Portland committee outlines three legislative priorities ahead of Jan. 10 cloture deadline

Portland’s legislative committee approved the prior meeting’s minutes and spent most of its meeting on a legislative update aimed at meeting the Jan. 10 bill‑title cloture deadline.

Kate Knox, contract lobbying counsel to the city with Bernstein Shore, told the committee that the legislature has new leadership and many new legislators and that “cloture, which is the date by which all bill titles need to be submitted, is January 10th.” She said the statewide revenue forecast is only modestly improved and that cities should not expect major new funding streams this session.

City staff then outlined three formal priorities. The first is restoring the general assistance reimbursement rate to 90 percent. City staff summarized the history of the policy and said the reimbursement rate dropped to 50 percent during the LePage administration, was later raised to about 70 percent, and that staff have pursued a statutory return to 90 percent for multiple legislative cycles. Councilor Grant asked about scale; staff said the change would be “a several several $1,000,000…