A man wades through floodwater in Old Orchard Beach in January 2023. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald, file Gov. Janet Mills introduced her first bill of the new legislative session Tuesday with a proposal to help Maine respond to severe weather and the long-term impacts of climate change. Mills’ proposal, which is sponsored by legislative leaders from both parties, includes a grant program that would help residents make investments to safeguard their homes against extreme weather. It makes one-time investments in the Maine Emergency Management Agency and utilizes federal funds to establish a new state office to reduce storm damage and protect infrastructure. “This legislation, based on interim recommendations from the Infrastructure Rebuilding and Resilience Commission, will improve the ability of Maine communities, homeowners, businesses, and emergency response leaders to plan for the extreme weather of the future – making Maine a safer and more prepared place to live,” Mills said in a written statement. The legislation, LD 1 , responds to recommendations from the commission , which Mills established last year following a series of winter storms that caused an estimated $90 million in damage to public infrastructure across the state. Related Commission urges Maine to prepare for next round of severe winter storms It uses federal funding and existing fee-based funding through the Bureau of Insurance and does not rely on general funds from the state budget, the governor’s office said. Advertisement The proposal includes several key initiatives, the first of which would provide $15 million in one-time funding to establish the Home Resiliency Program to provide grants of up to $15,000 to homeowners to make investments to safeguard their homes against future storms. The program would be operated by Maine’s Bureau of Insurance and would focus on reducing roof damage, basement flooding and other targeted interventions to […]