Latest news with #MaineEqualJustice
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Landlords, advocates split over bill barring discrimination against renters on public assistance
Rep. Cheryl Golek (D-Harpswell) called source-of-income discrimination 'an urgent injustice.' (Photo by Getty Images) Mainers receiving public assistance can often wait years for an apartment to open up. In an effort to alleviate that backlog and address what many see as economic discrimination in Maine's housing sector, lawmakers are considering a bill that would prohibit landlords from refusing to rent to tenants solely because they rely on programs such as general assistance or housing vouchers. Supporters say it's a crucial step to prevent income discrimination, especially given Maine's lack of affordable housing. Opponents of the bill, however, said the issue is not about discrimination, but about whether landlords should be forced to accept additional terms imposed by voucher programs. The bill, LD 1036, was heard by the Legislature's Housing Committee on Tuesday. Sponsor, Rep. Ambureen Rana (D-Bangor) said the wait list for subsidized housing in Maine can range from 14 to 28 months, and in some cases, people wait several years. 'Discrimination should not be an added hindrance on top of price, location, safety and availability,' she said. While Maine law technically already prohibits discrimination against people who use public assistance for housing, advocates say those protections were significantly weakened by a 2014 law court interpretation. Andrea Steward, a policy advocate with Maine Equal Justice, explained during the public hearing Tuesday that the ruling left a loophole. Public assistance cannot be discriminated against as a source of income, but it allows landlords to refuse signing on to the requirements of the program, whether that's a municipality or federal Section 8 requirements, Steward said in her testimony. Because of that legal interpretation, landlords can currently refuse to accept tenants who pay rent using public assistance just because they don't want to sign certain paperwork. This proposal wouldn't prevent landlords from conducting standard tenant screenings, such as calling references, checking eviction records or whether one's general assistance or federal housing voucher would cover the rent, Steward said. 'So it still makes all of those arguments legitimate, that a landlord can look at all of those factors in order to make a determination,' she said. 'They just can't make a blanket statement that says 'You have Section 8. I don't want to sign this document, and so therefore I'm not going to rent to you.'' Rep. Cheryl Golek (D-Harpswell), a co-sponsor of the bill, called source-of-income discrimination 'an urgent injustice.' She also shared her own personal experience as a single parent relying on Section 8 housing and general assistance and being denied housing. 'I was often bluntly told, 'Sorry, we don't rent to you people. Give me a call when you stop being lazy,' Golek said. 'Being able to pay rent is life-saving. It should not matter where a person's source of income comes from that they use to pay their rent.' Golek also noted that source-of-income discrimination disproportionately harms marginalized populations, referencing a 2022 study from the Maine State Housing Authority which found that Black Mainers made up 34% of the state's homeless population, despite representing less than 2% of the general population at the time. Dan Bernier, representing the Central Maine Apartment Owners Association, testified against the proposal, saying Maine law already prohibits landlords from treating voucher holders differently than other tenants. 'Maine law is clear. You cannot discriminate,' Bernier said. 'You have to offer housing for somebody holding a voucher on the same terms you would offer to anyone else.' But he said under the current legal interpretation, landlords don't have to accept the terms set by the government agency providing the public assistance, which can include a rent amount. Landlords shouldn't be compelled to agree to any government-imposed conditions that often come with vouchers, such as limits on rent increases, changes to lease terms, or alterations to the eviction process, he said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mainers object to proposed program cuts ahead of governor's budget address
Gov. Janet Mills proposes a 2026-27 budget as well as a change package for 2025 on Jan. 10 at the State House in Augusta. (Emma Davis/ Maine Morning Star) As part of Gov. Janet Mills' plan to address a projected revenue shortfall, she has proposed targeted cuts for child and health care programs that she had earlier championed. One of the cuts reverses the state's recent investments in child care by reducing $30 million for child care worker stipends to bring them back to 2022 levels. Another is a roughly $8 million cut to low-income food assistance for asylum seekers who have received work permits but are looking for employment. Also, some crisis receiving centers established by the Legislature in the wake of the Lewiston mass shooting may also not come to fruition if the governor's plan is approved. Alex Carter, policy advocate with Maine Equal Justice, which is among the groups objecting to the proposed cuts, said a budget is a statement on values. 'Tough choices are something that we understand, and we also understand that our clients and the communities that we are closest to are making those tough choices every single day,' Carter said. 'It really does not feel fair to ask them to make even harder decisions about their basic needs.' Rather than cuts, Maine Equal Justice and a number of organizations across the state are advocating for changes to Maine's tax code. The Mainers for Tax Fairness coalition will be releasing its detailed plans later this week, which is expected to include a 'millionaire tax,' similar to the law recently passed in Massachusetts to tax income over $1 million by an additional 4%. Any budget that raises taxes, which includes the governor's current plan, will not be getting the support of Republicans, which would mean the Legislature won't be able to pass it as an emergency measure to take effect immediately. Rather, a pattern of majority budgets passed by Democrats in recent years would continue. Mills vetoed a proposal last year to tax wealthy Mainers at higher rates, but Ryan Tipping, director of campaigns and strategy for the progressive Maine Center for Economic Policy, said he believes the revenue shortfall the state faces presents a fresh opportunity. 