Testimony in opposition:

Senator Rosen, Representative Flood, Senator McCormick, Representative Strang Burgess and members of the Joint Standing Committee on Appropriations and Financial Affairs and the Joint Standing Committee on Health and Human Services, my name is Laura Harper, and I represent the Maine Women’s Lobby, an organization that has been working for 33 years to improve the well-being of Maine women and girls through public policy.

Over the past week it has been difficult to analyze this proposed budget and the impact it will have on most Mainers and not feel like women are wearing the bullseye. From cuts to MaineCare for working families, to cuts to medical assistance for the elderly and disabled, to cuts to HeadStart, childcare subsidies, crisis services, the Family Reunification Program, and family planning services, nearly this entire proposal disproportionately affects women and the families they care for.

Because of a myriad of factors, women are more often than men caring for children on their own. They are more often making less money , requiring more health care for themselves and their children, and needing child care in order to maintain employment. The cuts proposed will devastate these families. 21,000 working parents, equal to the entire population of the City of Biddeford, will lose their health care. Furthermore, childless adults, over 40% of whom are women, and young adults aged 19 and 20 will lose their healthcare coverage – that’s 25,000 people. The lucky parents who do maintain coverage will lose vital services that likely affect their chances at economic prosperity including occupational therapy, dental, and vision care.

Very few families are impervious to these proposed cuts. Many Maine families include seniors and are referred to as the “sandwich” generation, with adults often caring for young children and aging parents simultaneously. A family that may have access to health insurance through an adult in the workforce may still rely on the Drugs for the Elderly and the Medicare Savings Programs for their aging parents.

Finally, many of the proposed cuts will result in a significant loss of jobs in the healthcare industry – one of the only sectors that is projected to continue to grow during our depressed economy.  Women workers continue to dominate the healthcare industry.

In truth, every single family in Maine will feel the effects of this budget; all of our insurance premiums will rise as costs are shifted to cover the increase in emergency room charity care. A rise in insurance premiums doesn’t only affect individual families; it impacts the business community as well. As we know from the joint report published last year by the Maine State Chamber of Commerce and Maine Development Foundation, the cost of health insurance was the number one priority indicated by Maine’s business community for the Governor and legislature to address.  I don’t think they had this proposed budget with its targeted cuts to women, children, seniors, and our most needy, in mind.

My point is that during the worst of economic times we are all looking for solutions –ways to increase job creation, encourage growth in our existing industries, and attract new employers who offer benefits and decent wages. This proposed budget can’t even be labeled short-sighted for it lacks any vision at all. It does nothing to create jobs; in fact it will facilitate job loss in the healthcare sector. It does nothing to encourage growth; in fact it stunts growth by shifting costs in insurance premiums to small businesses and middle and working class families. Furthermore, it does nothing to increase the skill-level of our workforce; indeed cutting services to working families, children, and seniors puts aspirations of technical training and higher education further out of reach for too many of our workers.

In times of crisis, our culture has often saved the women and children first. They are the backbone of our families and our future as a society. This proposal before you instead puts them last.

I urge you to oppose these cuts. Thank you for your time today.

This week, Maine lawmakers stood firm against efforts to roll back access to reproductive health care and civil rights protections for transgendered Mainers.

The bills were defeated by wide margins—and for good reason.

In upholding Maine law, legislators put the health of Maine women and teens first and did not erect  unecessary barriers to comprehensive health care services.

In defending the Maine Human Rights Act, they refused to put the rights and safety of transgendered Mainers at risk. Click here to thank the Maine lawmakers who voted to protect the equality of all Mainers.

They took a stand for putting focus where it’s needed—jobs and the economy—rather than policing the personal, private decisions between women and their doctors.

Click here to find out how your legislators voted on these bills (the bill text is at the top of each page): L.D. 116, L.D. 924, L.D. 1457, and L.D. 1046.

The Bad (really, really bad).

Also this week, a majority of Maine lawmakers voted to eliminate Maine’s 38-year-old, same-day voter registration.

L.D. 1376 creates unnecessary barriers for prospective voters, and turns back the clock on our democracy.

Click here to see how your legislators voted on this bill.

The tabled.

The legislature is almost finished for the session, though there are critical decisions yet to make. But some bills were tabled and we’ll see them back on the table in January – including the attacks on collective bargaining.

One thing you can count on for sure – we’ll be right there fighting for you.

There is something to celebrate: L.D. 1346 was successfully defeated in committee (a bill that would have both increased the total number of hours a teen could work and implement a sub-minimum wage for teen workers), and L.D. 516 has been amended to a much less extreme bill.

