New Maine laws affect hunters, pet owners

AUGUSTA – Maine will get more time to meet its recycling goal, more hunters will be eligible for lifetime licenses, and pet owners who keep letting their dogs roam will pay steeper fines.

Those are among the new laws that will take effect now that Gov. Angus King is getting busier signing bills that have made it through the Legislature. Committees on Wednesday continued racing toward a Friday deadline to act on all of the bills in their possession.

Among the relatively few to make it through the House and Senate and win the governor’s signature are a mixed bag of measures affecting consumers, hunters and pet owners. A bill submitted at the request of Public Advocate Stephen Ward and supported by the Public Utilities Commission will give consumers more warning before their phone bills rise. The law will require telephone companies offering in-state toll service to provide written notice of any rate increase to their customers.

Notices, which can come in the form of bill inserts, must be provided at least 25 days before the increases take effect. Customers who do not receive notices may withhold payments for the increased prices. Some phone companies already provide rate increase notices, but the new law makes that policy uniform in the state, said the PUC’s Phil Lindley.

Another new law delays Maine’s deadline for recycling 50 percent of the trash generated in the state. The state missed its previous 1998 deadline, and lawmakers are now extending it to 2003.

Dog owners who let their pets roam at large repeatedly will face higher maximum fines. After two or more violations, fines can range to as much as $500. Maximum fines for letting a dog run free are now $250.

King has put his name on a bill that adds archers to the list of hunters eligible to buy lifetime hunting licenses. Junior and senior lifetime hunting and fishing licenses are already sold. The new category is expected to generate $76,250 a year for the state fish and game department.