Establishes the
Maine House of Representatives and the
Maine Senate which shall comprise the
Maine Legislature. The number of members of each body are set, and their duties are described. This article also describes the establishment of districts, how members are elected by
Electors in each district, the qualifications for office, a residency requirement, etc. However, this article also reserves to the people certain important powers. "The people reserve to themselves power to propose laws and to enact or reject the same at the polls independent of the Legislature." Also the people reserve the "power at their own option to approve or reject at the polls any Act, bill, resolve or resolution passed by the joint action of both branches of the Legislature, and the style of their laws and Acts shall be, 'Be it enacted by the people of the State of Maine.'" "Legislative Powers" describes when the
Legislature shall meet and allows the Governor 10 days to approve legislation. The Governor is also granted the "line-item veto of dollar amounts appearing in appropriation or allocation sections of legislative documents." Also duties of the
Legislature are described, however "all bills for raising a revenue shall originate in the House of Representative." This means if the
Senate passes legislation which raises revenue it is constitutionally invalid if the
House of Representatives has not previously acted on it. Maine is one of the states which prohibits the legislature from chartering corporations. This is dealt with in Article IV Part Third, Sections 13 and 14.
Section 13 Special legislation. The Legislature shall, from time to time, provide, as far as practicable, by general laws, for all matters usually pertaining to special or private legislation.
Section 14 Corporations, formed under general laws. Corporations shall be formed under general laws, and shall not be created by special Acts of the Legislature, except for municipal purposes, and in cases where the objects of the corporation cannot otherwise be attained; and, however formed, they shall forever be subject to the general laws of the State. In 1969, Maine became a Home Rule State through a constitutionally defined process. In 1976 the Maine Legislature reclaimed central power by decreeing that centrally managing the economy is an essential government function. The authority to regulate the economy was already established by Article IV, Part Third, Section 13 of the Maine Constitution, leaving the interpretation that in the new centrally managed economy, the government’s role is participatory. The participatory function is confirmed when the term "an essential governmental function" is applied to the Maine Development Foundation in a new law, PL 1977, c. 548, §1. '''There is a need to establish a new basis for a creative partnership of the private and public sectors for economic development, a partnership which can capitalize on the interests, resources, and efforts of each sector, but which does not compromise the public interest or the profit motive. The state's solitary burden to provide for development should lessen through involving the private sector in a leadership role. [PL 1977, c. 548, §1 (NEW).]''' The most common
conflict of interest is between the public interest and the
profit motive. Over the years, the Maine Legislature developed workarounds to Home Rule such as §5654. Conditional gifts that leave the local residents out of the decision-making process while creating local expenditures “in perpetuity” In 2022, HP 1489 instituted state-wide municipal ordinances that required every municipality to have “priority zones” where housing density could not be regulated, short-term rentals are not allowed, and references could not be made to “character of location, “overpopulation, or “overcrowding”, arguably violating the
First Amendment of the US Constitution. The default housing zones are governed by local municipal ordinances. This brings into play Article IV Part Third Sections 13 & 14 of the Maine Constitution. If corporations are governed by general laws and municipalities are corporations, why are there two sets of ordinances governing municipalities? The priority zone ordinances are state-wide. The default ordinances are local. The state-wide municipal ordinances are enacted by statutory law. The local ordinances are governed by the Maine Constitution. The Preamble of the Maine Constitution defines “The Objects of Government.” "establish justice", "insure tranquility", "provide for our mutual defense", "promote our common welfare secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of liberty". What distinction is to be made between an “object of government” and an “essential government function”? Section 13 speaks of regulatory laws, which are general laws applying to all matters that might otherwise have been assigned to special or private legislation. Section 14 underscores that all corporations are formed under general laws forbidding the Legislature from forming a corporation unless there is no other way to achieve its object, such as a private corporation formed under general laws. In 1977, the Maine Legislature introduced the concept of “an essential government function” without defining the meaning of those words. To define the meaning grounds it