'The governor has already opened the door for a discussion about revenue,' Tipping said. 'At this point it's a discussion about where that money is going to come from to make sure we can continue building a better future for the state and dealing with industries in crisis right now, like the child care industry and the health care industry, which right now the governor is proposing we make major cuts in those areas to balance the budget.' Mills is expected to share more of her thinking behind her budget plan in an address in Augusta on Tuesday evening. Maine's investments in child care in recent years have been the largest in state history. In 2021, Maine started providing $200 stipends per child care worker to help alleviate worker shortages during the height of the pandemic. Those monthly stipends doubled as part of the $59 million allocation to overhaul child care in the last biennial budget, spearheaded by former Senate President Troy Jackson (R-Aroostook). The package also expanded eligibility for the Child Care Affordability Program, which provides child care subsidies. The Mills administration had initially opposed Jackson's plan. Todd Landry, the former director of the Office of Child and Family Services, testified that the office expected the funding 'would be inadequate for its purpose, creating expectations for families that it cannot meet' and would 'complicate and duplicate program administration.' Mills' proposal for the biennial budget this year essentially guts those recent investments. She proposed cutting $30 million from childcare worker stipends, which would decrease average earnings for nearly 7,500 childcare workers by $4,000 over two years, according to the Maine Center for Economic Policy. The governor's budget plan also reduces Head Start funding by $7 million and cancels a $5 million scholarship program to help child care workers pay for child care for their own children, known as the Child Care Employment Award. Rita Furlow, senior policy analyst for Maine Children's Alliance, said she is concerned that if the state rolls back the recent investments it will result in more people leaving an already struggling field. 'It is really hard to get people to take these jobs, and it is crucial for parents to be able to work and for employers to have staff,' Furlow said. 'So, this is really disappointing.' Just months after the expansion of the Child Care Affordability Program took effect in July, the Office of Child and Family Services had to implement a waitlist in order to stay within the available federal funding. According to Furlow, more than 170 are currently waiting for the Child Care Affordability Program and more than 400 children for the Child Care Employment Award program. Commission recommends more caregiving support to address Maine's persistent gender disparities 'We're discouraged that something that just began and was obviously really needed is being targeted to be cut,' Furlow said. 'We think this is going in completely the wrong direction.' The Maine Permanent Commission on the Status of Women concluded in its biennial report released this fall that gender disparities persist in part due to disproportionate caregiving responsibilities and insufficient access to services such as affordable, high-quality child and elder care. The Maine Children's Alliance will be advocating for the cuts to be removed from the budget, as well as separately supporting legislation aimed to provide additional salary supplements and employment awards. The list of working titles for bills this session shows Senate President Mattie Daughtry (D-Brunswick) has filed bills to this effect. The federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, otherwise known as SNAP, is a low-income food assistance program administered at the state-level. Federal law prohibits the benefits from going to certain people who are not citizens, including asylum seekers. However, Maine is one of five states that also runs a SNAP program with state funding to assist those who can't access the federal assistance. The Mills administration previously tried to eliminate what is referred to as the 'Hardship D' exemption of the state program, which grants benefits for people who have received their work authorization but are unemployed, however the Legislature rejected that proposal. Mills is again seeking to cut the exemption in her budget plan, which her office said would result in roughly $7.8 million in savings over the next biennium. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition, which represents more than 100 organizations across the state, will be urging lawmakers to reject the proposal. 'Just because they wouldn't have access to benefits, doesn't mean that they're not going to be hungry anymore,' said Ruben Torres, who serves as the group's advocacy, communications and policy manager. 'It essentially hands off the problem back to community organizations that brought this up as an issue in the first place.' Reflecting on his own job searches in the past, Torres said regardless of citizenship status, it can take weeks or even months to hear back when applying for jobs. Carter with Maine Equal Justice also raised this issue. 'It's very unrealistic to think that someone, as soon as they receive their work authorization, already has a job,' Carter said. Torres and Carter said this will also impact people between jobs, a period during which the need for support was demonstrated on a large scale in 2023, when Abbott Labs laid off hundreds of immigrant employees who had worked during the pandemic to assemble rapid COVID-19 tests once demand for testing declined. Torres said he expects the federal crackdown on immigration under the Trump administration to make it more difficult to maintain support for immigrants on the state-level, though he urged lawmakers to view the cuts in Maine as the local issue it is. 'It's targeting people in our communities that have the least amount of assistance that they can receive thanks to federal regulations, and they provide quite a bit to the state, both in tax dollars and also in cultural enrichment and community support,' Torres said. The federal restriction Torres is referring to is the wait time for work authorizations. