Legislative Update
As the Maine Legislature looks to ramp up in order to wind down its work for the end of session, AIA Maine has continued to stay engaged on both legislative and regulatory matters in Augusta.
On the legislative front:
AIA Maine’s Legislative Committee has provided testimony in support of LD 1929, An Act to Protect Consumers by Licensing Home Building Contractors. Read testimony >
If you would like to support LD 1929, which we expect will be voted on next week (April 8th), contact your legislator today with these talking points.
AIA Maine’s legislative committee has set priorities for AIA’s support of bills on the Special Appropriations Table (the SAT). The SAT is where all bills that have been preliminarily approved by the legislature go for consideration of their fiscal impacts and for the appropriation of necessary funds. FUN FACT: There are close to 300 bills on the SAT, the total value of which exceeds $1.5 billion. Typically, the money left over for funding bills on the SAT is between $10,000 and $50,000 (you read that right!). Given the extreme competition for bill funding, AIA Maine will plan to submit it’s priority list ahead of the deliberations in the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee (AFA), which will take place at the very end of session. The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn on April 17, 2024, but they may exceed that deadline. Last year, they exceeded their adjournment date by nearly 7 weeks.
Bills continued to be introduced and printed, even at this late date. AIA Maine’s government relations team is keeping an eye on any proposals that would impact the profession and will continue to be vigilant until the final gavel falls!
On the regulatory front:
AIA Maine recently weighed in to support a rulemaking proposed by the Department of Public Safety, to adopt Chapters 1, 2, and 4 dealing with the Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code (MUBEC). The proposed chapters deal with administrative matters, the existing building code, and third-party administrators. These initial proposals will follow the release of the more substantive chapters of the MUBEC code updates – namely, the adoption of the 2021 International Building Code (IBC) and the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). The latter two proposals may receive more public focus as they will have more direct impacts on building construction over the coming years. AIA’s own David Matero is a representative on the MUBEC Board, and AIA Maine will continue to stay engaged in the forthcoming rule proposals.
Additionally, we are monitoring other rulemakings related to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which could make changes to the stormwater rules, the Site Location of Development Act, and other land use permitting matters that touch on environmental design.