Legislature adjourns after late-night session Wrap-up focuses on Workers’ Compensation

AUGUSTA – Alternating between the serious and the sentimental, Maine lawmakers worked into Thursday’s early hours before they finally ran out of work and adjourned their two-year session.

Starting before noon Wednesday for a wrap-up session, the Legislature debated and voted on four bills vetoed by Gov. Angus King, taking the unusual step of overriding one of them.

Debate on a thorny Workers’ Compensation issue continued well into the night and until about 4:45 a.m. Thursday as trash canisters brought to the rear of the House chamber were filled with legislative documents, newspapers and stacks of other papers that had accumulated on members’ desks since January.

Along the way, lawmakers took time to go through scores of resolutions, orders and special sentiments recognizing groups and individuals from the University of Maine hockey team to former Colby College professor Richard Russo, who won a Pulitzer Price for his book “Empire Falls.”

Lawmakers reserved some kudos for themselves, recognizing some of the longest-serving members. Most of those singled out for their service are required to leave because of the state’s term limits law.

Three of the state senators recognized – President Pro Tem Michael Michaud of East Millinocket, Susan Longley of Liberty and John Nutting of Leeds – comprise half of the field of Democratic primary candidates in the 2nd Congressional District.

Senate President Richard Bennett described the two-year session as “remarkable, amazing and even historic” for the Senate, which started off with an even split between Democrats and Republicans with one independent.

A power-sharing agreement, which Bennett said was unprecedented in Maine, led to a “peaceful passing of the gavel” between presidents from each of the parties.

“At critical moments on difficult issues, we trusted each other,” Bennett, R-Norway, said in closing remarks from the rostrum.

The long day brought to a close a session whose first year generated laws to boost Maine’s minimum wage, nearly double vehicle inspection fees and extend prescription drug benefits to thousands of more people.

During the 2002 election-year session that began amid projections of a sharp falloff in revenues, the Legislature molded a budget that accounted for a shortfall of nearly $160 million while preserving Gov. Angus King’s prized laptop program and avoiding major tax hikes.

As the session drew closer to adjournment, bills were enacted that will require more children to be secured in car booster seats, help small businesses provide health insurance for their employees, continue to remove mercury devices from the waste stream and raise numerous outdoor-sporting fees.

On Wednesday, four of the bills that had been sent to King were returned unsigned. Lawmakers mustered the two-thirds votes needed to pass one of them over King’s veto, only the second time it’s been done during the governor’s two terms.

The new law will allow exemptions of the 5 percent sales tax on equipment purchased by Maine broadcasters to produce radio and television signals.

Maine Association of Broadcasters members had lobbied lawmakers aggressively before the vote, said Suzanne Goucher, MAB executive director. Goucher said Maine broadcasters need the break as they face a federal mandate to convert to digital transmitting.

“We have never before come to the Legislature asking for anything,” Goucher said after the vote. “Now we’re on the ropes because of the digital mandate … To us it’s just a matter of equity.”

The House let stand King’s vetoes of bills to make unemployment benefits available to workers seeking less than full-time jobs, to require insurers to cover more mental illnesses, and to allow a woman to sue the state for releasing a man who allegedly killed her mother.

In the session’s waning hours, lawmakers hastily passed a similar unemployment compensation bill, providing the same benefits to part-time workers but including language to phase it out when federal funds are no longer available.

King, who was concerned about the long-term cost of the original bill, had not made up his mind whether to pass the new version, spokesman Tony Sprague said.