Summer newsletter: legislative updates

This has been a busy legislative session, with more bills introduced than ever before. These are highlights of the bills we worked on, but there were many others. Feel free to reach out to Kathy Kilrain del Rio at kathy@mejp.org if you have questions about these bills or other legislation.

Income solutions

• Maine expanded the Child Tax Credit! LD 1544, which passed as part of the budget, strengthens Maine’s CTC by expanding it to include families with the lowest incomes and allowing it to increase with inflation. Starting in 2024, families earning below $30,000 (or $42,000 if married filing jointly) will now receive $300 per child annually. Before this change, around 50,000 Maine families, including 73,000 dependent children and 35,000 dependent adults were not receiving the full credit because their incomes were too low.
• TANF improvements are now law! The legislature passed and Governor Mills signed LD 945, a bill which raises the amount families with TANF can save up to plan for emergencies and their futures, and allows one car per licensed driver to be excluded from the asset limit. This is a real victory for Maine people who spoke out about the need to change the asset limits and the MEJ TANF/ASPIRE Leadership Team!
• LD 1877 is carried over: our other TANF/ASPIRE program reform bill will be taken up by the legislature in 2024.

Housing

• New renter rights bills now law! LD 691 bans most rental application fees, which will help all Mainers who are searching for housing in a tight market, but especially people with low incomes who can't afford multiple, non-refundable application fees.
• LD 701 will ensure that most tenants in Maine have at least 75 days notice when their rent is going up by 10% or more. This is so important for families with low incomes, for whom a big increase in rent can be the same as eviction.
• Rent relief and LD 1710 are carried over. Rent relief is a policy that would help Mainers with low incomes who face the most housing instability--for them, even “affordable housing” isn’t affordable without help. Unfortunately, rent relief was not passed or funded this session. LD 1710 (the HOME Act) was carried over by the Housing Committee and will be worked on in the second session of the 131st legislature. We won't give up - we know the power of people joining together to push for a fair housing system will prevail.

Health care

• All Means All LD 199 defeated in Senate. The bill to remove exclusions for immigrants in the MaineCare program passed in the House but failed in the Senate. It was amended to be more targeted for parents in response to concerns about cost and again passed in the House, but it failed again in the Senate. You can see the roll-call for the House vote here (‘Y’ means they voted in support of the bill), and you can see the roll-call for the last Senate vote here (in this case, ‘N’ means they were voting in support of the bill rather than insisting that it ought not pass). The All Means All campaign, of which MEJ is a member, said: “The arc of justice is long, but in Maine it is bending toward health equity. Those without access to life-saving health care can’t afford the luxury of time, so we’ll continue to bring their urgent stories to legislators and we won’t stop until health care for all truly means all.”
• Medicare Savings Program (MSP) eligibility expanded! Championed by our friends at the Maine Council on Aging, LD 1522 expands eligibility for the MSP to 250% of the federal poverty level and eliminates the asset test to qualify. The bill was included in the supplemental budget, LD 258. By helping older Mainers with low incomes pay for health care costs, they will have more money available to meet their basic needs.

Racial equity

• Tribal Sovereignty bill LD 2007 carried over and LD 2004 vetoed. While it passed with strong bipartisan support, LD 2004, An Act to Restore Access to Federal Laws Beneficial to the Wabanaki Nations, was vetoed by Governor Mills and the veto was sustained in the House. Maine Equal Justice will continue to follow the lead of the Wabanaki Alliance in support of tribal sovereignty next year.

Training and education

• Competitive Skills Scholarship Program (CSSP) expansion is law! More workers across Maine will have access to funding for transformative education and training programs and related expenses like transportation and childcare thanks to an expanded CSSP. LD 1394 supports eligible Maine residents to pursue two and four-year degree programs or employer-recognized credentials leading to high-wage, in-demand jobs in Maine, and extends CSSP funding to programs like apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs, which have a proven track record for doubling wages for participants.