A summary of some of the new laws emerging from the 2005 legislative session:
Gay rights
. The Maine Human Rights Act is amended to protect homosexuals from discrimination in employment, housing, credit, and public accommodations.
Consumer protection
. Insurance companies can’t imply to customers who have claims for auto crashes that they must go to designated shops to get their cars repaired.
. The use of electronic scanning devices or encoders to steal personal financial data from credit, debit or charge cards becomes a crime.
. The law that governs the sale of stocks, bonds and other securities is overhauled.
. Solicitations delivered by fax machines are illegal nights and weekends.
. Public interest pay phones are preserved in areas unserved by public phones.
Fees and taxes
. Marriage license fees rise from $20 to $30.
. Burial permit fees rise from $1 to $5.
. Towns and cities can also charge higher fees for copies of birth, marriage and death certificates.
. No sales tax on bull semen, a staple of dairy operations.
Outdoors
. Hunters may use electronic moose-calling devices.
. Crossbows can be used for big game hunting during firearms season.
. Hunters may swap permits between seasons and zones before the beginning of the season.
. Thirty-five hundred additional spring turkey hunting permits authorized.
. Snowmobile trail grooming equipment must be registered for one-time fee of $33.
Highways
. Passing a vehicle where the road is painted with an unbroken centerline or an unbroken line in the operator’s lane is illegal.
. Radar detectors are illegal for motorists under 18 who have intermediate licenses (governor’s signature pending).
. Fines for not using a safety belt rise.
Drugs and alcohol
. Minors can’t enter tobacco specialty shops unless accompanied by a parent.
. Machines that vaporize alcohol so it can be inhaled through the lungs are banned (governor’s signature pending).
. It is no longer against the law to place prescription medications in pill boxes, which are widely used to parcel out each day’s dose (governor’s signature pending).
Mainers’ Moxie
. Former patent medicine Moxie becomes Maine’s official soft drink.
Comments
comments for this post are closed