New laws championed by Sen. Chenette take effect today
AUGUSTA — A number of new laws sponsored and supported by Sen. Justin Chenette, D-Saco, take effect today, Sept. 19. Maine people will begin to benefit from new laws working to support campaign finance reform, tackle annoying robocalls and help make sure schools are safe for all children. “This past session I’ve worked to making government more ethical, taken steps toward updating our anti-bullying laws, protected our coastline and water supply, and given tools to the Attorney General’s office to go after telemarketing harassment,” said Sen. Chenette. “This is in addition to the legislature taking action to lower the cost of prescription drugs, expand property tax relief, and increase school funding.”An overview of laws sponsored and supported by Sen. Chenette is available below:
FOR CHILDREN AND OUR FUTURE
● Improve Maine’s anti-bullying laws – This law directs the Department of Education to create a stakeholder group to recommend improvements to Maine’s bullying laws for schools. The goal of this bill is to obtain data, analyze issues and report on solutions to address comprehensively how school districts across the state are responding to bullying in their schools.
ETHICS REFORM
● Holding lawmakers accountable- One new law prevents lawmakers and candidates from profiting off political contributions by using political action committees (PAC) to loan their private business money. Another new law aims to close the revolving door of lawmakers becoming lobbyists right after their term ends by putting in a full one-year lobbying ban for former legislators.
PROTECTING OUR ENVIRONMENT
● Offshore drilling ban – Lawmakers passed a law to ensure that big oil can’t come in and destroy Maine’s beautiful coast and working waterfront.
● Water as a right – Lawmakers passed legislation to define water a public necessity, to push back on the corporate control takeover and extraction of our water supply.
FOR MAINE CONSUMERS
● Ban robocalls – A new law bans automated and prerecorded robocalls to residential numbers in Maine. The law gives the Attorney General’s office the authority to enforce a ban on automated and prerecorded voice robocalls as an unfair trade practice, specifically on the grounds that the telemarketer’s intent is to defraud, cause harm or wrongfully profit from the communication.