An Act To Require Public Hearings by the Legislature To Be Recorded and Posted on the Internet
Maine Legislature, Session 126, LD 0339
Committee Amendment CA_A_H228 (House)

COMMITTEE AMENDMENT ,Ii" to H.P. 244, L.D. 339, Bill, "An Act To 
Require Public Hearings by the Legislature To Be Recorded and Posted on the Internet" 
Amend the bill in section 1 in subsection 19 by striking out all of the 6th to 14th lines 
(page 1, lines 9 to 17 in L.D.) and inserting the following: 
'Beginning January 1, 2014, the Legislative Council shall arrange to record all joint 
standing committee public hearings and make these records accessible to the public on 
the Legislature's website. The public hearing record must be a permanent record in the 
form of an audio recording. The State Archivist shall assist and advise the Legislative 
Council in the establishment of records management programs for the public hearing 
records pursuant to Title 5, section 95, subsection 7.' 
Amend the bill by inserting after section 1 the following: 
'Sec. 2. Appropriations and allocations. 
The following appropriations and 
allocations are made. 
LEGISLATURE 
Legislature 0081 
Initiative: Provides funding to contract for recording and posting to the Internet audio 
recordings of public hearings of the Legislature. 
GENERAL FUND 
All Other 
GENERAL FUND TOTAL 
2013-14 
$120,000 
$120,000 
COMMITTEE AMENDMENT 
2014-15 
$12,000 
$12,000 
.... 
~ 
COMMITTEE AMENDMENT 'A "to H.P. 244, L.D. 339 
SUMMARY 
This amendment is the minority report of the committee. The amendment eliminates 
the requirement in the bill that a record of a public hearing be accessible to the public on 
the Legislature's website within 72 hours of the public hearing. 
S 
The amendment also eliminates the requirement in the bill that a committee may not 
hold a work session on a bill unless the public hearing record of the bill is accessible to 
the public on the Legislature's website. The amendment also removes written transcript 
and video recording and other electronic recording from the types of records in which the 
public hearing could be recorded and leaves audio recording as the form for the 
permanent record. 
The amendment also adds an appropriations and allocations section to the bill. 
FISCAL NOTE REQUIRED 
(See attached) 
COMMITTEE AMENDMENT 
Approved: 05/16/13 ;ld'ac:.. 
LD339 
LR 497(02) 
An Act To Require Public Hearings by the Legislature To Be Recorded and Posted on the Internet 
Fiscal Note for Bill as Amended by Committee Amendment '~' 
Committee: State and Local Government 
(H-~ 
Net Cost (Savings) 
General Fund 
Appropriations/Allocations 
General Fund 
Fiscal Detail and Notes 
Fiscal Note Required: Yes 
Fiscal Note 
FY 2013-14 
FY 2014-15 
$120,000 
$12,000 
$120,000 
$12,000 
Projections 
FY 2015-16 
$12,000 
$12,000 
Projections 
FY 2016-17 
$12,000 
$12,000 
This bill includes additional General Fund appropriations to the Legislature of $120,000 in fiscal year 2013-14 and 
$12,000 in fiscal year 2014-15 for the estimated cost to contract for storing and posting audio recordings of public 
hearings of the Legislature on the Internet. The estimated costs may vary from the estimated amounts depending on 
the method chosen to implement this bill. 
Additional costs to the Department of the Secretary of State associated with the State Archivist's assistance to and 
advisement of the Legislative Council in establishing a records management program for committee public hearings 
can be absorbed within existing budgeted resources. 
LR0497(02) - Fiscal Note - Page 1 of 1