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, asylum seekers currently have to wait 180 days after filing for asylum to obtain a work permit. Leaders of immigrant rights groups in Maine argue shortening the waiting period would help alleviate constraints in providing resources, such as housing to new arrivals, while also addressing the workforce shortage. Maine's congressional delegation has sponsored legislation to shorten the waiting period and plans to continue pushing for the change, though such legislation has so far failed to progress. When Mills first released her budget plan earlier this month, she said she focused on cuts to programs that hadn't taken effect yet to minimize disruptions. She repeated the line, 'I don't think government can, or should, be all things to all people at all times.' Taxes take center stage in budget debates In her supplemental budget last year, the governor signed into law funding to develop crisis receiving centers following the deadliest mass shooting in the state's history in Lewiston. While Mills said this month that she wants such supports to be available, it is not financially feasible to build all of the centers she had hoped. Her proposal would cut funding for these centers in Kennebec and Aroostook counties but not for centers in Lewiston and Penobscot County. Another proposed cut is the 24 law enforcement liaisons included in her supplemental budget, which aimed to bridge the gap between behavioral health organizations and law enforcement agencies. Mills wrote in a document outlining her proposed cuts that the Legislature didn't provide the necessary funding to launch the program. Maine People's Alliance, the state's largest progressive community action organization, will be opposing the cuts to mental health supports, said Nora Flaherty-Stanford, who is heading the organization's budget advocacy work this year. 'Why are people in a mental health crisis the people on whose back you want to balance your budget?' Flaherty-Stanford said. Overall, Flaherty-Stanford said MPA believes the budget plan is short sighted and said the state should instead look for places to raise revenue. Formed in 2020 and launched in 2021, Mainers for Tax Fairness is preparing to continue its push to change the state's tax code this legislative session. The coalition — which includes MPA, Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition, Maine Equal Justice, Maine Center for Economic Policy and other organizations representing progressive interests across the state — is finalizing the list of bills it will be backing this session. It has seen some success in the past, including with the passage of a law last session that now requires a report on the corporate income taxes paid by Maine's largest employers every two years. Other initiatives have stalled, including a plan last year to tax wealthy Mainers at higher rates that was vetoed by Mills. 'We're considering more of the same,' Tipping with MECEP said of the coalition's priorities, 'as well as making sure we're also working on the other end of the fairness spectrum and making sure tax credits are working for people that need them most.' Although Mills has emphasized that her budget does not include changes to sales or income tax, Tipping said he views the taxes Mills did include — specifically her proposed phaseout of the state's pension deduction for people who make more than $100,000 — as an indication that she may be open to other tax changes. While not all legislation has been printed yet, the list of working bill titlesshows lawmakers will be attempting to change the state's tax code in a number of ways. Rep. Pluecker Bill (I-Warren) is aiming to support the state's agricultural economy by increasing revenue from the corporate income tax. Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart (R-Aroostook) is proposing an income tax credit for employer-supported child care. Others will be seeking to make it more difficult to make any tax changes, including Rep. Rachel Henderson (R-Rumford), who filed a bill to amend Maine's constitution so a supermajority of the Legislature is required to approve raising taxes. 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Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Maine Democrats choose new party leaders
Jan. 27—Democrats have chosen a lawyer from Central Maine to lead the state party for the next two years — an election cycle that will include statewide races for governor and U.S. Senate. The party announced Monday that Charlie Dingman of Leeds was elected as chair and Imke Schlesser-Jandreau of Bangor was elected as vice chair. Both candidates hail from the more rural, conservative 2nd Congressional District, whose voters will be key to winning statewide offices in two years. Dingman, a lawyer who has served on the board for Maine Equal Justice, which advocates for low income residents and families, and served on committees for the party and the Justice Action Group, which supports legal aid providers and social justice groups, is planning to focus on unifying the party and reaching voters across the state ahead of the 2026 cycle. "This is a challenging moment for all of us in the party of Maine's working people, as our new national regime serves the interests of the very few who are wealthy enough not to do their own work, and pursues its agenda without a care for those most vulnerable to their cruelty," Dingman said in written statement. "They want to confuse and distract working people by turning us against each other. I believe Maine Democrats spoke loudly and clearly today that we will counter that toxic agenda with all our strength, reaching out to those in our rural and urban communities alike to reconnect with the disillusioned and expand our mission of fairness and opportunity for everyone." Schlesser-Jandreau is a communications professional, who said in a written statement that Democrats have "an incredible opportunity to rebrand the party, lean into our values, and bring people together." Party officials did not immediately respond to questions about how many other candidates ran for party chair. Maine Democrats cut against national trends last November, maintaining their majorities in both the state Senate and House of Representatives, albeit by smaller margins, for Democratic Gov. Janet Mills' final two years in office. Democrats have held the governor's office and both chamber of the Legislature since 2019. With Mills termed out of office, the 2026 gubernatorial race is expected to be a wide-open race. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins says she's planning on seeking reelection. No challengers have emerged, though Mills did not rule out running when asked by the Press Herald in December. Dingman and Schlesser-Jandreau replace outgoing Chair Bev Uhlenhake and Vice Chair Julian Rogers, who did not seek another term. Copy the Story Link
