AUGUSTA, Maine — Thursday the Maine Legislative Council will hear appeals on bills that it has rejected for consideration in the next session, which starts in January.
In all, there are about 150 bills that sponsors are hoping will get a second chance. They include measures aimed at improving state psychiatric care, defunding Planned Parenthood and fixing an inadvertent cut in military pension benefits.
When the session starts just after New Year's, Republican House spokesperson Rob Poindexter says lawmakers will have their work cut out for them.
"We have 170 some-odd carryover bills that we have to deal with, and the second session is really to deal with emergency legislation," he says.
But some hopeful sponsors believe their bills, which were not admitted for consideration in January, are worthy of a second look. One, which Poindexter says comes from House Republican Leader Ken Fredette, would fix what Poindexter says is a language error in the current budget that requires those with military pension benefits to offset their income tax deduction with up to $10,000 in Social Security benefits.
"It's been more than a decade where they have not had to offset their pensions with the Social Security benefit," he says. "So actually, the way it was written, takes away a benefit they've had for years."
On the Democratic side, Rep. Drew Gattine wants the Legislative Council to accept a bill he submitted that would require Maine's Department of Health and Human Services to create a plan to improve care at Riverview Psychiatric Center.
"It's well past the time to seriously fix the problems there," Gattine says. "We really need that kind of commitment."
Riverview is trying to regain federal certification after regulators discovered safety violations such as the use of stun guns and handcuffs on patients in 2013.
"It tells the Department to look across the entire state, inventory the beds, inventory what the unmet need is, look at the finances and come forward with a plan," Gattine says.
Also up for appeal is a bill sponsored by Republican Rep. Mary Anne Kinney that would divert state funding from Planned Parenthood facilities to federally qualified health centers. That bill was introduced in the wake of videos released by an anti-abortion group last summer that purported to show Planned Parenthood illegally profits from the sale of fetal tissue.
