At this point in the legislative session, bills and committees are moving fast. Bills can be printed and heard without notice whenever the committee wishes to take them up and bills that are out of committee can hit the chambers at the discretion of the presiding officers. This is keeping the MFPC team quite busy as we track all the bills that concern the forest economy.
On Tuesday, the Environment and Natural Resources Committee held a work session on LD 2187, “An Act To Update Certain Water Quality Standards And To Reclassify Certain Waters Of The State.” Last week, MFPC testified in support of the bill, as it was printed. The bill sponsor offered an amendment that would have upgraded the lower Androscoggin from Class C to B, despite the lack of scientific evidence to support that change. We provided the committee with a memo prepared in consultation with our counsel to further illustrate the legal parameters around the Clean Water Act requirements. The committee voted 8-5 to support the original bill that maintains the current classification.
Reclassification carries significant consequences, including more stringent permit limits, dam water quality certifications, additional monitoring obligations, and in many cases costly treatment upgrades that may not be feasible. For the pulp and paper mills and other large employers that anchor Maine’s rural economies, such outcomes would have ripple effects well beyond facility operations — jeopardizing jobs, tax revenues, and the economic stability of communities that depend on these facilities.
This bill will be sent to the House and Senate in the coming weeks, it will be important that we ensure that all legislators understand that this reclassification would have major impacts on dischargers – including mills and wastewater districts, without a robust and comprehensive dataset supporting such a change. We will keep you updated as this bill works its way through the process.
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On Tuesday, the Labor and Housing Committee held a work session on LD 2018, “An Act To Amend The Requirements Governing Self-insurance Plans In The Paid Family And Medical Leave Benefits Program.” This bill, that MFPC opposed, would explicitly prohibit the use of risk pooling and cost sharing in self-insurance plans among multiple employers. The department proposed allowing cost sharing but still prohibiting risk pools. Several MFPC members have stated that they attempted to utilize self-insurance risk pools for paid family medical leave benefits but were told it was not permitted by the department, despite it not be prohibited in the law. A few others stated that they wished to self-insure, but were uncertain regarding the legal status.
The bill was tabled and will remain in the committee as they continue to work the bill.
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On Wednesday, the Environment and Natural Resources significantly amended LD 2070, “An Act to Prohibit Landfill Expansion Into Wetlands.” The original bill, that MFPC testified against, was amended to increase PFAS testing and monitoring, to revoke a landfill license for the Carpenter Ridge landfill site, and to create a DEP stakeholder group to assess alternatives to Juniper Ridge Landfill. This change is a significant relief to existing private, industrial landfills that would not be erroneously harmed by the original bill.
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Also on Wednesday, the IFW Committee amended and voted on LD 276 “An Act Regarding Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.” MFPC testified in strong opposition last week. This bill, which began as a concept draft, would replace the weight and width allowance for ATVs that can be registered in Maine with three classifications of manufacturers specifications based solely on width and configurations.
Last week we were joined by a number of opponents to the bill including ATV clubs and trail masters, Maine Woodland Owners, the Maine ATV Coalition (MAC) and the Departments of Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry and Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. There was no testimony in support of the bill besides that of the sponsor.
The bill was struck and replaced by a limited amendment that would require a more detailed form to be signed by purchasers of all new ATVs at dealerships that clearly specifies if a machine is classified as “overweight” and ineligible for registration, or not. The form would be returned to the Department by the dealer and provided to the customer to present to their town clerk upon registration. The committee voted 9-5 in support of the latest amendment with the minority report being “Ought not to pass.”
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On Wednesday, we attended a work session in the Taxation Committee on Part O of the budget. This section would eliminate the Business Equipment Tax Reimbursement (BETR) program.
As presented, Part O would immediately (and retroactively) increase taxes on approximately 60 forest products industry businesses, resulting in a $4.7 million tax increase over this biennium alone. The proposed tax increase is equivalent to roughly 52 good-paying forest sector jobs per year; jobs that the BETR program has helped our members retain. Our members came out in strong opposition to this elimination last week, and thankfully, our collective voices were heard. The committee voted OTP-AM/ONTP with the majority report keeping all non-retail property in the BETR program, which includes all manufacturing and logging equipment. The minority report keeps the BETR program whole.
The Council does have a few members who likely have retail property enrolled in the program. If that is the case, please reach out to members of the Appropriations Committee now so that they are aware when this section of the budget lands back on their desks.
Thanks to the Taxation Committee’s special interest in the roughly 60 forest products businesses and manufacturers enrolled in the BETR tax program, and thanks to our members who weighed in on this section of the Supplemental Budget. Our full testimony is available here.
As part of the budget, this section now will be worked in the Appropriations Committee.
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The Taxation Committee also considered the Pass-Through Entity Tax Credit (introduced as LD 191) as part N of the supplemental budget. The proposal would establish a pass-through entity tax on the income of partners and shareholders of S corporations and permit certain entities to elect to pay Maine income tax at the entity level. The effect of this is to allow a member of a pass-through entity a credit of 90% of the member’s share of Maine income taxes paid as a pass-through entity. The committee decided to adopt the tax credit to come into partial conformity (without retroactivity) with federal tax law. This change would improve the tax treatment of pass-through entities while being revenue positive for the State (a win-win!). The committee also passed LD 191 with the same amended language.
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On Thursday, MFPC testified Neither For Nor Against LD 2222, “An Act To Establish Municipal Cost Components For Unorganized Territory Services To Be Rendered In Fiscal Year 2026-27” in the Taxation Committee. Our testimony hinged on the fact that none of the data regarding the State component of the Unorganized Territory budget was available to the public or taxpayers of the region, making it impossible for any sort of meaningful dialogue. The information presented at the public hearing also lacked any sort of historical context which is necessary to analyze the State’s components for the UT budget within context.
This is a departure of how this process has been handled in the past, and it calls into question the need for process improvements moving forward.
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As of today, the only bill that we will weigh in on next week is LD 350, a concept draft being used as a vehicle to establish a new ATV taskforce. Our opposition is not because we oppose the concept of a collaborative process, but because the process outlined in LD 350 is duplicative of recent or existing structures with duties that were largely already addressed by the very recent LD 1308 Public Access to Private Land working group. Here is a link to the final report of that group that was presented just a few weeks ago to the IFW Committee.
As mentioned above, bills are being scheduled with little notice and the schedule may quickly become out of date. We will do our best to update the membership when we need your support and we will provide updates on bills at the end of the week.