The dome of the Maine State House in Augusta. Sept. 5, 2023. (Photo by Jim Neuger/ Maine Morning Star)
Hundreds of new state laws took effect on Wednesday, including measures that add protections from scams and fees for ticketbuyers, increase taxes on cigarettes, and allow health care providers who prescribe abortion pills to remove their names from the medication’s label, among other things.
Unless otherwise stipulated, all non-emergency laws passed during the last legislative session took effect, as Wednesday marks 90 days since adjournment on June 25.
Several new laws have impacts on Mainers’ everyday lives, such as changes to the tax code, labor laws and health care funding. Others are more symbolic. Maine now officially has a state amphibian (the Spring Peeper), state reptile (the wood turtle) and state dog (the Seppala Siberian Sleddog).
Here are several ways state law has changed (the full list can be found here):
Consumer protections
A new law aims to protect ticket buyers from scams and fees.
It requires ticket resellers to disclose fees up front, bans the use of fake websites and bots that circumvent online ticket limits, and prohibits resellers from adding more than 10% to the original ticket price.
This law started out as a proposal to allow the resale of tickets but was amended after strong opposition from local groups, such as the State Theatre and Portland Symphony Orchestra, which argued that it would benefit large resale platforms.
Notably, ticket exchange and resale company StubHub supported the initial proposal, arguing it would help correct what it sees as a monopoly held by Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation Entertainment — companies that the U.S. Department of Justice sued last year for that reason.
Another similar new law prohibits those renting short-term lodging or selling an entertainment event ticket from advertising or offering a price that doesn’t include all mandatory fees or charges, aside from taxes or fees imposed by a government, shipping charges and charges for ancillary services, such as insurance on a product purchase.
Tax changes
Among the laws that take effect on Wednesday is the state budget addition, which raised taxes on streaming services, cannabis, pensions and cigarettes.
Maine’s cigarette excise tax is increasing the most: from $2 a pack to $3.50 a pack.
Lawmakers also made a few tweaks to the Historic Property Rehabilitation Tax Credit, which encourages private sector investment in the rehabilitation and re-use of historic buildings.
The amount allocated wasn’t changed, but lawmakers extended the timeframe for accessing the credits and therefore increased the cap over that longer period. The idea is that this will remove the incentive for developers to delay or space out projects across multiple tax years and, in turn, help build more affordable housing quicker. Additionally, lawmakers increased this tax credit in rural areas as a means to incentivize the revival of Maine’s rural downtowns.
And, after a 2022 change left out the Mi’kmaq Nation from reform, a new law now ensures equal tax treatment among all of the Wabanaki Nations.
Housing
In addition to those tax changes that incentivize housing development, other laws will help Mainers afford, and be able to remain in, housing.
Some of those changes were again made through the state budget, including increasing the real estate transfer tax on properties that sell for more than a million dollars and allocating that revenue to a dedicated fund for affordable housing.
Other new laws make comprehensive zoning changes to make it easier to build more units on the same lot, add restrictions for owners of manufactured housing communities to try to prevent excessive rent and fee increases, and help Maine workers afford housing and remain connected to employment by making targeted rental assistance available.
Protections for residents of mobile home parks also continued to be a focus of the Legislature.
In 2024, lawmakers passed a law that requires mobile home park owners to notify residents of their intent to sell and give them at least 60 days to make an offer. This year, a new law now gives a group of mobile home owners or a mobile home owners’ association the right of first refusal to purchase a mobile home park if the owner intends to sell.
There are also several new laws that aim to help the unhoused.
Municipalities can no longer ban homeless shelters. Some revenue from the real estate transfer tax will now be redirected to help sustain emergency homeless shelters. The state also allocated ongoing funds for rental assistance for homeless students.
Health care
Health care providers can now request their name be removed from labels on abortion medication. This type of law has emerged as a legislative trend across the country as abortion opponents are ramping up efforts to stop telehealth abortion.
State funding for family planning services has increased. These include routine gynecological and well exams, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, birth control, cancer screenings, gender-affirming and behavioral health care, among others. Such funding is not used for abortions.
