It's the right of a town or city to enact laws that are municipal in nature and that do not frustrate or run counter to a state law and/or which the state has not prohibited it from passing.
The concept of home rule is very important to local government because without home rule authority, cities and towns would depend for their governing authority on specific acts of the State Legislature.
Maine has been considered a strong "home rule" state since November 1969, when an amendment to the state constitution delegated broad "home rule" ordinance powers to cities and towns. Such ordinances range from ones controlling the barking of dogs, to the regulation of adult businesses, to the regulation of signs, to the control of a town's growth, to the review of real estate development projects, to the banning of herbicide spraying, to the regulation of local timber harvesting.
Below are links to Maine municipal Ordinances & Charters online.
Please report broken or changed links to the Resource Center.