Maine AFLCIO logo

Maine AFL-CIO

Legislative Scorecard

LD579 - Nurse Retirement

(2026)

An Act to Include Certain Mental Health Workers Under the 1998 Special Plan for Retirement

LD579 bill text Maine AFL-CIO Supported

Sponsored by Senator Mike Tipping (D-Penobscot)

What is the bill?

Psychiatric Nurses who work at Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center and Riverview Psychiatric Center work with some of the most severely mentally ill patients in the state. Some of those patients are voluntarily receiving mental health treatment, while others have been involuntarily committed by the courts for committing serious crimes. The nurses that work with these patients have been thrown on the floor, punched, kicked, choked and verbally assaulted, often during 12-hour night shifts. In recognition of the risks they take every day these psychiatric nurses are now eligible to retire with dignity at age 55 with 25 years of service.

What happened?

Enacted into law (Passed by the Legislature, Signed by the Governor)

Votes

Senate

35 Pro-labor 0 Anti-labor

House

76 Pro-labor 69 Anti-labor