2017-01-27 - Legislative
Update
This has been a most busy week at the State
House, even though one day was taken out with a storm day. Of course you
can get a glimpse of the week by looking at the calendar - and the
calendar itself may not be an indication of just how busy the week turned
out to be.
Calendars
Please see
this link for the legislative calendar of the week. As you can see,
it’s getting busier.
And please see this calendar for
the list of events and scheduled events for next week. I do update this
calendar all the time, so expect a few changes looking forward.
Events
Calendar
Committee Work this
Week
We spent a great deal of time in briefings -
informational sessions about various agencies and departments which impact
education. They are always informative and interesting.
We also had
the first sets of public hearings. Most notable among those public
hearings was the legislation around Next Generation Science Standards -
LD49. The process of testimony is interesting. The committee chairs,
Senator Langley and Representative Cornfield, do such a great job in
managing the testimony and trying to give everyone a chance to
testify.
Perhaps most interesting was the
range of testimony - some testimony was much in favor of the Next
Generation Science Standards and of course some testimony was
opposed. There didn’t seem to me to be a common ground - people
were either for the adoption with passion or against the adoption with
passion. Feel free to send me a note on your thoughts.
Bills This
Week
Link to Directory of
Bills
http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/bills_128th/billtexts/
Links
to Bill
Status
http://www.mainelegislature.org/LawMakerWeb/search.asp
There
is no doubt that the stand out legislative bills of the week concerned the
implementation of the marijuana referendum. The original bill
presented made a legitimate attempt to create rule making and close
loopholes in the original referendum. It seemed to be a balanced and
rational approach in an attempt to wrestle with potentially confusing
referendum language.
By Thursday, however, we learned that the
Governor had refused to sign the legislation as it stood and wanted
revisions, although the opportunity to make changes had been present at
the legislation’s inception.
For a newspaper account, read this from the Bangor Daily News
The long and short of all the discussions is
that the contents of the referendum and all the loopholes are set to go
into effect on Monday, as the Governor has refused to sign the legislation
or the working compromises proposed.
Please see this statement released last
evening by the Office of the Speaker of the House.
AUGUSTA -
Today,(Thursday), Maine lawmakers voted to advance an emergency bill
closing loopholes in the citizen-passed marijuana referendum, including
preventing legal use by Mainers under the age of 21. Despite overwhelming
unanimous support, the bill remains on Governor LePage’s desk, awaiting
either signature or veto.
“This is creating confusion and
chaos for no reason. Starting Monday, this referendum becomes law. We came
here, we did our work and we protected the safety of our kids. The
governor should do his part now and act as quickly as possible so we can
move forward,” said Speaker of the House Sara
Gideon.
Without passage of LD 88, Mainers under the age of 21
could legally start using recreational marijuana as early as
Monday.
“We’ll have plenty of time to responsibly
implement the other aspects of this referendum, but the longer the
governor blocks these emergency fixes, the greater the risk this
referendum poses to public safety.” said Erin Herbig, House majority
leader.
LD 88, sponsored by Representative Louis
Luchini, D-Ellsworth, passed unanimously in the Maine House of
Representatives and Senate. LD 88 tightens restrictions against
recreational use of marijuana by Mainers under the age of 21, clarifies
the definition of marijuana and concentrates and private property usage,
and extends the current nine-month delay of retail sales to allow for
legislative approval of rulemaking from January to February 1,
2018.”
Reflections
The
confusion around LD88 - the act to close the loop holes in the marijuana
referendum - is disconcerting. I have to wonder if the the
executive branch is really interested in child welfare or in scoring
political points. While I don’t want to think it will be a serious
problem, marijuana does become legal on Monday. Ironically, the
Governor has spoken in opposition to the intentions of the referendum, yet
in some ways has enabled wholesale consumption of marijuana by minors. In
many ways, I think that modern teenagers have just "gone by" the pot thing
- I'm not sure they are all that interested, but then again, why place a
stumbling block before those who may stumble?
Second, I must
reflect on what I see emerging as a new kind of political party. We
have had our “tea party” in the past. Today, it seems we are
facing a party that I might desicribe as False Information and No
Compromise - (FINC) The expectation seems to be that in a post-truth
world any kind of assertion carries the day, becomes a truth, and from
that stated assertion there can be no retreat, no compromise. As
citizens we are expected to wink at FINC - as the members of this party
create one unbelievable set of circumstances after another none of which
has any grounding in rational truth.
This seems substantiated on
the national level as well through an interesting article I discovered
while browsing the Internet
http://gothamist.com/2017/01/26/president_is_delusional_nbd.php
As always, I'm interested in your comments
and suggestions, and please forgive any unintentional typos or
errors.