AUGUSTA – Legislative leaders will have to sift through about 300 new bills today as they decide which are worthy of consideration during the 2012 session.

While the list may seem daunting, it’s smaller than the nearly 400 submitted at this time in 2009 — and roughly half the number proposed two years before that. And lawmakers have a track record of turning down requests. Two years ago, only 200 second-session requests made it in for consideration.

The proposals, which have not been fleshed out and only appear as broadly worded titles so far, provide an early peek at what’s in store for the session that begins in January. The bipartisan Legislative Council, whose members rule the House and Senate, will consider proposals that run the gamut from changing the site location rules for maple sugar houses to cracking down on Medicaid cheats.

Others seek to boost jurors’ mileage allowance, require people in canoes and kayaks to wear life jackets, recognize common-law marriage, allow car sales on Sunday, and permit spas and salons to apply for beer or wine licenses.

They don’t include well over 100 bills that were considered earlier this year but carried over by lawmakers to 2012, such as one to require Maine voters to provide photo identification in order to cast ballots and another to overhaul the state’s sex-offender registry.

They also don’t include Gov. Paul LePage’s agenda, which is expected to focus on education, energy and the economy, topics the Republican has touched on in recent public appearances. “Those are the three points he’s driving home across Maine,” said LePage spokeswoman Adrienne Bennett. The governor doesn’t need the Legislative Council’s approval to submit legislation.

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While his proposals are also in early stages of development, LePage is expected to seek to lower energy bills through broader availability of natural gas, eliminate income taxes on pensions, merge the agriculture and conservation departments, and strengthen laws against domestic violence.

The wish list of lawmakers’ proposals to be considered by the council today is supposed to be limited to “emergency” measures, but what constitutes an emergency can be broadly interpreted. Rep. Les Fossel, sponsor of the bill to allow car sales on Sundays, is convinced his proposal fits the bill.

“How can you say this doesn’t pass the straight-face test? I think the economy’s bad enough that anything that encourages jobs is” an emergency, the Alna Republican said. “If you’re in favor of the Blue Laws, let’s close down the ‘big boxes’ (stores) and the supermarkets on Sundays.”

Several proposals to be considered are outdoors related, such as ones to increase pheasant hunting fees, prohibit hunting within 1,200 feet of a dwelling, increase the hours for turkey hunting and require anglers who catch northern pike to kill their catch. The fish, which were illegally introduced into Maine in the 1970s, pose serious risks to existing fisheries and are not easily eradicated, state biologists say.

A proposal to prohibit union members from paying union dues through authorized payroll deductions has already generated opposition from organized labor, which is asking the Legislative Council to reject the measure. But that still won’t stop the Republican governor, who opposes such deductions from state workers’ checks, from putting in a bill.

Other proposals call for more action to control gang activity and a crackdown on returnable beverage container fraud.

 


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