State Representative Brian Hubbell: Maine House District 135, 2012-2020
Bar Harbor, Mount Desert, and Lamoine
Bills list for this session
The Revisor’s Office has published the list of legislator’s bill requests. My education committee is schedule to work about 180 bills, a substantial load.
Supplemental budget
In a work session that was pleasurable to no one, the Education Committee endorsed the across the board supplemental budget reductions made necessary by …
Appropriations hearings
This afternoon the Education and Appropriations Committees jointly heard public testimony on the sections of the Governor’s proposed supplemental budget related to education.
The affected state agencies all testified that, given the regrettable necessity of curtailment, they could make do with their share of the cuts. But, following their testimony, advocates raised concerns …
Briefly attended a breakfast meeting with representatives from Maine’s independent schools – John Bapst, George Stevens, Washington Academy, etc. The academies are as uneasy about their share of public money as public schools this season.
During the morning House session, we referred several more bills to the Education Committee, including one which seeks to …
Continuing agency briefings
More briefings this morning from agencies under the jurisdiction of the Education Committee.
James Page, Chancellor of the University of Maine System, reminded us that the University’s mission remains education, research & economic development, and service to Maine communities. UMaine challenges are largely economic, similar to those facing other state …
Energy in Maine
In Augusta, I attended a breakfast meeting on the energy challenges for Maine businesses hosted by the Maine Development Foundation at which legislators heard presentations from economist Jonathan Rubin from the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center, Thomas Welch, chair of the Public Utilities Commission, and facilities engineer John Fitzpatrick from …
The problem with pursuing Canadian hydropower….
Teacher as catalyst
….. the most critical elements of our economic development policy are our middle and high school teachers. A teacher is, or ought to be, a catalyst — an
Bridge Year
On Friday morning, at the United Technologies Center in Bangor I attended a reception hosted by the Bridge Year program, a collaboration between UTC, Hermon High School, Eastern Maine Community College, and the University of Maine System in which high school students receive up to 29.5 community college credits at a …
Guns and law enforcement
On Thursday morning, in Augusta I attended the Maine Sheriffs Association breakfast on guns. The question on everyone’s minds, of course, was what the Sheriffs thought about the President’s initiatives in response to the Sandy Hook shootings. But the Sheriff’s are naturally circumspect regarding politics. Nevertheless, it was plain that …
On Wednesday morning the Maine Development Foundation announced its Healthy Maine Streets program which Bar Harbor has joined.
Vision and finance for Maine education
Despite the snow, I returned to Augusta for afternoon committee briefings from Maine Maritime Academy, the Finance Authority of Maine, the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, the Maine Arts …
Bills referred to Committee
Tuesday morning, the House began referring bills to respective committees of jurisdiction. I’m keeping a list of legislation assigned to the Education Committee.
Supplemental budget details
Early Tuesday afternoon, I attended Appropriations Committee briefings on the Governor’s supplemental budget. Finance Commissioner Sawin Millett and Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen presented …
Educational Vision
Monday morning, I met briefly with Senate President Alfond, who was the ranking Senator on the Education Committee last year, to discuss our respective goals in education this session.
Monday afternoon, our committee’s analyst briefed the Education Committee on the reports and research work plans we can expect from our respective agencies and …
Friday morning, we toured the New Balance factory in Norridgewock which has found increased profitability as the only domestic shoe manufacturer by keeping teams of skilled workers busy assembling custom shoe orders.
Friday afternoon, we visited the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan, heard presentations from Spurwink’s providers of children’s mental health services and education …
On Thursday morning we heard from the Maine Forest Products Council about management of private forest land and toured the UPM Madison Paper facility which manufactures supercalendered magazine paper using only certified wood fiber. With an ISO 14001 certification for environmental management, Madison Paper has significantly improved energy efficiency and profitability through recent grants from …
On Wednesday morning, the Democratic legislative leadership held a press conference outlining the goals of the Democratic caucus mirroring many of the discussions my colleagues had had the night before.
Following that press conference, the Governor held his own conference objecting to the previous day’s decision by the Charter Commission and calling for their resignation…
Tuesday morning in Augusta, the Legislature had its first regular session day. During this session, the Legislature passed a sentiment honoring Bar Harbor’s James Gower, the founder of College of the Atlantic.
In the afternoon, I attended the meeting of the Charter School Commission to act on the five most recent charter school applications…
On Monday morning, along with a few other members of the Education Committee, I met with the University’s Chancellor Page to learn his vision for the University system. If the state can maintain flat-funding for the University, the Chancellor says the University can hold tuition steady. The University believes it can accomplish this by …