Each year, state lawmakers consider hundreds -- often thousands -- of bills that deal with everything from waterskiing safety to using fallen apples to make cider to protecting consumers or reworking tax codes.
It's a mix of the obscure and serious.
But those proposed laws come with a price tag of roughly $325 to $370 each. With state finances looking grim, the word is out for the 124th Legislature -- don't file a bunch of bills.
When they start work in December, lawmakers will immediately have to work on cutting the current state budget by about $150 million. Then they'll have to pass a budget that deals with an $838 million shortfall for the two-year period starting July 1.
"If you're going to try to create efficiencies, I think you've got to start by looking in the mirror," said House Minority Leader Joshua Tardy, R-Newport. "Every bill you run through the system has an expense."
The cost of each bill varies based on their length and complexity, according to the Legislature's Office of the Executive Director. The price includes the staff costs for drafting the bill and having it printed to get it to a committee.
During the last two-year legislative session, lawmakers examined 2,188 bills. At $325 to $370 each, that would total from $711,100 to $809,560. Legislators in the previous two-year session filed 1,902 bills, and the two-year session before that, 1,705 bills. The all-time record is held by the 119th Legislature at the turn of this century: 2,645 bills.
In the upcoming session, in addition to working on budget issues, legislators also want to tackle tax reform, energy costs and other big issues -- a heavy lift, in total.
"Every committee has some important things in front of them that are larger policy issues," said state Rep. Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven and the incoming speaker of the House. "We want to make sure they have time to focus on those issues."
Legislators can file as many bills as they want during the first session after an election -- in this case, 2009 -- as long as they meet the deadline. Typically the deadline is mid-December, but for the upcoming session it's Jan. 16.
Bills filed after that, and all bills submitted for the shorter session in 2010, need a green light from legislative leaders before the Legislature can consider them.
Pingree hopes the later date will give lawmakers time to talk with their colleagues, committee chairs and party leaders before deciding whether to submit legislation.
Instead of rushing to file bills before a deadline, lawmakers may be able to consolidate similar bills or decide to hold off on the legislation entirely. And the new deadline comes after Gov. John Baldacci submits his budget for the next two years, which should make the fiscal situation crystal clear to lawmakers, Pingree said.
"I think people sort of understand that anything that requires funding just is not going to happen -- that automatically reduces some of what's going to be submitted," said Sen. Philip Bartlett, D-Gorham, the incoming Senate majority leader.
Bartlett said new members were advised against filing too many bills during their orientation, and there have been "a lot of informal discussions" on the topic.
Tardy noted that most of the filed bills go through the whole process and then get unanimously turned down in committee. Only a few hundred proposed bills ultimately make it into law every session.
Pingree said that although leaders are suggesting that colleagues restrain themselves, they also realize that they don't want to stifle lawmakers' right to propose new laws. "You don't want to limit democracy," she said.
Sen. Kevin Raye, R-Perry and the incoming Senate minority leader, said he believes each individual lawmaker must decide on their own whether to limit filings. He said he didn't think it would be appropriate for him to suggest to elected members how to best serve...
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