[Local-Maine-Schools] Senate Amendments

[Dick Atlee]

I missed any action in the Senate earlier, but here's a list of Senate 
amendments from a note I should have sent earlier today.

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The Senate now takes up the original unamended language from last 
Friday, and proposes amendments to it.  Then, as in the national 
legislature,  a conference committee from the House and Senate have to 
come up with a compromise.

Rob Liebow has found a site that lists all the amendments to that Friday 
language, both in the House (only one of which was acted upon last 
night, the rest tabled) and in the Senate (so far):

http://janus.state.me.us/legis/LawMakerWeb/externalsiteframe.asp?ID=280022975&LD=499&Type=1&SessionID=7

It is conceivable, though perhaps unlikely, that all of what happened 
last night could be lost in the conference process.  On the other hand, 
a number of the Senate amendments essentially blow the whole thing out 
of the water. Here's a summary-of-the-summaries of the Senate amendments 
listed on the site, starting with a group of five that would have major 
impacts on the legislation:

S211 (Nass)
Wipes out whole thing, orders CoE to report on the methodology for 
distributing the reduction of funding for general purpose aid to school 
administrative units.

S212 (Damon)
Wipes out whol thing except for the EPS reductions (sections XXXX-24 to 
27) and the setting up of a stake-holder commission to figure out what 
WOULD work.

S218 (Raye)
Wide ranging softening of the whole structure (except reductions) -- for 
details, see 
http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/billtexts/LD049954.asp

S221 (Weston)
Educational collaboratives as another alternative for local school 
administrative units (extensive details)

S220 (Raye)
Unions can exist, admin penalty is 50% rather than 100%

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S219 (Rosen)
RSU not required to have a high school, can contract with one that does

S213 (Damon)
Exemption of Hancock County

S205  (Mills)
Pushes the timeline points forward (tighter) by 2-5 weeks

S206 (Mills)
Permits municipality to contribute money to a school and designate its use

S205 (Mills)
Budget validation/referendum only needed if budget >105% of EPS

S209 (Mills)
Removes % reductions to be specified in plan, plan must meet EPS

S207 (Mills)
Clarifies "nonconforming" (for penalties) to mean: no approval by 11/08 
and no implementation by 7/09

S210 (Mills)
In addition to penalties, add incentive (5% reduction in state-required 
mil-rate) for timely adopters

S216 (Bartlett)
Base reductions on EPS allocations rather than EPS expenditures (?)

S217 (Raye)
Exempt efficient (<4% admin) districts, requires CoE to define 
"efficient" for future