their luck. It really is tiresome.”

Jackson, the assistant Senate majority leader, called the contract with the Alexander Group “a contract with a million-dollar snake-oil salesman.”

Of the 100 bills the panel considered Thursday, 28 were accepted, including two previously rejected bills that had gained attention in the media.

The first, a measure offered by Rep. Amy Volk, R-Scarborough, would allow courts to vacate criminal convictions of victims of human trafficking, if the crimes were connected to the individual being victimized. Initially, the bill was aimed at vacating prostitution convictions for human-trafficking victims. But Volk said Thursday she meant the bill to cover any convictions that resulted from a person being a victim of human trafficking, including lower-level drug crimes.

The second measure, offered by Rep. Corey Wilson, R-Augusta, would allow the state to transfer a set of buildings on the campus of the former Augusta Mental Health Institute in Augusta to a nonprofit that provides shelter for homeless veterans. 

Wilson, a Marine Corps veteran, said the bill is very important to him because he knew it could immediately make a difference in the lives of some struggling veterans.

The bills taken up Thursday were rejected by the panel in October but were being appealed by their authors for a chance in 2014.

The panel in October approved about 100 bills. With the bills approved for consideration Thursday and any bills offered by Republican Gov. Paul LePage, lawmakers will have an estimated 350 to 400 bills to debate when they reconvene in January.

sthistle@sunjournal.com

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