Legislation in ’05 ran the gamut Tax hikes avoided, but several fees increased

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AUGUSTA – Motherhood to Moxie, public phones to pill boxes, ID “skimming” to insurance “steering,” Maine lawmakers covered it all in 2005.

They avoided broad-based tax increases during the session that began in January but approved a number of fee increases. Getting married will be pricier, as marriage license fees rise from $20 to $30. Burial permit fees jump a dollar to $5.

Lawmakers also voted to prop up a two-year, $5.7 billion state budget with $450 million in long-term borrowing but are reconsidering that approach in the final days of the session in the face of a possible people’s veto.

One of the most prominent issues of the session was gay rights. Lawmakers once again enacted a law to protect homosexuals from discrimination in employment, housing, credit and public accommodations.

The bill’s passage also triggered a petition drive aimed at forcing a referendum on the new law, which opponents see as a gateway to gay marriages. Maine voters rejected similar gay rights laws in 1998 and 2000.

Consumer issues occupied a considerable portion of the 2005 agenda as lawmakers passed a bill to outlaw “steering,” in which insurance companies imply to customers who have claims for auto crashes that they must go to designated shops to get their cars repaired.

Also targeted was a practice known as “skimming,” in which electronic scanning devices or decoders are used to steal personal financial data from credit, debit or charge cards. Violators face a year in jail and $2,000 fines.

To protect their credit reports from being disseminated, consumers will be able to use personal identification codes to put a freeze on their personal financial information if a bill that was gliding through is enacted. By doing so, Mainers can keep their Social Security numbers safe from identity thieves.

Lawmakers overhauled the state law that governs the sale of all stocks, bonds and other securities. The revised law encourages consistency and cooperation among the states in the complex regulatory area.

Mainers will get relief from solicitations delivered by fax machines. A new law will apply to fax ads the same restrictions that already apply to automated telephone calling devices, which can dial Maine numbers only on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

A new law will address the sharp decline in the number of public pay phones in Maine. That legislation was drafted in response to people in some areas unable to call fire and rescue agencies and poor people stranded with no phone service at all. The cost of putting “public interest pay phones” where needed will be covered by intrastate telecommunications companies.

To help towns and cities cope with rising expenses, lawmakers allowed municipalities to charge higher fees for copies of birth, marriage and death certificates. The same law will also allow higher burial permit fees.

Responding to pleas from dairy farmers, lawmakers clarified a law ensuring that bull semen is not subject to the sales tax. The product is seen as critical to financially fragile dairy farms, for which feed, fertilizer and other agricultural products are already untaxed.

Legislation of interest to hunters will allow the use of electronic moose-calling devices, which are placed a distance from the targeted animal and already are allowed for other big game and coyotes.

But another high-tech version of hunting, in which computers and cameras are used so clients hundreds or thousands of miles away can shoot at animals on a game ranch, was rejected by lawmakers, who banned the practice.

A much older form of technology, crossbows, will be allowed for big game hunting during firearms season for the first time in Maine since 1856.

Veterans returning from overseas conflicts will be eligible for free fishing licenses and state park passes under a bill that was on Gov. John Baldacci’s desk. Another new law will let hunters swap permits between seasons and zones before the beginning of the season.

With an overpopulation of wild turkeys this year, a law that took effect earlier this spring authorized 3,500 additional turkey hunting permits.

To discourage the use of inappropriate and dangerous snowmobile trail-grooming equipment, lawmakers enacted a law requiring registration of equipment used on official Maine trails and setting one-time $33 registration fees.

On the highways, a new law makes it illegal to pass a vehicle where the road is painted with an unbroken centerline or an unbroken line in the operator’s lane. Solid lines now are just advisory.

Effective July 1, what is now a $50 fine for failing to use a safety belt will rise to $125 for a second offense and $250 for subsequent offenses. But police must have another reason to stop a motorist in order to issue a ticket for not using a seat belt.

Radar detectors were on lawmakers’ radar screen. A bill sent to Baldacci prohibits anyone under 18 who has an intermediate license from driving a vehicle that’s equipped with a radar detector.

With hopes of putting cigarettes even further out of the reach of youths, minors will be barred from entering tobacco specialty shops unless accompanied by a parent.

Recognizing health risks from machines that vaporize alcohol so it can be inhaled through the lungs, lawmakers voted to ban the devices. A bill that awaited Baldacci’s signature also sets fines for violators.

Lawmakers loosened up an existing law that makes it illegal to place prescription medications in pill boxes that are widely used to parcel out each day’s dose. The existing law, which prohibits removal of a prescription drug from its original pharmacy container until the time it is consumed, was intended as an anti-trafficking measure.

Legislation that awaited the governor’s signature gives a person who removes prescription drugs from the bottle time to show police their prescription so they won’t be in violation of the law.

Addressing particularly troubling cases of domestic violence, “An Act to Protect Motherhood” instructs judges to apply special weight to homicides involving women who are pregnant.

Still awaiting final action is legislation to curb the availability of common ingredients of the street drug methamphetamine. The bill imposes restrictions on the sale of pills such as Sudafed that contain pseudoephedrine. For example, the pills must be kept behind pharmacy counters and obtained from a pharmacist or a pharmacy technician. Numerous other states have adopted similar laws.

Finally, what started out as a patent medicine that could cure everything from loss of manhood to softening of the brain became Maine’s official soft drink.

Moxie, developed by Dr. Augustin Thompson of Union in the 1870s, has come to symbolize Mainers’ feisty spirit, sponsors said.