2023 Legislative Priorities
MECEP’s legislative priorities in 2023 aim to advance economic justice and opportunity, including racial equity. We want to bring fairness and accountability to the corporate tax code, ensure Mainers have access to affordable child care and paid family leave, and build a budget that helps families who need it most.
LD 258: Funding Maine’s future with the state budget
We are living through the recovery of an economy built on a foundation of inequality. We now have a choice to make better policy decisions that intentionally fund the brightest future for the Mainers who face significant hardships and barriers.
Learn more:
- MECEP blog (1/24/23): Gov. Mills budget protects wellbeing. Lawmakers should choose to do more.
- MECEP blog (1/9/23): Yes, a budget can change lives
- MECEP blog (1/5/23): New year, new budgets, new ways to put working families first
Supporting Maine families with kids
LD 1544: Establishing the Maine Dependent Tax Credit
The federal experiment of monthly, direct aid to families led to a massive reduction in child poverty. We can do that on the state level as well by modernizing and increasing Maine’s existing child tax credit and making it accessible to people who need it most.
Learn more:
- MECEP blog (5/13/22): MECEP report shows the Child Tax Credit made a tangible difference for Maine families
- MECEP report (5/13/2022): How the Child Tax Credit was spent in Maine
- MECEP op-ed (4/18/2023): Stronger Maine child tax credit is key for a more prosperous future
- MECEP explainer (5/2/2023): The Child Tax Credit
Ensuring corporations pay their fair share of taxes
We will pursue the following bills aimed at closing tax loopholes used by powerful corporations.
Real Profits Tax (Conformity)
Uses the momentum created by the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act to create a new minimum tax for large, profitable corporations who currently pay little to no taxes.
- MECEP blog (3/27/23): Maine should tax big corporate tax dodgers
Corporate Income Tax Transparency
Taxpayers and legislators should know whether or not the millions of dollars that are being spent on tax breaks for corporations are effective and which companies are actually paying what they owe.
- MECEP blog (7/5/22): Lack of corporate tax transparency hurts Maine
Increasing worker power
LD 1964: Paid Family Leave
Mainers shouldn’t have to choose between spending time with their newborn and paying their rent, or between putting food on the table and caring for their aging parents. A statewide paid family and medical leave policy would solve this problem.
- MECEP blog (2/22/22): Surveys show strong support and widespread need for paid family and medical leave
- MECEP blog (2/14/2023): Legislative commission recommends strong, progressive paid family leave program for Maine
- MECEP explainer (4/5/2023): Paid Family and Medical Leave
LDs 525 and 398: Farm Worker Collective Bargaining and Wage and Hour Rights
The status quo is both harmful and rooted in racism. People who grow our food and power our agricultural economy deserve the same rights as everybody else.
- MECEP blog (4/7/21): Maine must end carveouts that take rights away from essential farmers and food producers
- MECEP blog (5/2/23): Farmworkers deserve the same rights as all workers
LD 513: Overtime
People should be paid fairly for time worked.
- MECEP blog (3/22/21): Extra pay for extra work: How Maine can restore overtime pay for 28,000 Mainers
LDs 857 and 1190: Scheduling Reform
Mainers have a right to safe work schedules that honor their humanity.
- MECEP blog (4/10/19): Proposed “Fair Workweek” law will give workers the stability they need to care for their families
- MECEP blog (4/3/23): Improved scheduling practices give workers more stability
LD 936: Wage Transparency
Greater transparency in wages during the hiring process gives more power to workers and helps address racial and gender inequality.
- MECEP blog (5/4/2023): Pay transparency promotes equality and empowers workers
Strengthening Maine’s child care system
LD 1726: Supporting Child Care for Working Families
Maine needs more child care opportunities in more places that is more affordable. This package we’re supporting with partners in the Right from the Start coalition will immediately seek to increase subsidies for the current providers while seeking better, actionable information about how to strengthen the child care system as a whole in the long term.
Learn more:
- MECEP State of Working Maine (2022): Recognizing the value of labor
- In the words of workers: Bouncing Bubbles Child Care, Creative Play Childcare, Youth and Family Outreach
- MECEP blog (5/9/2023): Child care legislation to benefit Maine workers and families
Fighting for tribal sovereignty
The Wabanaki Tribes in Maine are the only federally-recognized tribes in the United States that are denied the rights and protections guaranteed under Federal Indian Law. We stand with the Tribes’ call to reform the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act and the Maine Implementing Act which limit the Tribes’ inherent rights to self-govern. When the Wabanaki have the tools they need to thrive, all who live within Maine borders benefit.
Learn more:
- MECEP blog (2/25/22): Equal footing for Maine tribes
MECEP will be supporting additional bills to secure improved economic opportunity for Maine workers, families, and communities.
*MECEP analysis coming soon. Please check back.
