Every year, the Maine Supreme Court goes on the road and visits high schools across Maine. I am excited to announce that on Tuesday, October 11th, the Maine State Supreme Court will come to Deering High School to hear oral arguments in three cases. I want to thank Deering teacher Eli Small for his idea to bring the Supreme Court to Portland. To read more about their upcoming visit, click here.

Community Events

MASCPMASCP Award

On September 21st, I was proud to receive a legislative champion award from the Maine Association of Community Service Providers (MACSP). The award was for my legislative commitment to children and adults with developmental and other cognitive disabilities. Highlighted was my commitment to improving early childhood education and my bill LD 568, that was vetoed by the Governor.

Stroudwater Village Day
On September 17th, I went to my third Stroudwater Village Day celebration. The day was filled with a parade, bike contest, Stoudwater Light Infrintry Militia, a wonderful cookout and games. I was also proud to present legislative sentiments to the Lovejoy family and Mary Sprague for their contributions to Stoudwater.

Inside Augusta
State Finances
So how is the State doing since July when our new fiscal year began? Currently we are $10 million under budget for the first two months. The biggest variance has been a lower collection of individual income tax. However, the corporate income tax is trending much higher. The highway fund is also under budget for the first two months by $1 million for the year, largely because gasoline taxes where under budget. It’s important to keep up to speed with the State’s financials because it’s one factor determining the size of a supplemental budget that we would face when we return in January.

Congressional Redistricting
The past few months have seen a struggle between the two political parties drawing the new line into equal Congressional districts. (It’s a federal law that Congressional districts must be redrawn after the latest census to ensure that each district has equal voters.) Each side proposed multiple maps and presented their arguments. Democrats and Republicans both sought to create equal voting districts, but we diverged in how to do so. Democrats presented a plan that moved as few people as possible while the Republicans sought a radical departure from the existing districts. The committee voted 8-7 in August to accept the Democratic map.

On Tuesday, the legislature worked hard to find a compromise, and we did. The new map that passed follows the Democratic principal and only affects Kennebec County. Winslow and Waterville moves from the Second District to the First, and Belgrade, Benton, Clinton, Fayette, Gardiner, Litchfield, Mount Vernon, Oakland, Randolph, Rome, Sidney, Vienna, and West Gardiner move into the Second District. What this means is around 50,000 voters have been moved from one district to the other. The bottom line is that there are now 3,000 more Republican voters in the Second District.

What do you think of the new map? Click here to read more from WMTW.

Bath salts legislation
As you may have heard, abuse of the drug known as “bath salts” is rising in Maine, especially in the greater Bangor region. In response, the legislature came together and made bath salts illegal earlier this year. The Governor, a supporter of the ban, put in a bill to strengthen the penalty for possession and trafficking of bath salts from misdemeanors to felonies. The bill passed 35-0. What do you think?

Click here to read more about bath salts in Maine.

Click here to read about the Governor’s bill.

Closing

As always, I look forward to hearing from you!

-Justin