Here are some of the best media coverage of the Child Labor debate in Maine, in case you missed it:

Rachel Maddow on the Case

The Maine Peoples Alliance’s Excellent Ad

The BDN editorializes against LD 1346

Want a history of child labor in Maine? Check out Ardis Cameron’s excellent piece in the Portland Press Herald

We like what this “Confused Republican” has to say!

Our own Super-Hero Lobbyist, Laura Harper quoted in the Huffington Post

Is your favorite news piece not up here? Leave a post here.

Statement of Laura Harper
Director of Public Policy, Maine Women’s Lobby

“Last night the Maine House passed an amended version of L.D. 516, a roll back on teen work hour protections. The bill increases the hours teens can work on a school day to 6; to 24 hours during a school week; and limits them to working until 10:15 p.m. on a school night. This is a significant improvement over the initial bill that, as written, would have removed all hourly protections for teen workers.

“A further amendment to minimize the harmful impact of this bill failed by a vote of 75 to 70.

“We’re pleased that majorities in the House and Senate recognized that keeping kids working until 11:00 p.m. on a school night puts their health and safety at risk, and we commend bipartisan efforts to find a workable compromise.

“Nonetheless, this law will take Maine in the wrong direction. At a time when Maine desperately needs to be creating jobs and a skilled workforce, we are undermining student success. Volumes of research demonstrate that once teens work over 20 hours a week, drop-out rates and even substance abuse rates increase. Further, studies show that the more hours teens work the more likely it is that their grades will decline.

“Adults need jobs. Teens need success in school to make a good living down the road. We urge lawmakers to put focus where it’s needed—creating jobs, increasing access to education, and sparking economic growth that will benefit kids, families, and our state.”

If you want up-to-the-minute news on what’s going on at the State House, stick with us! Our rock star Lobbyist, Laura Harper, will be at the State House all day and will be tweeting updates our way. Follow her @ MWLobbyist. Not on twitter? We’ll be reposting her tweets on facebook – like us @Maine Women’s Lobby.

In 90 years women voters have made a lot of progress – we’ve seen pioneering women like Shirley Chisholm, Hillary Clinton, and Margaret Chase Smith make bids for the presidency, and we have passed landmark legislation such as FMLA and the Equal Pay Act.

But while women may have the right to vote – too often, our state and federal policies still fail to reflect the needs of women voters – and the families they support.

Fortunately, Maine women are flexing their electoral muscle through a new campaign called SheDecides.org!

SheDecides will ensure that this election cycle, campaign messages and priorities speak directly to the economic realities of women’s lives. And we need you to bring women’s economic security front and center this fall.

Today, women voters gathered in Bangor to officially launch the SheDecides campaign. Their message to candidates? “Speak to me if you want my vote.”

Now it’s your turn to make sure your candidates are listening.

Email your candidate here to ask them to respond to the SheDecides candidate questionnaire which asks where they stand on the minimum wage, family friendly workplaces, paid sick days, equal pay, and, education and training programs. Visit shedecides.org to learn more about this “pocketbook agenda.”

Make sure your candidates know that you will be looking for their answers.

Spread the word!

•    Click here to tweet about SheDecides or make your own message with the #SheDecides tag.
•    Make this your facebook or Twitter Status: Maine women to candidates: Speak to me if you want my vote!  #SheDecides
•    Like SheDecides on Facebook: and stay tuned for at-the-minute updates and information about your candidates.
*** stay tuned for updates and photos form our campaign launch tomorrow!

For small employers, it isn’t easy either. Take my friend Carlos who owns an inn and employs ten people. If one of his two housekeepers gets seriously ill, he can’t afford to pay her wages while she recovers while hiring a replacement worker and paying an additional wage to the new worker. He sees it as paying double, and in this economy, it’s simply not possible.

The way it stands today, employers are out there on their own, just like working families. When babies arrive or serious illness strikes, employees & employers are left alone to navigate work and family obligation. Too much is left up to circumstance or luck. That’s why we, as a society, need to recognize that the first ten weeks of a child’s life or in the most tragic cases, the last ten weeks of an aging parent’s life, are precious and should be treated with respect and dignity with no one worrying about their paycheck or their job. As a society, we can act together and support a family leave insurance program that would share the costs of continuing wages while workers take care of their families and themselves. This not only supports families, it supports workplaces, as well, through increased productivity after the leave is taken and increased loyalty among employees. Happy and healthy workers are the most productive.

To go back to Carlos’ concern about his housekeeper who gets seriously ill. He wouldn’t need to pay two sets of wages if Maine had a family leave insurance program. The program would pay his ill housekeeper while he paid her temporary replacement. He would no longer be faced with those impossible decisions: how do I support my workers when it’s just too expensive? Family leave insurance is good for employers.

