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 proposition” for the city and committed to provide exact figures from Finance Director Brendan O’Connell.

The second priority concerns police training: the city is seeking a statutory change to remove the current residential requirement for the police academy. A public-safety official identified in the transcript as Chief/major King explained, “the current statute requires a residential police academy, which is 18 weeks in Bassilborough. We’re requesting the committee supports the legislative change to remove the residential requirement, which would allow some more flexibility. The academy is currently full each class, and we’re not able to get our people into the spots that we need.” King said removing the residential mandate would allow the city to train recruits more quickly to address staffing shortages.

The third priority is an affordable‑housing preservation bill put forward by Greg Watson and described by staff as modeled on Massachusetts’ 40T. Staff said the proposal would create a statutory preservation tool to help maintain affordability for tenants and affordable‑housing owners and that Watson will attend the next meeting to provide more details.

The committee also heard from Superintendent Ryan, who said the school department shares the city’s top concern—funding. He noted two pressure points: special‑education costs for students served in‑district because of a shortage of out‑of‑district placements, and the need for dedicated capital funding for high‑school facilities. On special education, Ryan said the district is “incurring significant cost, 70 plus $1,000 per student, but not getting reimbursed the same way we would if they were out of district.” He said the state’s EPS (foundation) formula and high property valuations mean Portland receives a much smaller share of state funding than benchmark estimates suggest.

The chair also raised a pilots’ proposal involving the Portland Pilots and the Harbor Commission: the pilots are sponsoring legislation to transfer rate‑making, licensure, and training responsibilities from the Harbor Commission to the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT). The chair invited Jim Cohen, who is leading the pilots on the issue, to present at the next meeting; City Attorney Michael Goldman is reviewing the proposal and will offer an opinion for the committee to consider.

Next steps: Councilor Sykes will circulate a white paper she drafted on a regional prosperity concept called the "Maine Prosperity Partnership Act"; Kate Knox’s team will provide the committee with a list of bills being filed by the Portland legislative delegation; and the chair will send a communication to all councilors asking them to submit legislative priorities so the committee can distill issues before meeting with the delegation. Committee members emphasized the time pressure created by the Jan. 10 cloture deadline.

Votes at a glance: The committee approved the prior meeting minutes by voice vote (multiple members answered “Aye”) and later adjourned on a motion that carried by voice vote.

The committee will reconvene after the holidays to meet with the legislative delegation and to hear more detailed proposals on the affordable‑housing bill and the pilots’ Harbor Commission legislation.