Monday, October 18 was an important day for our state – it was the day that many new Maine laws officially took effect. You might not know, but the Maine constitution specifies that all “non-emergency” bills signed into law don’t take effect until 90 days after the Legislature adjourns its legislative session. Since adjournment varies year to year, this day changes. But this session, October 18 was the effective date for a majority of the bills we passed during the last year.

During the past year, we focused our efforts on making prescription drugs more affordable and accessible, lowering property taxes and preventing future increases, and working to protect our environment and address climate change. Now that many of these new laws have taken effect, I wanted to share some of the highlights with you.

One of the most serious issues we addressed is the price of insulin, which continues to rise. We’ve heard countless stories about folks who couldn’t afford insulin and had to ration their supply, or go without it entirely. In a worst case scenario, people can die. One death is too many, and tragically, we have seen several deaths in the country just because someone couldn’t afford insulin.

This year, we created a new program to prevent these worst-case scenarios. It’s called the Insulin Safety Net program, and by the time the program is fully up and running this March, someone who is facing an emergency situation where they can’t afford their insulin will be able to go into a pharmacy and get a month’s supply for $35. The program will be funded by drug manufacturers themselves. While this isn’t a long term solution, I’m hopeful it will prevent future tragedies in Maine.

We also worked to address high property taxes, which have hurt Mainers, especially our seniors, for years now. In addition to restoring revenue sharing, funding public education at 55 percent and reimbursing municipalities for the Homestead Exemption program, the Legislature also revived a program that allows the state to pay seniors’ property taxes so they can remain at home. The state then recoups these costs from participants’ estates later.

I sponsored a bill to create the Maine Healthy Soils Program, which also took effect in October. The program will provide resources to Maine farmers to help them maintain healthy soil for years to come.

As chair of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, I helped pass a new Extended Producer Responsibility Program, which will increase rates of recycling and encourage national corporations to increase the recyclability of their packaging materials. We also passed bills to increase the wages people can earn in apprenticeship programs, and implemented a retirement savings program for those who don’t have access to one through their employer.

These are just some of the measures we passed in the last year. Many of the new laws were considered emergencies, and received bipartisan two-thirds support in the Legislature, which allowed them to take effect immediately upon passage. Those include a bill to ban products containing PFAS, so-called forever chemicals, from being sold in the state; a smart, bipartisan budget that charts our state on a path to recovery, and a slew of bills that will enable our small businesses to thrive after the pandemic.

This January, the Legislature will reconvene for the second regular session so we can keep doing good things for Maine people, our environment, and businesses. I look forward to considering new ideas from constituents and colleagues alike so we can keep our state moving forward in the years to come.

As always, you can reach me by email at Stacy.Brenner@legislature.maine.gov or call my office at 287-1515.

Stacy Brenner is serving her first term in the Maine Senate, representing Senate District 30, which includes Gorham, part of Buxton, and part of Scarborough. She is the co-owner of Broadturn Farm in Scarborough and is also a certified nurse-midwife.