State and Federal Relations

MMA's State and Federal Relations staff (SFR) advocates on behalf of local government in a number of ways.

A majority of staff time is spent working at the State Legislature during each legislative session, and on related legislative matters between sessions, with the goal of advancing the interests of municipal government and working in a constructive way toward establishing an appropriate relationship between state and local government in the delivery of governmental services. SFR staff also regularly participate when state agencies undertake the process to adopt new rules that affect municipal government. A third area of effort for SFR is the federal arena. SFR communicates regularly with Maine's congressional delegation when there are proposals before Congress that would impact municipal government in Maine.

MMA's legislative platforms, policies, and positions are developed by a 70-member Legislative Policy Committee (LPC), which is made up of two municipal officials from each of the state's 35 Senate Districts. The LPC representatives are elected to that position by the municipal officers within their Senate District. The roles and responsibilities of the LPC and its procedural guidelines are all detailed in the LPC Handbook.

The focus of MMA’s advocacy agenda over the last decade has been comprehensive tax reform. A brief review of the Association’s legislative platforms over the last several biennia reveals MMA’s longstanding interest in this area.

During the 118^th Legislature (1997-98), MMA pushed for comprehensive tax reform but the legislation was quickly killed in committee. In 1998, the $7,000

Homestead property tax exemption was enacted.

MMA advocated for a five-plank platform during the 1999-2000 legislative biennium that included an improved Local Road Assistance program, a more accountable school budget development process at the school district level, and the establishment of standards of eligibility for the “charitable” property tax exemption. Success was achieved on four of the five planks. All improvements to the charitable exemption law were killed in committee.

A seven-plank program was advanced during the 120^th Legislature (2001-02), including a proposal to increase municipal revenue sharing, address the “charitable” exemption law, close a loophole regarding the tax exemption for “pollution control” equipment, and improve the reimbursement formula governing the “current use” tax programs. Only the revenue sharing increase was enacted, but its implementation has been pushed off until July 2005. All other tax-related proposals were killed in committee.

“Question 1A” represented MMA’s entire legislative platform during the 121^st Legislature.        

The failure of the Legislature to tackle the related issues of tax reform and property tax relief prompted MMA to proceed with the citizen-initiative approach in 2002. The “School Finance and Tax Reform Act of 2003” – what came to be known as “Question 1A” – was developed within MMA in 2002 by a group of 12 municipal leaders from across the state. The initiative was presented to the Legislature after it received a record 100,000 signatures of support in November 2002. For the next 18 months it was fiercely opposed by the political, media and business establishment before finally being adopted by the voters on June 8, 2004.  

MMA's LPC adopted an eight-plank legislative platform for the 2005-2006 biennium, including proposals to give municipalities more authority over street light ownership and operations, restrict the state from scheduling statewide bond referenda outside of the normal primary and general election schedules, and ensure that motor vehicle fine revenue earmarked for local government actual gets distributed to the towns, cities and counties that are entitled to receive that financial support. In addition to MMA's legislative platform, the Association closely monitored the Legislature's enactment of its "property tax reform" legislation (LD 1) in 2005. LD 1 (enacted as P.L. 2005, chap. 2) is the Legislature's replacement version of the initiative adopted by the voters on June 8, 2004.  

When the Legislature is in session, the SFR department publishes the weekly Legislative Bulletin. The Bulletin tracks the progress of hundreds of municipally-related legislative proposals (LDs) as they work their way through the legislative process. SFR staff also write extensively for the Maine Townsman throughout the year, particularly before and after each legislative session with a 'preview' and 'wrap-up' edition, respectively. SFR staff also distribute Action Alerts throughout the year for the purpose of bringing particularly significant issues to the attention of municipal officials across the state and urging those officials to take some kind of action, such as contacting their state representatives or the state agencies that may be involved. From time to time SFR also distributes survey instruments to LPC members or municipal officials, generally, to obtain the feedback it needs to accurately represent municipal interests before the Legislature or a respective state agency.

On the federal level, SFR publishes the Federal Issues Paper in February of each year, which is taken down to Washington every March by a group of municipal officials to inform Maine's Congressional Delegation about issues of concern to Maine municipalities.