Status Report on L.D. 765 – April 16, 2011
L.D. 765 Ought to Pass
I’m pleased to report that the Maine State Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development (known as the “LCRED Committee”) held its Work Session on LD765 on Friday morning, April 15, and they voted the bill out of the Committee “ought to pass.” They did not make any changes to the bill, so the amounts of funding we requested are unchanged so far. Now the bill goes to the Appropriations Committee where its fate is uncertain.
Given the state’s budget situation, the bill could easily die on the Appropriations Table, but with good attention and constant monitoring, we may be able to get some or all of the funds requested in the bill. It will likely not be until the eve of the adjournment of the Legislature that we will know if they “found” any money to fund the bill. The Legislature is not likely to adjourn until the latter half of May at the earliest and it could run until late June (or even early July) depending on how difficult it is for them to arrive on a budget compromise.