Here is my crime, committed in my first nine days in office:
Ø December 6, 2006: With 150 others, I am sworn in as State Representative for the next two years.
Ø December 15, 2006: I introduce 24 pieces of legislation
to be considered in the next two years, ranging from tax-law changes, to clean energy initiatives, to protections from domestic
violence. My plan is to plant the seeds before today’s “cloture” deadline --
then thin them as I study the issues and the new political landscape.
To some, the huge number of bills introduced for consideration in the next
two years – a whopping 2,500 -- seems unethical. Some, imagining staff members
to be paid hourly rather than by salary, assume higher labor costs. Others, thinking
all bills propose new laws, worry about our too-complex legal system. A few,
no doubt, are even tempted towards something like the famous quote attributed (probably by his opponents) to Marion Barry,
the former Mayor of our nation’s capital: “What
right does Congress have to go around making laws, just because they deem it necessary?”
Like Congress, Maine’s legislature
makes laws, amends laws, and repeals laws. In my limited experience so far, the
majority of bills are fine tunings of existing law: a bill to help professionalize
the field of landscape architecture, or a bill to strike three words from the laws governing beneficiary changes for pensioned
retirees. Such bills tend either to die a quick and painless death in committee,
or to receive the committee’s unanimous support and pass “under the hammer,” without objection from any legislator.
Even if they’re all good ideas, the number of bills introduced in the first
week of the 123rd Legislature is problematic. First, it means
the salaried staff of the Revisor’s Office and a couple of other offices need to work a lot harder – without getting paid
more. Second, it means my new colleagues and I have to work a lot harder – also
without getting paid more. As someone who’s just taken an overall pay-and-benefits
cut of several thousand dollars to work two jobs instead of one, why would I choose to work even harder?
For first-term legislators or senators, it’s far easier to put in just one
or two bills, and then make excuses for two years. “I’m still just learning the
ropes.” “I only had that first week to introduce legislation. How could I know what was needed or appropriate?” As one colleague
suggested to me, “just keep on saying it’s your first term.”
Still, we were elected to represent our constituents. In my own campaign, visiting over 4,000 homes, I filled eight notebooks with the jotted concerns and hopes
of those who elected me. I know exactly what my constituents want. Like many who’ve put in numerous bills, I feel it’s my job to do the people’s business.
Since my crime was committed, five of my bills have been identified as “dupes,”
meaning that at least one other legislator submitted the exact same idea. In
addition, I’ve pulled out four more bills that were dying on the vine. If you
want big pumpkins, you feed the best and thin the rest.
For next session, there’s talk of changing the cloture date, to allow thinning
before session actually begins. When the time comes, that’s an idea I’ll gladly
put in.
State Representative Seth Berry represents Bowdoin,
Bowdoinham and Richmond. His biweekly BerryBlog is exclusive to the Coastal Journal and to his
website, www.sethberry.org. To request a paperless list of all 2,500 bills currently sprouting in the State
House, readers may email Rep. Berry from his website.
