AUGUSTA — Election-year presidential politics came to the Maine Senate on Thursday as lawmakers voted along party lines to urge President Obama and Congress to complete the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Led by the majority Republicans, senators voted 17-15 to pass the resolution just one day before Obama’s scheduled campaign fundraiser in Portland. The resolve, sponsored […]

AUGUSTA — As the U.S. Supreme Court probes the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, Maine lawmakers might delay implementation of a critical component of the law. Republicans on the Legislature’s Insurance and Financial Affairs Committee voted recently along party lines to delay setting up the state’s health insurance exchange, even though the federal law mandates […]

AUGUSTA — The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has declined to rule on whether State Treasurer Bruce Poliquin violated the state Constitution by engaging in commerce.  The court issued its opinion Thursday, writing that a recent solemn occasion request by the Maine House of Representatives did not meet the standard to elicit a court ruling.  The […]

AUGUSTA — Lawmakers on the Health and Human Services Committee on Tuesday voted mostly along partly lines to approve Gov. Paul LePage’s restructuring plan at the Department of the Health and Human Services. The panel approved an amended version of LD 1887, a recently submitted bill designed to streamline the operations of the state’s largest agency. […]

AUGUSTA — The Legislature on Tuesday enacted a bill authorizing a state-funded feasibility study for a long-debated east-west highway in northern Maine. The Senate voted 18-14 for final passage of LD 1671, a bill that directs the Maine Department of Transportation to commit at least $300,000 for a feasibility study of a project that has […]

AUGUSTA — A Republican-initiated bill that would allow judges to give less weight to decisions made by state agencies is running into new opposition: Republicans. Current Maine law requires justices to give strong deference to departmental rulings, when challenged in court, on matters such as development permits or enforcement of insurance laws. LD 1546 would diminish […]

AUGUSTA — The Legislature is poised to pass a bill that would use future state budget surpluses to lower Maine’s income tax rate.  The bill, LD 849, has been criticized by Democrats as being the GOP’s end-around to enact a Taxpayer Bill of Rights, mirroring citizen-initiated spending cap proposals that have been rejected three different […]

AUGUSTA — Rep. Gary Knight, R-Livermore Falls, submitted a bill last year that would ensure that landowners receiving significant property tax breaks in the Maine Tree Growth Tax Law were using the program as intended: To commercially harvest timber. If, at some point, unwitting landowners discovered they didn’t belong in Tree Growth, Knight’s bill would have […]