News

LR explanations

Explanations from several local legislators on the thinking behind their proposed Legislative Requests
By Elizabeth Prata

"LR 38 An Act To Prohibit Convicted Sex Offenders from Establishing Residency in Certain Municipalities" was proposed by Rep. Vaughan of Durham. We asked, "Which municipalities, and how is that determined?"

Rep. Michael Vaughan explained that, "Last spring, Durham discovered they had a Big City transplant with 5 rape convictions living in their community (Ron Leno, Bridgewater MA ex-convict). As far as the State of Maine was concerned, he had a clean record and was not required to register."

"Durham had a special town meeting attended by about 200 residents who heard a presentation by the Androscoggin County Sheriff's Department."

"I decided to introduce the bill to offer a bit of recourse to small communities other than the current reality."

"This bill allows communities without police forces which are able to respond within 5 minutes, to disallow residency of convicted sex offenders (pedophiles, rapists etc). Specifically, they must have been convicted and be a 10 year or a lifetime registrant."

"I have requested additional time to gather signatures, and additional signatures. I plan to have many cosponsors from both parties (mostly rural.) I also have other bills regarding this topic including "civil commitment and the reintroduction of the term rape as a crime, and a general increase in the penalties for sex related crimes."

"LR 2051 An Act To Promote the Commonsense Consumption of Food" was proposed by Sen. Karl Turner of Cumberland

"The origins of this bill go to the desire in some circles to require that the calories of a meal be posted on a menu and/or menu board of a restaurant. This is one of the potential outgrowths of a public health committee that looked at obesity in the last session."

"The fear in the restaurant circles is that they face legal liability for inaccurate calorie counts in their menus thus making the public obese. The bill seeks to absolve restaurants of that liability."

"Currently, no restaurants in the country are required to post calorie counts on their menus. However, Ruby Tuesday's does provide a nutrition guideline that is fanfold provided at the table and at the takeout counter of the restaurant. I would support the use of a fanfold sense it has proven to be cost effective for the restaurants to use."

The LR that the Sound Off caller (Sound Off is in the hard copy only) was mentioning is "LR 298 An Act to allow citizens to voluntarily pay extra income taxes or donate money to the state of Maine" which was proposed by Rep Duprey of Hampden. Although, as Sen. Turner informed The Monument, there is nothing preventing a citizen from donating extra as of now…

LR 1943, An Act to Require Funeral Establishments to Council Next of Kin on Embalming
Rep. Mark Bryant (D- Windham)

Rep. Bryant said that "I submitted LR 1943, An Act to Require Funeral Establishments to Council Next of Kin on Embalming, at a constituent's request."

"When death occurs, loved ones have a lot of decisions to make all at once. To embalm or not is a major question that needs to be made timely. This person had a family member pass away who wasn't embalmed. Because the body wasn't embalmed it couldn't be viewed by family members and loved ones. This was a major loss of the closure process for many people involved."

"This bill is a request to require Funeral Establishments to council next of kin to the effects of not having a body embalmed in a timely manor and the option of embalming altogether."