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Senator Ned Claxton 3 State House Station Augusta, ME 04333-0003 (207)287-1515

130th Legislature Senate of Maine Senate District 20

Dear Neighbor, It is a true honor to represent you in the Maine Senate, and I hope this message finds you and your family healthy and doing well. Though we had hoped to move beyond the pandemic, COVID-19 continues to play a large role in each of our lives. Despite the continued disruptions, our work in the Maine Legislature has continued in a productive, bipartisan fashion. In 2021, we made significant progress on the issues most important to folks in our community. To address high property taxes, we voted to restore revenue sharing to municipalities to five percent by 2023 and bolstered the Homestead Exemption Program by refunding municipalities for 100 percent of the cost. After 17 long years, we fully funded K-12 public education at 55 percent, as it was mandated by voters in 2004. We also continued efforts to bring down the high cost of prescription medication and health care in our state. We created the new Office of Affordable Health Care to ensure we’re taking the best steps possible to lower costs, improved transparency in drug pricing, and passed a new insulin safety-net program that will help us prevent someone dying because they couldn’t afford their insulin that month. That new program will be funded by the drug makers themselves. In the Health and Human Services Committee, which I chair, one of our proudest achievements was the work we did to raise the pay for our dedicated direct care workers. These folks care for our most vulnerable residents, and they have gone underpaid and underappreciated for too long. In the two-year budget, we raised their pay to 125 percent of the minimum wage, which will help us retain and attract more people in this field. On January 5, 2022, the Legislature began the second regular session, which is scheduled to continue until mid April. As I have done since I was first elected, I plan to continue working in a collaborative, bipartisan manner to address the most pressing issues facing our state. At the start of the legislative session, our committee meetings will be held remotely over Zoom, but we will be meeting in person at the State House to vote on legislation as it is brought up. Every committee meeting is streamed live and archived at www.legislature.maine.gov, and you can also testify during public hearings from the comfort of your own home. If you ever need assistance, have a question or would just like to share your thoughts with me, you can send me an email at Ned.Claxton@legislature.maine.gov or call my office at 287-1515. Sincerely,

Ned Claxton

Fax: (207) 287-1585 * TTY (207) 287-1583 * Message Service 1-800-423-6900 * Website: legislature.maine.gov/senate

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