State Representative: Maine House District 135

 As of today, my bill LD 1242, regarding oversight of the Maine Medical Marijuana Program has become law. The Governor had until midnight last night to veto the bill but she did not. Clearly our 117-25 vote in the House and 33-2 vote in the Senate had something to do with that, as did the bi-partisan nature of the vote.  Thank you to all of my co-sponsors and a huge thank you to Susan Meehan and Arleigh Krause who worked the legislature for weeks before the vote. Likewise, thanks to all of the caregivers who gave up days to be at the Capitol so that they could engage the legislators and talk about the program. And, of course, a huge thank you to Rep. Patrick Corey who used his legislative skills to help us get an "ought to pass" vote out of Committee, Alysia Melnick, lobbyist (in the good sense) supreme, to Mark Barnett and the Maine Craft Cannabis Association, and to Paul McCarrier who has spent much more than a decade working to protect and improve the Maine M

 https://www.facebook.com/lynne.williams2 Tonight we in the Maine House voted to stop the proposed medical marijuana rules being pushed by the Office of Marijuana. All future rules changes will be considered major substantive and will be required to be reviewed by the Legislature. This was my bill and we won by 117 to 25. A totally non-partisan vote. A great evening for the Maine Medical Marijuana Program and our small caregivers who run small businesses. Tomorrow it goes to the Senate where it is likely to also pass.

  I am not going to say "I told you so," but I did tell you so. As an attorney representing community residents, I fought every one of these projects in front of the BEP and, for some, in court. We lost every case because at that time the state was all hot on how wonderful these projects are! And the counties were at best complicit. None of them fought side by side with their residents against these projects. Now the cash is decreasing and, in my opinion, will disappear completely in a few years. What is not mentioned in this excellent article, is the fact that most of them were not required to have a decommissioning escrow fund set up. So as they become obsolete they could in fact be abandoned by the owners, who seem to have a penchant for "going out of business" (probably bankruptcy to avoid debt) and then creating a new entity to sell the project to at a bargain basement rate. Oh, and Stacey Fitts, Maine asset manager for Onward, the one that screwed Somerset Cou

Business Posted Yesterday at 4:03 PM Updated 58 mins ago increase font size Maine lawmakers seek to pre-empt proposed rules for medical cannabis A bill co-sponsored by 2 Democrats would require the medical cannabis industry's input on any new regulations. By Hannah LaClaire Staff Writer Share Two Maine legislators are coming to the defense of Maine’s medical marijuana program with a bill that would place a moratorium on a set of proposed regulations and require greater input from the industry before any further rule changes are implemented.  Co-sponsored by Rep. Lynne Williams, D-Bar Harbor, and Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, the bill would require that in order to amend the rules governing the medical cannabis program, the Maine Office of Marijuana Policy must consult “caregivers, registered caregivers and patients and physicians and certified nurse practitioners with significant knowledge

 As anyone who how knows me is aware of, I am NOT a late night person. But I was pleased and honored last night to stay up until about 2 am to help pass the Maine Supplemental Budget at the Augusta Civic Center, which passed unanimously less one vote. It had to pass by a 2/3 majority in order to qualify as an emergency and go into effect immediately. In short, the supplemental is an adjustment to the 2020-2021 budget, which is passed in order to make adjustments to the original budget that reflects situations that arose subsequent to passing that budget last year. The major situation that had to be addressed was the financial costs of the pandemic to the people of Maine. Following is what the supplemental passed last night includes: Critical relief for 160,000 Mainers who lost their jobs due to the pandemic: The supplemental budget includes $47M to exempt unemployment benefits from state income taxes. Without this relief, Mainers who relied on unemployment benefits at some point during

  Budgets are not everyone's cup of tea. But for those who want to know a bit more about Maine's current proposed supplemental budget, I've included some information below. First, a supplemental budget is a revision to the budget passed last year that make some changes in income and spending in order to make sure the budget is balanced at the end of the fiscal year (June 30, 2021). A balanced budget is required by our Constitution. So the Appropriations Committee has made such adjustments and following is a description of many of those changes, compliments of my friend and fellow State Representative Rebecca Millett. "Budgets are about priorities. Last week, the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee passed a supplemental budget that targets relief where it’s most needed. Under this budget, 100% of Maine’s businesses do not pay any state tax on Paycheck Protection Program loans. Mainers who lost their jobs because of the pandemic will not pay tax on unemploymen