By Zack Anchors
Staff Writer
    Among the more than 2,400 legislative proposals that Maine lawmakers have submitted to be considered for the 2007 legislative session in Augusta are five diverse initiatives originating from South Portland. Before the deadline for legislative proposals on Dec. 15 City Manager Thaddeus Jankowski compiled a list of ideas for potential new laws that would benefit the city and submitted the list to the city’s state legislative delegation. Among those offering suggestions for new laws were Fire Chief Kevin Guimond, Assistant City Manager Jim Gailey, City Councilor Linda Boudreau and City Councilor Jim Soule. Although the legislative agenda begins this week in Augusta, it may be months before any of the proposals that originate from the South Portland become transformed into bills, if they make it that far.
    Chief Guimond wants the legislature to consider passing a bill that would allow emergency vehicles to pass through the tollbooths on the State Turnpike without having to pay a fee. Currently, the vehicles only get through free when they are on the way to an emergency. Guimond says the fire department uses the Turnpike frequently as a means of getting to Maine Emergency Management meetings and repair services. Because the city provides free fire, hazardous materials and EMS coverage for the Turnpike, Guimond believes it would be fair if the emergency vehicles were exempt from tolls. Under the proposed law, the exemption would apply to any municipality that provides free emergency services for the Maine Turnpike Authority.
    After the city council expressed interest last year in looking at potential ways the city could improve the energy efficiency of its buildings and vehicles, Assistant City Manager Jim Gailey began searching for ways to identify areas in which the city could make effective changes. After some research, Gailey found that the best starting point would be an extensive “energy audit” of the city’s operations.
    “That audit would look not only at the city buildings, but also at the city’s vehicle fleet,” said Gailey.
    However, such an audit would likely cost around $30,000 to $40,0000, a sum Gailey said the city simply could not afford. Gailey realized that if a city like South Portland could not pay for such a service it was likely that many other municipalities across the state faced similar limitations. That gave him the idea of putting forth a legislative proposal that would provide some means of state-assistance to municipalities conducting “energy audits.” 
    “Maybe it would be paid 50/50 or maybe it would be 80/20, but it would be enough of an offset to make there an incentive for communities to do this,” Gailey said.
    The initiative is being proposed as a model program that would provide some type of funding each year for five to ten municipalities that are seeking ways of operating with increased energy efficiency.
    City Councilor Jim Soule has made clear in public comments that he thinks the state’s approach to funding for education is currently unfair and that the state is not chipping in enough.
    A legislative initiative that he spurred would help address that matter by using relative median local income as a factor in determining the share of local funding.
    The state’s Essential Programs and Services school funding model would be preserved, but instead of relying on the “maximum mill rate expectation system” to determine state and local shares, there would be a return to the recently discontinued system based on relative property value and relative median income.
    The City Council has spent considerable time lately dealing with a controversy over what to do with Edgewood Road—a street that begins in South Portland and ends in Cape Elizabeth and has caused a great deal of animosity between the two municipalities. At a recent workshop,  Bourdeau brought up the idea of putting forward a legislative proposal that would require municipalities to work together in such situations.
    As it exists now, the initiative would “require reviewing authorities from each municipality to jointly meet and discuss a subdivision and/or site plan application for those proposals that would encompass properties that share a common boundary with an adjacent municipality.”
    Another proposed law from South Portland would allow individual municipalities to implement a one percent local “room occupancy excise tax.”  The money raised from the tax would be directed to the municipality for general use.
    Gailey said the list of legislative initiatives is currently undergoing the first of many steps on the path towards becoming full-fledged bills.