122^nd Legislature

by Judith Harvie, Executive Director

As the current session of the 122^nd marches into spring, several legislative issues have come to the attention of AIA Maine such as standardizing public schools, a sales tax on architectural/engineering services and amend the statewide building code.

LD472 An Act To Amend the Statewide Building Code

AIA Maine supports this legislation that requires towns, cities or municipalities that adopt the Maine Model Building Code to also adopt the International Existing Building Code, which is a building rehabilitation code. At the time of this writing, the bill has had its public hearing before the Committee on Business, Research and Economic Development with little or no opposition and widespread support, according to Jim Pelsor, AIA. He feels that the Committee will give the bill a favorable report, but the next step will need to be creation of a task force to bring the various codes into agreement such as the elevator, NFPA, human rights and IBC. There will also need to be a central clearinghouse for codes. If the bill passes, it will be another step closer to a single family of codes and the state of Maine conforming to 43 other states that have adopted the I Code family of codes. For those interested the final draft of the 2003 IEBC can be viewed online (for free) at the International Codes Council site. AIA Maine extends its sincere appreciation to Jim for his years of work on the codes.

LD1138 An Act To Reduce School Construction Costs

Sponsored by Rep. Glynn of South Portland, the bill requires the State Board of Education to adopt rules to define what constitutes small, medium and large schools. The state board is required to develop standard school construction plans for small, medium and large elementary schools, middle schools and high schools. A school administrative unit that applies for state support for new school construction must select the standard design for the construction of the school in order to have the project fully funded. At the public hearing, the only support for the bill came from the bill’s sponsor. Speaking in opposition was the Department of Education, Maine School Management, the American Council of Engineering Companies of Maine and several architects and engineers. On behalf of AIA Maine, David Webster, AIA, spoke in opposition, and Alan Kuniholm, AIA, was quoted in the press when answering a question from a legislator as saying, “We’re not making hamburgers here.” At the subsequent work session, the presiding Legislative Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs focused on the Department of Education’s (DOE) development of Public Standards and Guidelines for Capital Construction Projects. Over the past several years, DOE’s Scott Brown, AIA, has been developing these Guidelines to address long-term quality construction that would be durable and would be easy to maintain. The topics addressed are site safety, vehicle circulation, site development, building configurations, exterior finishes including roofs, windows, doors among others. The Guidelines also address high performance school standards, building systems such as heating, ventilation, cooling and air quality, technology and its integration into a building, security both at the site and as it relates to the building and its operation. The Committee seemed pleased with the progress of these Guidelines, along with public hearing input, and voted to report LD1138 out of committee with a unanimous Ought-Not-To-Pass. Thank you to all those who journeyed to Augusta to assist with this legislation.

LD1437 An Act To Broaden the Sales Tax Base and Lower the Sales and Use Tax and Service Provider Tax Rates

This bill, which has been scheduled for public hearing on April 25, 2005, is a far-reaching proposal. It repeals exemptions and lowers the rate of those taxes from 5% to 2%. It places a sales tax on professional, scientific and technical services such as A/E, physicians, legal, design, accounting. Also on construction, education, transportation, environmental et al. Historically, there have been many bills that proposed broadening the sales tax base, but this one goes farther and has wider support. AIA Maine has in the past and continues to oppose a sales tax on architectural services be it 5% or 2%. It still puts Maine firms at a competitive disadvantage. A copy of AIA Maine’s position paper on a proposed sales tax is included with this issue of AIA Maine News.

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