The Maine Legislature has yet to truly begin its work. It has only had a few test votes on rules, a tussle over the supplemental budget and a nomination so far, but we do have the list of bill requests for the first session.

So far, we mostly just have titles, not actual legislative text. Sometimes these are annoyingly vague, and sometimes they’re oddly specific. In the former category, we have L.R. 1942, “An Act to Improve the Operations of State Government,” sponsored by Sen. Joe Baldacci, D-Bangor, which could do literally anything.

In the latter category, we have L.R. 503, “An Act to Require Retailers to Place Any Alcohol That Is Accessible to Customers at Least 48 Inches from the Payment Terminal,” sponsored by Rep. Steven Bishop, R-Bucksport. At least that one’s clear.

Some of those specific bills are just too specific and seem quite unnecessary. Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, has a bill in to ban piercing guns; that one sounds as if a constituent got infected after getting his or her ears pierced at the mall. Sen. Mike Tipping, D-Orono, has one to allow ham radio operators to get their call sign on license plates without paying fees. Rep. Lydia Crafts, D-Newcastle, wants to study the feasibility of ferry service to Monhegan; there’s already ferry service, so I’m not sure what they’d be studying. Then there are bills in to repair, maintain or rename certain roads and bridges, along with one to change the weight limit on a certain road.

These oddly specific bills may just seem funny, and a lot of them may well end up being readily dispensed with, but every single bill request costs at least some money to consider. Moreover, many of these oddly specific bills could be covered by rules or procedures, rather than by legislation, so they’re essentially ducking around an established process.

The good news is that, for a change, there have actually been fewer bills introduced overall this session compared to last session, so we’re headed in the right direction, but it’s not good enough.

Apart from the hyperspecific bills, there are a whole bunch of bills that are relitigating old battles. There are plenty of bills trying to undo things, like ranked choice voting and the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. There are other bills relitigating old battles, like voter ID, vaccine exemptions and eliminating the income tax.

Some of these ideas may well have merit, but as long as Democrats retain the majority and control of the Blaine House, they have little chance of passage. Since legislative bill requests were, obviously, made after the election, that means that a whole bunch of legislators are just interested in having debates rather than being productive.

Sometimes that’s worthwhile, and with the text of some of these bills, that may prove to be the case, but it seems unlikely. If someone has a new approach to repealing the income tax or implementing voter ID, that could be interesting to discuss, but with the current makeup of the Legislature, it still probably won’t go anywhere. Unfortunately, time will be spent on debates that won’t make any productive changes to policies; we see this every session.

So, I plead to legislators on both sides of the aisle who have hyperspecific, unrealistic or unnecessary bill requests: Please reconsider. You still have plenty of time to withdraw your request, or at least talk to fellow legislators who have similar requests in and consolidate them.

Take ranked choice voting, for instance. Republicans still want to get rid of it and Democrats don’t. So, the committee will have one day of hearings dealing with all of these bills, and the most it will do is make a few slight tweaks to expand the concept. Perhaps, for a change, some of you could get together and sort things out, saving us the time and money.

At the state and federal level, there’s always a lot of focus on waste in the executive branch, and rightly so. It controls most of the spending. The legislative branch, though, can waste money just as well on its own, by spending time and, therefore, money debating pointless or ridiculous bills.

It would be nice to see some of you — especially you Republican legislators — withdraw some of these unnecessary requests and lead by example for a change. Then, perhaps, the Legislature will have more time to focus on the very big, and very real, problems facing this state.