School choice for students in the unorganized territories (UT), education funding, the drug epidemic, Maine's citizen initiative process and tribal-state relations are all targeted in proposed legislation that has been put in the hopper by Washington County legislators. The bills will be the subject of public hearings in the coming months.

Education bills
     Rep. Will Tuell of East Machias has submitted numerous bills related to public education in the state. Two of his bills would address the controversy that erupted last spring about where students living in area unorganized territories attend elementary school. Parents had been told that their children would have to attend the Education in the Unorganized Territories (EUT) school in Edmunds instead of other area elementary schools. One of Tuell's bills would ensure school choice for children in the unorganized territories. The other would establish an appeals process to ensure that families have a say in where their children can attend school; require that the state report academic performance and budget data for UT schools just as K‑12 public schools are required to do; and eliminate the state bureaucracy that manages Maine's 900 UT students and direct the state to contract with existing local school districts.
      Another education-related bill sponsored by Tuell proposes to adjust the Essential Programs and Services school funding formula to make the formula fairer for rural areas by tying increases in school subsidy to the rate of students receiving free and reduced lunch, with areas with higher concentrations of low income students receiving a greater share of funding. It likely will be folded into other similar bills, as school funding issues may dominate the 128th Legislature.
Tuell is resubmitting his bill that would set up a review of the content standards and performance indicators under the state's system of learning results for K-12 public education. Last year, his bill, which originally proposed removing the Common Core standards but had been amended in committee to the current proposal, had been approved in the legislature but vetoed by Governor LePage.
     Tuell has submitted two other education-related bills. One would treat school administrators who have retired and are willing to reenter the field the same as teachers, who are allowed to return to work for five years at full salary and five years at 75% of their salary. The bill was submitted as a way to deal with the growing shortage of school administrative professionals. Another bill would amend the requirement for schools to hold five professional development days to five days or 40 hours.
Senator Joyce Maker of Calais, who is again a member of the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee and also has been appointed as the Senate chair of the Marine Resources Committee, has submitted a bill that would require public schools in which at least 50% of students qualified for a free or reduced‑price lunch during the preceding school year to offer breakfast after the start of the school day in the form of an alternative service delivery model.
      Rep. Beth Turner of Burlington, who also will serve on the Education Committee, has put in a bill that would put time constraints on a school board once it receives a proposal from a municipality to withdraw. Currently there are no time limits on school boards. The bill also would provide in the education plan how the municipality would feed the children as well as an anticipated budget.
      Another bill sponsored by Rep. Turner would exempt parent teacher organizations from the state sales tax.

Drug crisis
     Senator Maker has submitted two bills concerning the drug abuse epidemic. One would provide $1.6 million to support people in recovery from opiate use in Washington County by building the infrastructure to ensure residents seeking treatment for opiate addiction can access the medicine, care and recovery supports they need to be successful. This bill funds a professional evaluation of this comprehensive approach to the treatment of substance use disorder and requires a report to the legislature on its effectiveness and ease of replication in other Maine communities that are being impacted by the opiate epidemic.
      The second bill would provide funding for a statewide coordinator to support workforce development for substance abuse prevention and for a coordinator to support peer recovery services for substance abusers. Funding would come from medical marijuana funds or new taxes from legalized marijuana.

Marijuana proposals
     Numerous measures, including two by area legislators, are being proposed in the legislature following voter approval of the citizen initiative to allow for the recreational use of marijuana.
    Rep. Tuell has submitted a bill that would allow municipal and county governments to impose up to a 10% sales tax on recreational marijuana in their jurisdiction. Money generated from the bill would be directed to substance abuse prevention and treatment, education and law enforcement.
      Rep. Anne Perry of Calais has put in a bill titled An Act To Ensure Safety, Quality and Transparency in the Medical Marijuana Market that seeks to define medical marijuana in relation to the recreational use of marijuana.

Health and safety measures
     A bill again proposing that Maine Forest Rangers be allowed to carry their own guns while on the job has been submitted by Tuell. Several previous attempts to arm forest rangers have been stripped of funding by the Appropriations Committee. "My hope with this bill is to move the conversation away from money and get it squarely focused on public safety," says Tuell.
     Rep. Perry, who has been appointed to serve on the legislature's Health and Human Services Committee, has submitted several health-related bills. One aims to preserve public health nursing, and another would ensure access to behavioral health services by developing a process of review for Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) changes in reimbursement for mental health providers. Two other bills would allow Doctors of Nursing Practice to be called "doctor" and would remove the state treasurer from the Maine Vaccine Board.
     Senator Maker has submitted a bill for the Maine Health Care Association that would amend the DHHS rules for residential care facilities so that new construction, renovation and acquisition capital expenditures up to $2 million would be reimbursed without prior approval and capital expenditures over that amount can be reimbursed with approval. The bill also would adjust the state reimbursement to nursing homes for additional costs arising from extraordinary circumstances and for complying with changes in federal or state laws and regulations for increased care and improved facilities.
     An Act to Increase Affordability of Safe Drinking Water for Maine Families, sponsored by Senator Maker, would provide a total of $500,000 to assist homeowners with purchasing well water treatment equipment that addresses arsenic and other contaminants and to have the Maine State Housing Authority issue the funds to community‑based agencies that will identify individuals who are at‑risk for arsenic contamination in well water and inform community members in hot‑spot areas of resources available to address water contamination.
     Senator Maker also is sponsoring bills to require the use of personal flotation devices in canoes and to allow for imprisonment for no less than 20 years for gross sexual assault cases against an individual under the age of 13.