Policy advocates and employers both want the same things – a healthy and productive economy where small business prospers and working families have a fair chance at prosperity. A family leave insurance program can help get us there.

This legislation would  adjust Maine’s minimum wage based on changes in the federal Consumer Price Index for the Northeast. With passage, this would put Maine among the 10 other states that also index their minimums.

In her testimony to the Labor Committee Laura stated that,

“For the first time in our nation’s history, women make up half (49.9%) of the workforce. Yet, women consistently make less than men in comparable occupations, women out-number men in minimum wage occupations, and they are less likely to have access to benefits such as health insurance, paid time off, and retirement. For women working today, the stakes are higher. When we bring home the paycheck, we need to stretch it farther for our own sake and that of our families. Even for the sake of the economy, our dollars will be returned to the community when we have greater capacity to purchase goods and services. Indexing the minimum wage is an effective way to measurably keep the wage floor consistent with the cost of living. It protects working women and their families.”

Laura was also joined by MPA, SEIU, AFL-CIO, Catholic Diocese, MEJEP, numerous workers, ROC- Maine, and MECEP in testifying in support of the legislation.

This legislation makes Maine the 33^rd state in the nation to allow for a rebuttable presumption when a firefighter contracts cancer due to exposure to harmful chemicals while on the job.  It’s all part of our work here at the Maine Women’s Lobby to ensure that every Maine family lives in a home free of harmful chemicals.  When firefighters risk their lives to put out fires in our homes, they shouldn’t have to risk cancer as well, just because of the toxins contained in our everyday household products.

Over the course of the months it took to pass this bill, I got to know many of the firefighters who took time out of their jobs, and away from their families to talk to legislators about the need for this legislation. It was a real honor to work along side these brave men and women and honestly, a lot of fun too!

I have to admit I got a real kick out of the surprise expressed by legislators when I asked them if they had a moment to discuss this bill.  Legislators were taken aback when along with the 10 to 20 burly men dressed in uniform, there was this little lady from the Maine Women’s Lobby talking to them about this legislation!

Always a pleasure to break a stereotype!

Congratulations to all of Maine’s Firefighters and the many advocates who worked on passage of this bill.  And thank you to Senator Bartlett for the sponsoring the bill, to the members of the Labor Committee for your tireless efforts, and to Governor Baldacci for signing the bill into Maine law!

So, I started asking around … and here are some reflections from the women of the Maine Women’s Lobby:

Director of Public Policy, Laura Harper, and some of her lobbyists cohorts.

Here’s what Laura had to say:

I feel certain that my experiences lobbying for marriage equality will never be matched. Every day, I came out to legislators. I shared with them my commitment for my partner, Lauren, our engagement, and the fears and discrimination I have faced during our partnership because we can’t get married.

It was a rush. It was exhausting. It was scary. It was joyful.

When the Governor signed the bill into law, I was waiting with other advocates outside his office. When a member of his staff discreetly stuck her head around the door and whispered, “He signed it,” I knew I was a part of Maine history. I knew it would be a moment I would never forget, similar to when President Obama was elected or when we finally passed the anti-discrimination law in Maine.

I will return to that moment again and again. There will always be a part of me that will never age, there will always be a young woman standing there in her little suit with her sweaty armpits and rumpled tissue thinking, “Oh my God, we’ve actually won.”

Here’s Sarah, our Executive Director:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s Kim Simmons, one of our board members:

The highlight of the 124th Legislative session, for me, was the passage of the Marriage Equality Bill!  I am impressed with the cooperation that emerged in the 124th Legislature and with the fact that our leadership is female. Nevertheless, I was disappointed not to see more radical and progressive action taken to redistribute wealth in our state, to protect the poor, and to address the absence of paid sick leave which creates both the potential for a public health crisis and family emergencies on daily basis. It seems to me that we have a unique moment to truly push for tax policy that is rooted in social justice priorities and reflects the interests of most Maine people, and I hope that more progressive and innovative thinking will emerge in the second session of the 124th!

Charlotte at the State House

And, here’s what I think:

So, when I think back on the 124th session of the Maine Legislature, my first thought is, “phew … it’s over.” And don’t get me wrong, I love the excitement of the session. I love the exhilaration of the wins – and the opportunity of the losses. And, I guess in a lot of ways I would describe this past session as a roller-coaster ride – we were up, we were down, we were recessed, we were tabled … Oh yeah, I was paying attention to the play-by-play afforded to us by Laura, her Blackberry, and Twitter … and I was addicted! Check out our newsletter archive to review the roller-coaster ride.

So, enough about us. What do you think? Add your reflections today.

PS: Yes, “phew” is actually a word. It’s in the dictionary and everything.

Thanks everyone,

Charlotte