Bill proposes St. Croix River alewife closure

A legislative bill to again close the upper portion of the St. Croix River to the passage of alewives is among the measures being submitted by area legislators for this session of the Maine Legislature. Along with that controversial issue, other bills concern topics ranging from the licensing requirements for service animals to funding for public education and assisted living facilities. While the deadline for bill requests was January 2, some bills have not yet been made public by local legislators.
At the request of Grand Lake Stream guides, Rep. Beth Turner of Burlington is sponsoring LR 1481, An Act To Amend the Alewives Restoration Program in the St. Croix River. Turner, whose redrawn legislative district now extends as far as Dennysville, notes that the bill would reconfigure the Woodland and Grand Falls dams to prevent alewives from passing them. The dams were first closed to alewife passage under legislation passed in 1995 at the request of the sporting guides, who believe that the smallmouth bass fishery in the upper St. Croix River watershed had collapsed in the 1980s because of larger alewife runs. In 2013, following a 19-year absence from their historic spawning grounds, alewives were able to return to the upper St. Croix watershed after legislation was passed to reopen the Grand Falls dam. The Woodland dam was reopened under legislation enacted in 2008.
Members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, led by the Schoodic Riverkeepers, had pushed for reopening the dams, and U.S., Canadian and Maine fisheries regulators and state legislators agreed with them. They point out that alewives are native to the St. Croix and previously ran far up the watershed and that research now shows that alewives and smallmouth bass successfully coexist. They also believe that reestablishing a healthy alewife run in the St. Croix watershed will benefit both freshwater and marine ecosystems and other species.
The guides, though, have not changed their position on alewives, and the legislative hearing on the bill, which will be scheduled in the coming months, could be contentious.
Another bill sponsored by Rep. Turner concerns state taxation of out-of-state pensions. She notes that retirees who have moved to Maine and have already been on their retirement are being taxed again by Maine, which she says amounts to double taxation.

Burns sponsors over 20 bills
Senator David Burns of Whiting is sponsoring over 20 bills. Two of them would help assisted living facilities in the state. One would provide a 4% cost-of-living increase in the state reimbursement to private non-medical institutions, while the other would encourage the expansion of adult family care homes and assisted living facilities. "This is a concept bill to provide more funding reimbursement and workable regulations for these smaller facilities where the residents are not in need of long-term care nursing facilities," he states.
Another bill would expand penalties for stalking. It seeks to expand the definition of stalking to include more than one individual at a time and to have subsequent convictions become felonies.
A bill to modify disbursement of the Maine Educational Investment Fund (MEIF) would guarantee that a 3% minimum of the MEIF monies that the University of Maine System receives annually would go to the University of Maine at Machias. It also would require the same procedures for requests for proposals (RFP) at small campuses that the University of Maine at Orono and the University of Southern Maine use for their projects.
Another bill would expand to off-road woods, farm and construction equipment the tax exemption for fuel use that lobster and other commercial fishing vessels presently have.
Senator Burns is sponsoring two bills related to hunting. One would increase from 10 feet to 100 feet the required distance from a highway that a hunter may shoot at game. It also would require that long guns be kept in a case while a vehicle is under way. A second bill would allow Sunday hunting during November, with landowner permission.
Another bill would assist municipalities in collecting overdue sewer payments. Burns notes that towns are having difficulty collecting sewer payments and have very few options to do so. "This is a concept bill to find reasonable solutions to this issue," he says.
A bill to streamline the process for obtaining work permits to harvest Christmas trees and evergreen boughs would require anyone harvesting Christmas trees or tipping on another person's property to have the permission slip to do so in their possession.

Service animal licensing
In response to issues brought up by constituents, Rep. Will Tuell of East Machias is sponsoring a bill that would clarify the licensing and registration requirements for service animals used by people with disabilities. In the past year and a half 11 complaints have been filed with the Maine Human Rights Commission by an individual in the Machias area who has alleged discrimination by either businesses or the Town of Machias in asking questions about his pit bull service animal. Under current law, public accommodations cannot ask for documentation concerning a service animal, even though the dog reportedly has a reputation for being dangerous. Tuell is proposing a concept bill that could require the display of special tags showing that an animal is licensed as a service animal. The bill also could require compliance with animal control laws. Commenting on his bill to change the law on the use of service animals, Tuell says, "The intention is so those who are abusing it aren't allowed to, but not to make it harder for those who need them."
Rep. Tuell also is sponsoring three bills related to public schools. One would require that if the state curtails education funding, then the curtailment must be spread equally across all K-12 schools, including private schools. Another bill is similar to one submitted previously by Senator Burns and was vetoed by Governor LePage that would allow greater flexibility for an alternative organizational structure (AOS) to change the budget approval process. The bill would allow for the determination of who approves an AOS budget to be made at a meeting authorized by the AOS board rather than during a statewide election. A third bill would allow school districts to make up snow days by adding extra hours during a school week. At present, snow days only can be made up on Saturdays or at the end of the school year.
Another bill sponsored by Rep. Tuell would allow anyone under 18 to receive a state shellfish license for half price, as is currently allowed for those over age 70. "It would encourage younger people to get into clamming," Tuell notes.
Other bills would rename the bridge near the University of Maine at Machias the Jeremiah O'Brien Memorial Bridge, in honor of the Revolutionary War hero; add a $1 deer stamp to help pay for overtime for Maine wardens in order to combat poaching during deer season; and define charitable and benevolent organizations for the determining of tax-exempt status. A similar bill previously had been submitted by then Rep. Dianne Tilton of Harrington.
Medical amnesty bill
Rep. Joyce Maker of Calais has modeled one of her bills on a medical amnesty and Good Samaritan project at the University of Maine. The bill would establish a statewide medical amnesty policy that would encourage students to seek medical attention when there is an alcohol-related emergency. The bill would provide limited judicial immunity to young people who call 911 for help when someone is suffering from alcohol poisoning.
Because of her frustration over legislative inaction on measures that would lead to the requiring of elementary school education on sexual abuse, Rep. Maker has submitted another bill in that regard. Previously, her legislative resolve to create a task force on the prevention of sexual abuse of children was passed twice, but the first time the committee members were not all nominated and the second time the Legislative Council did not view it as a funding priority.
Rep. Maker also was frustrated with a previous legislative attempt to ensure public notification of the location in Maine of U.S. citizens convicted in other countries of crimes related to child sexual abuse. Under the legislation that was enacted, the Maine commissioner of public safety had been tasked with convening a task force to develop a notification procedure, but he did not do so. Rep. Maker has resubmitted this bill with the Maine Attorney General, instead of the public safety commissioner, in charge of developing the notification procedure.
Another bill would help municipalities dispose of mobile homes more easily by being able to declare them to be abandoned or junk.
On behalf of a constituent, Rep. Maker is sponsoring a bill regarding excise taxes levied on motor vehicles. The constituent had purchased a car in 2013 and registered it twice in another state but had to pay excise tax on it as a new vehicle when he registered it in Maine last year.
On behalf of Woodland Pulp, Rep. Maker has submitted a bill to allow four-axle trailers to travel from the U.S. border to certain points in Maine.
Passamaquoddy Rep. Matthew Dana declines to release his bill requests until he has informed the Passamaquoddy Joint Tribal Council about them.