Legislative Updates as Session Comes to a Close

The 132nd Maine Legislature’s short session statutorily must end on April 15, 2026, and these past few weeks have been a race to pass a supplemental budget, wrap up more than 2,000 legislative requests, and fund a few priorities off the Special Appropriations Table. Here’s what happened over the weekend on bills MANP has been watching.

LD 54, An Act to Require Employers to Disclose Pay Ranges and Maintain Records of Employees' Pay Histories.

There are tons of reasons disclosing pay ranges in job postings is a best practice and improves the hiring process for both the job seeker and the job poster, and its role in decreasing pay equity is well-documented. MANP has required salary range disclosure on our Job Board since 2019.  LD 54 now makes this process the law of the land and requires employers to disclose ranges to their current employees as well.   

LD 2107, An Act to Establish the Maine Nonprofit Security Grant Program.

In response to cuts at the Federal level and increases in threats to certain nonprofit religious organizations, LD 2107 was introduced to make up to $1.5 M in funds to nonprofit applicants to improve the safety and security of their properties. Unfortunately, due to many competing priorities, only $200,000 was included this year.

LD 2244, An Act to Implement Certain Preliminary Recommendations of the Real Estate Property Tax Relief Task Force and to Make Other Changes to Tax Law 

This is the first piece of legislation to come out of the Task Force. This bill allows the task force to meet 8 times in 2026. Additionally, for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2026, the bill increases from $1,000 to $1,500 the property tax fairness credit for individuals under 65 years of age. The bill also requires the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, Bureau of Revenue Services to administer a survey to assessors to gather data on the administration of the Maine Tree Growth Tax Law.

When the Task Force reconvenes later this Spring, we anticipate them digging into the data the Progress and Poverty Institute has compiled over the past several months. This data collection was designed to help the Task Force determine where real change can be made. MANP will be following this work closely.

LD 1449, Resolve, Establishing the Working Group on Modernizing State Grants, Contracts and Procurement

The fate of our Contracting Study Bill, LD 1449, is still pending. On March 27th, the Government Oversight Committee heard testimony on problems nonprofits face in contracting with the State.  MANP is working with legislators and State staff to determine the best method to improve the procurement systems and we’ll have more information shortly.