in the Maine Constitution by aligning the meaning with the Objects of Government found in the Preamble. The most likely objective of the government to justify a centrally managed economy is “to promote our common welfare," but that is highly debated and is in itself a conflict of interests. Sections 13 and 14 do not speak of essential government functions and yet express an inherent constitutional principle of the United States, that of the separation of powers. The arguable intent of sections 13 & 14 is to establish that the essential government function is to regulate industry and not to participate in industry, which requires incorporation. Many entities are participating in a field, but only one entity regulates the field, and that is the government, making regulation an essential government function. A regulatory institution cannot participate in the field that it regulates because to do so is a conflict of interest. This interpretation aligns with the first object of government declared in the Preamble to the Maine Constitution: “establish justice”. Justice balances conflicts of interest. In 2021, the Maine Legislature established the Maine Space Corporation without including the words that the corporation is “an essential government function.” The space industry is booming in the private sector. Conflicts of interest between the space industry and other industries, including access to coastal areas and environmental concerns, led the Maine Space Corporation to shift its focus from land-based launch sites to sea-based platforms, which do not escape the conflicts of interest. Now the Maine Space Corporation is planning to launch in federal waters where federal regulations apply, but the federal government has its own special interests in the space industry, leaving it up to the states to be regulatory institutions that have not created a conflict of interest by participating in the field of regulation Despite the constitutional prohibition, the legislature has embedded a complex corporate network of corporations that serve as "an instrumentality of the state" and declared to be "essential government functions" and are linked to a network of "public-private relationships" also referred to as 'quasis" and business consortiums". This has largely occurred since 1977 when the Maine Legislature chartered the Maine Development Foundation as a non-profit corporation to serve as an instrumentality of the state with the expressed intent to establish legislative authority to centrally manage Maine's economy: '''§915. Legislative findings and intent: "There is a need to establish a new basis for a creative partnership of the private and public sectors ... but which does not compromise the public interest or the profit motive. The state's solitary burden to provide for development should lessen through involving the private sector in a leadership role ..... The foundation shall exist as a not-for-profit corporation with a public purpose, and the exercise by the foundation of the powers conferred by this chapter shall be deemed and held to be an essential governmental function.''' In Governor
Seldon Connor's inaugural address of 1876, he said these words pertaining to the new constitutional amendment: '''"Section thirteen presents a discretionary field of action which your own honor will impel you to occupy to the fullest extent.'The title of 'Special and Private Laws,' which includes so large a portion of the laws of former Legislatures, is an obnoxious one, conveying suggestions of privilege, favoritism and monopoly; though happily these evils have not in fact, stained the character of our legislation, they should not be suffered to have, even in the form of our laws, any grounds of suspicion that can be removed. Other weighty objections to special laws for private benefit are, that they are obtained at the public expense, and in their passage distract the attention of legislators from matters of public interest. The opportunity is now afforded, and the duty enjoined upon you, by the amendment, to restrict the necessity for such laws to the narrowest possible limits. An analysis and classification of the private and special laws upon the statute books, will inform you of the objects for which it is desirable to provide by general laws, if practicable. 'Many objects have been hitherto specially legislated upon although they were amply provided for by general laws. I have distinguished authority for the statement that sixty or more of the corporations created by a special act for each, by the last Legislature, could have been created and organized under general laws. The reason why the general laws have not been resorted to a greater extent, is not, so far as I am informed, to be found in any insufficiency or defect of those laws, but in the greater ease and simplicity of the method of application to the Legislature and in the fancied higher [146 Me. 323] sanction of an authority proceeding directly from it. Section fourteen, relating to corporations is compressive and peremptory.. It relates to all corporations, except only those for municipal purposes. It clearly prohibits their creation by special acts if the objects desired can be secured under existing general laws."''' ==Article V: "Executive Power, Secretary, Treasurer"==