The state budget and separate legislation together provide $6 million in one-time funding to providers of these services.
Lisa Margulies, vice president of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, said this funding is even more important in light of President Donald Trump’s cuts to sexual and reproductive health care.
In July, U.S. Congress passed Trump’s spending bill that defunded Planned Parenthood and Maine Family Planning by prohibiting the health care providers from receiving reimbursement payments for non-abortion services provided to patients insured by Medicaid. Maine Family Planning sued over it, but a federal judge sustained the defunding in August.
“Politicians in Washington aren’t stopping their attacks,” Margulies said in a statement. “They are singularly focused on shutting down any provider that legally offers abortion as a component of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care. Their actions have put access to care for everyone — especially our country’s most vulnerable — at risk.”
Another new law requires the Department of Health and Human Services to establish licensing standards for urgent care facilities, which previously lacked such oversight for safety, transparency and quality of care.
Judiciary
People under 18 years old are now prohibited from marrying. The state used to have exceptions. The minimum age was raised to 17, with parental consent required, in 2023. Before that, in 2020, the minimum was set at 16, again with parental consent required.
Adults are now prohibited from doxing minors under state law, which also allows families to seek court action for targeted children. While the impetus for this legislation came from a doxing incident in 2023, the issue gained wider attention this year after the Maine House of Representatives censured Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn) for posting about a transgender student athlete on social media.
Lawmakers made only minimal changes to Maine’s indigent defense structure this year.
Labor
Workers now have some new protections, such as a requirement of minimum pay for reporting to work.
Farmworkers have the right to state minimum wage like most other employees in Maine, after years of failed attempts.
Lawmakers also tweaked the laws governing paid family and medical leave — creating enforcement mechanisms and penalties and clarifying definitions — but rejected any significant changes since the program hasn’t fully been implemented yet.
Maine paid family and medical leave benefits are slated to become available in May 2026 and will allow eligible public and private sector workers to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave for reasons such as illness, to care for a loved one or the birth of a new child.
Lawmakers also expanded the state’s child tax credit through the state budget. The Dependent Exemption Tax Credit was doubled per children under six years old.
Environment and energy
While many bills environmental advocates pushed for this year remain unresolved, some changes started Wednesday.
State law now outlines a goal for Maine to transition to 100% clean electricity by 2040, enshrining an earlier aim Gov. Janet Mills announced in 2023.
Maine has led the country in establishing protections against per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, otherwise known as PFAS. One new law essentially codified what the state already does on a daily basis with its PFAS Response Program, including on-farm testing, crafting mitigation recommendations and providing financial support. On the other hand, Maine expanded the scope of vehicles and equipment exempt from notification requirements for the state’s first-in-the-nation PFAS reporting law.
Another law that took effect permits the transition of the current Governor’s Energy Office into a cabinet-level Department of Energy Resources. The elevation is seen by the governor and lawmakers as a way to set up a more integrated, comprehensive and consistent approach to managing Maine’s energy system.
The state also enshrined the authority of the Public Utilities Commission to develop time-of-use rates, which aim to shift customers’ usage to periods of lower demand, for standard offer service.
A look ahead
On top of those bills that have now become law, the fate of 61 bills that the Maine Legislature passed this year will not be ultimately decided until next year. That’s because the governor opted to postpone her decisions on that legislation until lawmakers reconvene in January.
Among these bills are proposals to give the Wabanaki Nations exclusive rights to operate internet gaming in Maine, restrict local authorities from carrying out federal immigration enforcement, require serial numbers for so-called ghost guns, add Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander history to Maine’s learning results, and establish a statewide takeback program for firefighting foam contaminated with forever chemicals, following a spill in Brunswick last summer.
The 61 bills being held are in addition to the nearly 400 that the Legislature opted to carry over into next year. While some of those bills had yet to make it out of committee, others received initial chamber votes but not enough to determine the final outcome.
That legislation includes all of the measures that were left on the appropriations and study tables, which had largely passed the full Legislature but needed to still be funded or staffed.