Eighteen Maine Senators and 57 Representatives received 100% scores in Maine People’s Alliance’s annual legislative scorecard. (Beacon is a project of MPA.) The scorecard released this week highlights legislators’ votes on housing, workers’ rights, paid family and medical leave, child care, transgender rights, immigration, climate change, and tax fairness. It also includes a review of…
Lawmakers heard hours of testimony this week from Mainers favoring a slate of gun safety reforms that Democrats proposed in response to the mass shooting in Lewiston last year. The legislation includes expanded background checks, strengthening the state’s oft-criticized “yellow flag” law, a ban on bump stocks and a 72-hour waiting period for the purchase…
The Maine House on Thursday passed a proposal to create a statewide paid family and medical leave policy, meaning landmark legislation that would help workers in all sectors of the economy is one step closer to reaching Gov. Janet Mills’ desk. The vote in the House was 79-65, with no Republicans supporting the bill and…
Maine moved one step closer to becoming the thirteenth state to create its own paid family and medical leave program on Thursday, when the Maine Legislature’s Labor and Housing Committee voted 8-5 to advance a bill that is a top priority of legislative Democrats. No Republicans on the committee supported the measure. The bill will…
Gov. Janet Mills threw cold water on a plan to create paid family and medical leave in Maine when she called on lawmakers last week to limit the wages that workers could receive when they take time off to take care of a newborn or a sick family member. The Mills administration is floating a…
As lawmakers consider a proposal to establish a paid family and medical leave policy, advocates in Maine — and another New England state — are warning about the potential pitfalls of creating a privatized program, in which benefit claims are administered by an outside company rather than the state. Maine lawmakers introduced a paid leave…
Beacon editor Lauren McCauley contributed reporting to this piece. After a years-long campaign, lawmakers on Thursday unveiled a proposal to create a paid family and medical leave program, drawing support from Mainers across the state who argued that it is long past time for such a policy. The bill, LD 1964, sponsored by Assistant Senate…
Ahead of a public hearing on Thursday, Maine lawmakers are pushing back against what they say are “deliberately misleading and deeply disconcerting” claims being made by the state Chamber of Commerce about their bill to create a paid family and medical leave program in Maine. The hearing for the paid leave bill, LD 1964, sponsored…
Lawmakers are one step closer to formulating a paid family and medical leave bill that, if passed and signed into law this session, would make Maine the 14th state to provide workers with paid time off to take care of a newborn or a sick family member. A panel established by the Maine State Legislature,…
Proponents of creating a paid family and medical leave policy for Maine rallied at the State House on Tuesday, calling for lawmakers to enact and fund a strong program that will allow workers to take time off to care for themselves or a loved one. The Maine Paid Leave Coalition, which consists of over 30…