Marine-related bills
     Among the bills being submitted for the Department of Marine Resources are ones to implement an owner-operator requirement in both the scallop and sea urchin fisheries; to create an aquaculture license and improve the aquaculture leasing and licensing laws; and to fund research on and management and enforcement of the elver fishery.
Rep. Robert Alley of Beals, who will serve on both the Marine Resources Committee and the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee, is sponsoring a number of marine-related bills, including ones to stabilize lobster bait prices, protect the marine worm industry, limit the size of scallop drags, establish a statewide scallop harvesting limit, create pathways to enter alternative marine industries and establish minimum and maximum size limits for possession of soft-shelled clams.
     At the request of the Zone A Lobster Council, Rep. Tuell, who has been appointed to serve again on the Marine Resources Committee, has submitted a bill that would allow federally licensed Zone A lobster fishermen to haul traps at least three miles from shore year round. Another bill submitted by Tuell would allow the Elm Street School in East Machias to harvest up to 50 bushels of alewives from the main branch of the East Machias River in support of the school's traditional Downeast smokehouse.
Hunting bills
     Senator Maker, Rep. Tuell and Rep. Alley have submitted bills concerning hunting in the state. Rep. Alley's bills would assist island and coastal communities with controlling excess deer populations and amend the hunting laws as they pertain to the training of dogs.
     One of Tuell's bills would increase the distance from the center of a paved road to 100 feet for the discharge of a firearm during the firearm season on deer and would increase the penalties, while the other would increase the penalties for baiting deer while hunting.
     Maker's bills would restrict the harvest of bucks to those with at least three 1‑inch points on one side in northern, eastern and western Maine and would return the youth day to what it was before and allow youth to be able to take either a male or female deer.

Voting and citizen initiative process
      Rep. Turner has submitted three bills concerning voting and the state's citizen initiative process for legislation. One would require that the Maine Supreme Judicial Court provide an opinion on the legality of citizen initiatives before they are voted on, with the opinion to be printed on the ballot. Before the vote in November, Maine's attorney general had issued a statement that the initiative to allow recreational use of marijuana would make it legal for children to have marijuana, a statement that was disputed by proponents of the initiative.
     Another of Turner's bills proposes amending the Maine Constitution to require that 10% of the signatures on a citizen initiative come from each county in the state, giving the entire state a chance to weigh in before the measure goes to the voters. The proposal was made by Governor LePage, who opposed all five citizen initiatives on the November ballot. Only the firearms background check measure was not approved by voters statewide.
      Finally, Turner has submitted a bill to require that ballots list candidates as unenrolled if they are not registered with a recognized party. Under current law unenrolled candidates can choose up to three words to describe themselves on the ballot, including independent, which is confusing as there is no Independent Party in Maine.
Passamaquoddy bills
      Rep. Matthew Dana of the Passamaquoddy Tribe is sponsoring bills to change the name of Columbus Day to Native American Appreciation Day; to reduce the fee for Passamaquoddy high-stakes bingo from $50,000 to $5,000 annually; to create a permanent Wabanaki law enforcement seat on the board of the trustees of the Maine Criminal Justice Academy, a request which he had submitted in the last session; and to remove the time limit and 150,000 acreage limit for placing land in trust status under the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act. Rep. Dana notes that there is already a requirement that land placed into trust be approved by the legislature.
      Another bill would change the title of the Penobscot representative to the legislature from representative to ambassador, at the request of the Penobscot ambassador. In 2015 both the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot representatives were withdrawn from the legislature by the tribes in protest over state policies that the tribes said fail to respect tribal sovereignty. Last year both acted as ambassadors to the legislature, and the Penobscots are seeking to formalize that relationship. The Passamaquoddys may also in the future, although at this point Dana says he is still a representative in the legislature.
      Another bill would rename the bridge between Indian Township and Princeton the Sakom John Stevens bridge in honor of former Chief John Stevens, "who has played an important role in recent Passamaquoddy history," Rep. Dana says.
      Other bills related to the tribes in the state have been submitted by Maliseet Rep. Henry John Bear, including ones that would establish a commission to improve the relationship between the state and the tribes and that would revisit the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act.

Other legislation
     Rep. Alley is also sponsoring bills to extend Internet availability in rural Maine, strengthen the farm and open space tax law and make public boat ramps handicapped accessible.
      Other bills sponsored by Rep. Tuell would increase efficiency in enforcement of the Maine Human Rights Act and create greater predictability for employers and complainants; and would designate the Jacksonville bridge on Rt. 191 in East Machias as the Norman E. Bagley Memorial Bridge in honor of a longtime community leader.
      Another bill submitted by Senator Maker would allow funeral homes to operate crematories. Currently, to establish a crematory in Maine it has to be located on the grounds of a cemetery, at least 20 acres in size, having been in existence for a minimum of two years, and the new crematory has to be nonprofit due to being linked to a cemetery.      These requirements make it almost impossible for crematories to open in the state.
     At the request of Baileyville and Baring Plantation, Maker has submitted a bill to authorize moving the town line between them.
      Other bills sponsored by Rep. Turner would allow municipalities to adopt an exception to shoreland zoning laws to allow for the construction of decks and platforms for residential use and storage of docks and small watercraft; require that the state paint the center lines on rural roads every two years instead of every seven years; end the double taxation on pensions for people who move to Maine; permit restaurants with a beer and wine license to allow dancing to karaoke music; and allow a "do not resuscitate" tattoo on one's chest to be recognized by emergency workers.