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Maine Attorney General Reports and Opinions 1 (2006)

handle is hein.sag/sagme0005 and id is 1 raw text is: 06-1 REGIONAL OFFICES: 84 HARLOW ST., 2ND FLOOR BANGOR, MAINE 04401 TEL: (207) 941-3070 FAX: (207) 941-3075 G. STEV EN ROWE 44 OAK STREET, 4TH FLOOR TTORNEY GENERAL PORTLAND, MAINE 04101-3014 TEL: (207) 822-0260 FAX: (207) 822-0259 TDD: (877) 428-8800 STATE OF MAINE TEL: (2 7) 626-8800 OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL 128 SWEDEN ST., STE. 2 TTY: 1 888-577-6690 6 STATE HOUSE STATION CARIBOU, MAINE 04736 TEL: (207) 496-3792 AUGUSTA, MAINE 04333-0006 FAX: (207) 496-3291 January 17, 2006 Senator Elizabeth Schneider, Senate Chair Representative Christopher Barstow, House Chair Joint Standing Committee on State and Local Government 100 State House Station Augusta., ME 04333-0003 Re: Proposed Committee Amendment to LD 1481 Dear Senator Schneider and Representative Barstow: During the work session on LD 1481 held on January 11, 2006, you asked for an opinion concerning a proposed Committee Amendment to the bill, a copy of which is attached. Soecifically, you have asked whether the constitutional issue identified in our June 10, 2005 opinion has been resolved by the language of the Committee Amendment. LD 1481 contains provisions that would have prohibited a municipal initiative or referendum from having any retroactive effect on existing land use permits or approvals without imposing such a restriction directly upon municipalities. By doing so, as we stated in our opinion of June 10, 2005, the bill would have limited the subject matter of municipal ordinances that are subject to the municipal initiative and people's veto process in conflict with the requirements of Art. IV, Pt. 3, §21 of the Maine Constitution. The proposed Committee Amendment removes all the provisions of the bill that would have limited the scope of ordinances enacted by municipal initiative and referendum as distinct from other ordinances. Instead, the amendment imposes the retroactivity limitation directly upon municipalities, which we believe to be within the Legislature's authority. In doing so, the amendment eliminates the constitutional issue we identified in our opinion. As always, the determination of the policy issues posed by this amendment are for the Legislature to determine, and in providing this information we do not express an opinion on matters of policy. Sincerely, G. STEVEN ROWE Attorney General GSR/elf cc: Anna Broome, Legislative Analyst, OPLA PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER

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