{"content":[{"text":"To:","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.091195,"width":0.027212000000000014,"height":0.016779000000000002}},{"text":"Key Municipal Officials \n Legislative Policy Committee \n Public Works Directors and Highway Foremen","bbox":{"left":0.176471,"top":0.091195,"width":0.369608,"height":0.05435499999999999}},{"text":"From:","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.166347,"width":0.04780100000000001,"height":0.01677899999999999}},{"text":"Kate Dufour, Director, State and Federal Relations","bbox":{"left":0.176471,"top":0.166347,"width":0.398414,"height":0.01677899999999999}},{"text":"Date:","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.204074,"width":0.042310000000000014,"height":0.01677899999999999}},{"text":"Thursday, June 3, 2021","bbox":{"left":0.176471,"top":0.204074,"width":0.183529,"height":0.01677899999999999}},{"text":"Re:","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.24165,"width":0.027212000000000014,"height":0.016779000000000016}},{"text":"Items on the House Calendar","bbox":{"left":0.176471,"top":0.24165,"width":0.22750900000000002,"height":0.016779000000000016}},{"text":"While the Senate Calendar does not include items of municipal significance, there are \n four issues of note on the June 3 House Calendar.","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.279226,"width":0.7310559999999999,"height":0.035565999999999987}},{"text":"The most concerning of which is LD 596, An Act To Improve the Law Regarding \n Abandoned Roads, which sets into motion the complete overhaul of the laws regarding \n abandoned roads. The bill is printed as item 7-1 on page 73 of the House Calendar.","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.335589,"width":0.695686,"height":0.05435499999999999}},{"text":"In summary, the bill which received unanimous support from the State and Local \n Government Committee, replaces the doctrine of the passage of time as the determining factor of \n the abandonment of a local road with an overly prescriptive process. The details of the bill are \n described in Rebecca Graham’s memo, which is linked here. Although municipal officials \n believe the changes proposed in the bill will increase municipal costs, the bill has not been \n identified as a mandate.","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.410892,"width":0.7606459999999999,"height":0.11071899999999996}},{"text":"Complicating the matter is the fact that the bill is on the House consent agenda.","bbox":{"left":0.176471,"top":0.542407,"width":0.622352,"height":0.01677899999999999}},{"text":"Unless removed from the agenda, the committee report will be accepted without debate. \n Municipal officials are urged to contact members of the House to discuss municipal concerns \n with the bill and to encourage the full Legislature to engage in a debate over the merits of LD \n 596.","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.579983,"width":0.749215,"height":0.07329399999999997}},{"text":"Also of municipal concern is LD 95, RESOLUTION, Proposing an Amendment to the \n Constitution of Maine To Establish a Right to Food, which received a majority ought to pass as \n amended report from the Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry Committee. The bill, printed as \n item 10-1 on page 77of the calendar, would place a question on the Nov. 2, 2021 ballot \n establishing a constitutional right “to food and to save food.”","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.674074,"width":0.761944,"height":0.09193099999999998}},{"text":"The vague language of the referendum question is likely to open communities to legal \n challenges for delivery or protection of resources and leave municipalities without the tools and \n ordinances necessary to address regulatory obligations. Generally, such rights are only \n established concretely through the creation of case law to legal challenges. Once settled, case law \n can strip a community, or a Legislature, of the flexibility necessary to respond to new and \n emerging food and environmental challenges.","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.786953,"width":0.764548,"height":0.11071799999999998}}],"images_bbox":[],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[]}