Maine’s 125th Legislature is now in session, and if history is any indication it will have lawmakers wading through hundreds of bills whose sponsors hope to become law.
Last session, around 1,700 bills were submitted, including a doomed bill that sought to limit the amount of bills submitted each session. About the same number is expected this session, give or take.
While the substance of all the bills will soon be public record, only 38 were listed on the Legislature’s website as of Monday afternoon. But if that small sample is any indication, the next few months will be an interesting time in Augusta.
One of the first 38, LD 8, submitted by Jon Courtney, the Senate majority leader from York County, aims to reverse a law passed last session. The bill would allow municipalities to prohibit sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of a school or other property where children are the primary users, increasing the distance from the current limit of 750 feet.
As we said in a 2009 editorial, offender residency restrictions are unproven at best and a false safety blanket at worst. They tend to push offenders further to the margins, making them less likely to register with authorities. And they do nothing to stop first-time offenders.
Energy should instead be spent on how to reintegrate offenders successfully into the community, as well as on the broader problem of recognizing and preventing sexual crimes.
Another recently submitted bill, LD 18, sponsored by Rep. Peter Edgecomb, a Caribou Republican, seeks to extend the school year from 180 days to 185.
This is an idea we can get behind. Not only should the school year be extended, but also lawmakers should not stop at five days. Students in the United States are rapidly falling behind their counterparts in countries that spend much more time in the classroom, such as South Korea (220 days) and Japan (243). President Obama has suggested a school year of around 200 days, which would put the U.S. closer to the average of developed countries.
Also, studies have shown that students from low-income families lose ground to their peers academically over the long summer. An extended school year would help narrow that gap.
Of course, it is unclear how taxpayers could afford a significantly longer school year, especially at this time. But if the United States does not want to continue to fall behind academically, the issue must be addressed, both here in Maine and across the country.
Finally, LD 17, sponsored by Rep. Paul Davis, a Republican from Sangerville, would change how land use planning has been conducted in the Maine wilderness for the last four decades by moving jurisdiction from the state Land Use Regulation Commission to the particular county in which the land is located.
The agency, known as LURC, has had land-use jurisdiction over Maine’s unorganized territories – slightly more than one-half of the state – since its creation in 1971. While it has often been criticized as slow, costly and cumbersome when reviewing major projects, it is unclear how the rural counties that contain most of the unorganized territory could do much better.
This isn’t solely an issue for “the other Maine.” The wide-open wilderness of the northern part of the state is one of Maine’s great assets, and how it is overseen is of interest to all residents.
Ben Bragdon is the managing editor of Current Publishing. He can be reached at bbragdon@keepmecurrent.com or followed on Twitter at www.twitter.com/benbragdon.
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