04/15/2014 - Innovations in Government Awards Could your municipality use a $100,000 award? The Harvard Kennedy School annually recognizes programs that demonstrate creative and effective government at its best. All units of government — federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial — from all policy areas are eligible to apply for recognition. This year, the program also will recognize government-led efforts to engage citizens and promote participation in governance.
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04/08/2014 - MMA’s Seventh-Grade Essay Winners Announced Each year, Maine Municipal Association holds a statewide essay contest for middle school students to get them thinking about municipal government – what it does, how it works and how, one day, they might take leadership roles. This year’s essay winners hail from Bangor, North Yarmouth and Richmond.
04/07/2014 - Maine Rural Water Association Training The Maine Rural Water Association will offer a variety of training opportunities in the coming months, starting on May 8. Topics include safety training for wastewater and public works employees, septic system design and approval, soil erosion control and a review of Federal and State safe drinking water rules effecting Maine’s public water systems.
04/02/2014 - Workplace Rights Class The Maine Department of Labor will offer sessions of its free course that educates employers and the public about regulations governing the workplace. The Laws Governing Workplace Rights classes are taught by staff of the Wage and Hour Division of the Bureau of Labor Standards. The Lubec course will be held April 9 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m at the Lubec Town Office, 40 School Street. The other courses will be held May 20 in Farmington on the University of Maine campus, June 13 in Rockland at the Rockland Career Center, and June 19 in Scarborough at the Scarborough Municipal Building.
04/02/2014 - Free Workplace Safety Training Courses in April The Maine Department of Labor’s SafetyWorks! training and safety consultation program will offer free training courses in April. Courses will be offered in Augusta, Bangor, Lubec, Presque Isle and Portland.
03/27/2014 - MMA Nominations for Executive Committee Being Accepted Each year, the Maine Municipal Association seeks interest from qualified municipal officials to serve on the MMA Executive Committee. The Executive Committee is created by MMA Bylaws and serves as the governing body of the Association. The Committee is composed of 12 elected or appointed municipal officials including a President, Immediate Past President, Vice President and nine Executive Committee members with staggered terms). A Proposed Slate of Nominees is put forward by an appointed, five-member Nominating Committee, followed by a petition process and final elections held in August by a ballot vote of the full municipal membership.
03/21/2014 - ACA Deadline Nears The deadline for Maine residents to enroll in the federal Affordable Health Care Act program for 2014 is coming up, March 31. More than 25,000 Mainers have done so thus far.
03/19/2014 - Recycling & Solid Waste Conference Maine Resource Recovery Association will present the 21st Annual Maine Recycling & Solid Waste Conference on April 28-29 at the Samoset Resort in Rockport. Among the many topics to be explored: Green Chemistry; Climate Change; Zero Waste; and, Product Stewardship.
03/12/2014 - New Executive Committee Member Named John Bubier, City Manager in Biddeford and Chair of the Maine Service Center Coalition, has begun serving his term on the Maine Municipal Association’s 12-member Executive Committee.
03/03/2014 - MMA Federal Issues Paper Released Each year, Maine Municipal Association publishes a Federal Issues Paper that sheds light on the role the federal government has in supporting municipal government and in issuing requirements and passing laws that can impact cities and towns in other ways.
02/26/2014 - MMA Says 'Thanks' As Revenue Sharing Bill Becomes Law MMA Executive Director Christopher Lockwood today expressed appreciation to members who pushed for the bill and to state legislators who sponsored and supported it, as $40 million in revenue-sharing funds were preserved statewide for FY 2015.
02/20/2014 - MMA's 2014 Strategic & Business Plan MMA has released its 2014 Strategic & Business Plan.
02/06/2014 - Thomas College Job Fair Thomas College will hold a job fair at its Waterville campus on March 12 that will be an opportunity for students and municipal employers to meet one another.
01/31/2014 - Maine Municipal Association Fights for Revenue Sharing Starting Sunday, MMA will launch a statewide information campaign informing citizens how the state Legislature’s ongoing raids of Maine’s Municipal Revenue Sharing program, despite a 1972 law that created it, is forcing property-tax increases and cuts to relied-upon municipal services such as snow plowing, road maintenance and emergency response.
The campaign will include television messages, digital messages and an extensive social media rollout. If you care about this issue, we ask you to contact your legislators now – time is of the essence – and tell them to balance the state’s $6.3 billion budget some other way than by forcing local property tax increases. Here’s a link to our new campaign website…
www.MaineRevenueSharing.com
01/28/2014 - Newspapers Back Revenue Sharing Maine’s two largest daily newspapers – the Portland Press Herald and Bangor Daily News – published editorials last week strongly condemning what the Legislature has done to the 42-year-old municipal revenue-sharing program since 2009.
01/24/2014 - Authentic Revenue-Sharing Testimony Today's Legislative Bulletin from Maine Municipal Association does an excellent job on two fronts: Showing the significant impact that state revenue-sharing reductions have on cities, towns and local property taxpayers; and, providing authentic, heartfelt testimony from municipal officials across the state.
01/24/2014 - Firefighter Fitness The Maine Fire Service Institute will hold an informational session about fitness and physical ability testing in Brunswick on April 24 at 10 a.m.
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01/15/2014 - Detailing Revenue Sharing Destruction The Maine Legislature may slash state revenue sharing to roughly one-eighth of what state law requires. Right now, the 1972 law requiring the state to share 5 percent of sales and income tax money with municipalities means that $138 million should be distributed this year. But, the state’s keeping well over half of that, distributing just $65 million this year. In order to “balance” the 2015 budget and deal with recurring state agency cost overruns, that revenue-sharing figure may fall to $20 million. One example: By law, the City of Auburn should receive $3.36 million per year. If lawmakers cut the program even more deeply, Auburn will lose $3.1 million of that. The likely result statewide: Huge municipal and school cuts and higher local property taxes.
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