A group of Maine lawmakers is considering a list of proposals to improve transparency and efficiency in the Legislature following the chaotic and tumultuous conclusion of this year’s session.

The potential rule changes include capping the number of bills that can be submitted, limiting the use of placeholder bills that lack policy specifics, and putting an end to late-night votes, especially on the state budget.

The ideas were discussed Thursday by the Legislature’s Joint Rules Committee, which one lawmaker said hadn’t met since 2018 despite a requirement to meet annually. Committee members include several senior legislators who plan to produce a list of recommended changes. It will be up to lawmakers elected this fall to decide whether to adopt the changes when they set rules after being seated in early 2025.

Lawmakers and lobbyists who attended the three-hour meeting Thursday urged the committee to address concerns that emerged from the session. Those issues include a lack of transparency about bills being proposed, last-minute budget adjustments under the cover of darkness, and a final confrontation with Gov. Janet Mills about whether lawmakers could pass additional spending bills on what is known as veto day.

John Kosinski, a lobbyist with the Maine Education Association, said the last session was the worst in terms of transparency that he’s seen in his career, which has spanned eight legislative sessions.

‘DEGRADATION OF TRANSPARENCY’

“I have seen over those 15 years a degradation of transparency – nothing like I witnessed this session frankly,” Kosinski said. “At a time when democratic institutions are under attack, when voters are getting more angry and frustrated, I would hope that we would do our best to learn from the past two years and make sure that the next Legislature is better prepared to address these issues.”

Lawmakers and lobbyists at the meeting agreed on the need to restrict the use of placeholder bills that lack any details until late in the review process. The so-called concept bills have been increasingly used for complex policy proposals, leaving little time for citizens and activists to respond. But the ideas for reforms varied from ending or limiting their use to simply ensuring that the policy details are publicly posted before any public hearing is held.

Concept bills are often printed with only a bill title and few – if any – policy specifics. Sponsors then release details in the form of an amendment either at the pubic hearing or sometimes during a work session that follows. And those details are only readily available to a select group of people, known as interested parties. They are not posted online until the committee votes on whether to endorse a bill.

“It’s hard to know if you’re an interested party if you don’t know what the content of the bill is at all,” said Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, who has criticized concept bills. “And some of the bills have titles that are very vague in what they might accomplish. I think people have been frustrated. Members of the public have been frustrated as well as legislators about that.”

Last session, lawmakers submitted about 250 concept bills. That’s a more than 25% increase over the nearly 200 placeholders in the previous Legislature, and a fourfold increase over the roughly 60 concept bills submitted 20 years ago.

Some lawmakers said the deadline for lawmakers to submit bill ideas for their two-year terms is driving the increase in concept drafts. That deadline is usually one month after new lawmakers are elected and sets the agenda for the next two years.

Some lawmakers proposed eliminating the deadline for the first legislative session to reduce the need for concept drafts or limiting concept drafts to committee chairs.

Other ideas included posting the details of concept drafts in the online bill file at least a week before a public hearing.

“The issues we are dealing with as a Legislature have gotten more complex and as a result the specific language really matters,” said Patrick Woodcock, CEO of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce.

Several lawmakers proposed capping the number of bills that could be introduced by lawmakers. The 131st Legislature considered about 2,290 bills over the last two years.

Rep. Holly Sargent, D-York, said information she collected with the help of the National Conference of State Legislatures showed how a large number of bills fueled the time pressures felt by lawmakers.

Of the 13 states that have a citizen legislature, Maine is one of four with term limits, and the only one with more than 1,000 bills submitted last session. She said Maine has one of the highest ratios of bills proposed to staff. And, she said, more than half of the bills were proposed by only 5% of the 186 lawmakers.

“We should be able to fix that,” she said.

Rep. Sally Cluchey, D-Bowdoinham, said lawmakers should adopt rules that prioritize bills that have bipartisan support, or broad support among lawmakers – a move that could reduce the number of bills drafted and heard in a session.

“If I could change one thing in Augusta, it would be to incentivize and reward bipartisanship,” Cluchey said. “If you can demonstrate that there’s more buy-in ahead of time, it shows you have done more work. It shows that the legislation – those ideas – are further along, they have been vetted more, and therefore they’re more likely to have a chance of succeeding.”

Lobbyists expressed frustration with the budget process this year, which included a surprising last-minute move by Democrats at 3 a.m. to use millions of dollars in highway funding for other spending priorities, only to have them reverse course after public pushback, including from the governor.

The late-night maneuver appeared to violate the joint rules, which prohibit a committee from voting between 10:30 p.m. and 7:30 a.m., without the approval of presiding officers and notice to party leaders from both chambers.

Kosinski noted that one budget committee meeting that was scheduled to start at 3 p.m. didn’t start until after 10 p.m. The panel met through the night, voting on amendments until after 3 a.m.

“I struggle to believe that it’s OK to vote on amendments at 3 o’clock in the morning that have never seen the light of day,” he said.

Laura Harper, a lobbyist with Moose Ridge Associates, said she struggled to explain to clients what more they could have done to get their bills passed and priorities funded.

“For the first time in 21 years, I had to say it wasn’t you, the system broke,” Harper said. “Every single piece of information we got from legislators, we followed, but the (verbal) rules kept changing. They kept changing and changing and changing, and we were always one step behind. … We never had access. The doors were shut. Every time we made it to the next door, that door was shut, and we were too late.”

The rules committee did not take any action Thursday and is expected to meet again next month.

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