A program to track sexual assault forensic examination kits. New requirements around the use of artificial intelligence in political ads. More funding for housing and rent relief to prevent evictions.

These are some of the measures lawmakers approved and Gov. Janet Mills signed into law during the legislative session that concluded Tuesday. Other proposals, such as a temporary ban on data centers, have been approved but are awaiting action by Mills, with lawmakers set to take up any vetoes from the Democratic governor on April 29.

Then there’s the list of measures that failed. Of the more than 2,000 proposals that lawmakers considered in the 132nd Legislature, many went unapproved. They included long-debated digital privacy legislation and a pilot program for cameras to automatically monitor speeding in highway construction zones.

It is the last session for Mills as governor, as she is termed out this year. Democrats have controlled the Legislature for her entire eight-year tenure. Maine has flip-flopped between Republican and Democratic governors for decades, and tight margins in the House mean the November elections could reshape whether Democrats or Republicans are in the legislative driver’s seat.

Mills’ current campaign for the U.S. Senate crept into the politics of this session, with the governor approving a new tax on millionaires after previously frustrating progressives by opposing it. The governor also pushed for, and got, $300 “affordability checks” for many Mainers in the supplemental budget.

Mills has 10 days from when each bill is passed to either sign it, veto it or allow it to become law without her signature. Bills that become law will take effect 90 days after the Legislature finally adjourns, unless the legislation notes otherwise, which means most new laws will take effect in late July.

Here’s an overview of some of the key proposals that passed and didn’t.

NEW RESTRICTIONS ON ICE

A major topic of debate this session was restrictions for federal immigration officers — especially after Maine saw a late January crackdown that brought teams of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to the state.

Mills has already signed LD 2058, a bill sponsored by Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, that gives jails more say in deciding whether to accept people who were detained solely on civil violations of federal immigration law.

Another bill, LD 2106, from Rep. Ellie Sato, D-Gorham, would prevent immigration agents from accessing “non-public” areas of public spaces, such as dorms on public college campuses and private areas of libraries and schools, without a warrant signed by a judge. That proposal was approved by lawmakers and is still awaiting action from Mills, who endorsed an earlier version of Sato’s bill.

AI GETS NEW RESTRICTIONS

Lawmakers also approved LD 517, which will require political campaigns and political action committees to provide disclosure labels for ads that are made with artificial intelligence. Mills signed that proposal into law late last month.

“Using artificial intelligence in political ads deliberately deceives voters and intentionally creates distrust in our elections,” sponsor Amy Kuhn, D-Falmouth, said in February. “Requiring campaigns to disclose when something isn’t real will help increase transparency for voters.”

Meanwhile, a heavily-lobbied and controversial bill fueled partly by AI skepticism that would have enacted new data privacy rules died after the House of Representatives and Senate couldn’t agree on it. LD 1822 was opposed by businesses that said it would restrict their advertising reach and be difficult to comply with, while supporters of the bill said it included important, targeted protections in an AI-filled world.

LD 307, which would enact a temporary one-year moratorium on new data centers, which often power AI, would be a first-in-the-nation statewide ban on such developments, but is still awaiting a decision from Mills. The governor has expressed concerns that it does not include a carveout for a proposal in Jay.

TRANSPORTATION A BIG TOPIC

Transportation bills took center stage this session following a series of deadly crashes. In November, 12-year-old Brayden Callahan was struck and killed as he crossed in front of a school bus in Rockland. Then in December, 5-year-old Simon Gonzalez was killed while trying to board his school bus in Standish.

In January, two Department of Transportation employees were killed in a highway work zone in Waterville.

The supplemental budget Mills signed last week includes $5.9 million to install safety enhancements — including anti-pinch door sensors or crossing arms — on school buses.

On the highway safety front, lawmakers have sent LD 669 to Mills. The bill makes the families of Department of Transportation employees who die performing official duties eligible for death benefit payments, which are already available to the families of certain other public employees, including firefighters and law enforcement officers.

A mix of Democrats and Republicans shot down an effort to add automated speed cameras to work zones on the Maine Turnpike, with the diverse array of opponents citing civil liberty concerns and questioning whether the state could better enforce existing laws.

Sponsor Sen. Brad Farrin, R-Norridgewock, was disappointed with the fate of the proposal, which called for a three-year pilot program and fines for drivers if they exceed posted work zone speed limits by at least 11 mph. It was heavily amended and won bipartisan support in committee, but was overwhelmingly defeated in each chamber.

EDUCATION, TRIBES AND MOOSE HUNTS

Other reforms update parts of state law that have been untouched for decades. Lawmakers passed the first overhaul of the state’s school funding formula since its inception in 2005, and Mills has indicated she will sign it. School district leaders had persistently argued the funding formula relies too heavily on property tax valuations to determine how much money districts receive, and does not reflect household income or poverty rates.

Another bill, LD 785, was supposed to make federal Indian law broadly applicable in Maine, undoing one of the major restraints of a 1980 agreement between tribes and the state.

Ultimately, lawmakers adopted a version of the bill that will enshrine and expand certain tax breaks. Specifically, it will exempt tribal members who work for their government from income tax, regardless of whether they live on a reservation; it would exempt new manufactured homes on tribal lands from sales tax; and it would expand a sales tax exemption from tribal trust land (which the federal government legally owns) to certain fee lands, which the tribes own outright.

Some of the more passionate debates late in the session revolved around a proposal to reform a lesser-known aspect of Maine’s famed moose hunt. The state allocates up to 2% of permits to hunting lodges, which can sell those tags to clients as part of a package that includes lodging, meals and guiding services.

State officials and outfitters said loose guidelines created a lucrative secondary market, allowed some camps to access many more tags than others, and took opportunities from some guides.

LD 2054 put new controls on the process. It earned the support of guides, the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

The House and Senate disagreed before eventually coalescing around a version that tightens eligibility requirements, prohibits the resale of tags and changes the way tags are allocated across wildlife management districts. A spokesperson said Mills plans to sign the bill. 

Yet another measure receiving plenty of debate in recent years that is now on Mills’ desk directs the state to figure out the total dollar amount of damages attributed to greenhouse gas emissions between 1995 and 2024.

The bill from Sen. Stacy Brenner, D-Scarborough, had the initial goal of creating a “climate superfund” that makes corporate polluters pay up for causing climate change-related harm. Amid a Trump administration lawsuit against Vermont over its first-in-the-nation superfund, the amended version of Brenner’s bill will instead start with a study of the costs.

HOUSING, EDUCATION PRIORITIES IN BUDGET

The supplemental budget that Mills signed into law last week includes many of her administration’s top priorities, including about $68 million in housing investments. It also makes permanent Maine’s free community college program and includes more than $250,000 to start a program to track sexual assault forensic examination kits, something lawmakers had unsuccessfully pushed for in recent years.

The housing investments include $11 million to continue the Eviction Prevention Program, which provides rent relief and one-time payments to help those most at risk of being evicted. Lawmakers last year initially approved a bill to make the program, which started as a pilot in 2024, permanent. But it was left unfunded, necessitating action this session.

Other funds will go to a program to build and preserve small-scale rental housing in rural Maine and to subsidies for emergency shelters to maintain capacity and services.

Democrats on Wednesday also highlighted child care investments that are included in the budget. They noted funding that will clear the waitlist on a state program that provides income-eligible families with subsidies to pay for child care, and money for expanded access to free meals for public pre-K students.

Staff writers Megan Gray and Reuben Schafir contributed to this report.