AUGUSTA — The Senate gave final approval Tuesday to a wide-ranging bill that’s designed to make it easier for businesses to deal with state government.

Senate President Kevin Raye, R-Perry, and House Speaker Robert Nutting, R-Oakland, sponsored L.D. 1 in response to concerns from businesses.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers spent weeks traveling the state to gather input from the public, then held a long public hearing and multiple work sessions to come to a final agreement.

The measure won unanimous approval Tuesday and will be sent to Gov. Paul LePage for his signature.

The measure makes more than a dozen changes to state law, including:

• Establishing a voluntary program in the Department of Environmental Protection for businesses that self-report environmental violations. There are incentives for correcting violations, including reduced penalties for voluntary compliance.

• Authorizing agencies to do cost-benefit analyses of proposed rules.

• Renaming an existing state program the Business Ombudsman Program and requiring it to help resolve problems between businesses and state agencies.

• Creating the Bureau of the Special Advocate in the Secretary of State’s Office, to advocate for small-business interests in the state regulatory process.

• Requiring agencies to cite as many as three primary sources of information they use to propose or adopt rules.

• Reducing the Board of Environmental Protection from 10 members to seven and limiting the board’s rule-making authority.

The Senate also voted unanimously to enact L.D. 1129, a compromise bill to narrow the focus of Maine’s Kid-Safe Product Act, first passed in 2008. The act developed a process for identifying and banning dangerous chemicals in products used by children, such as baby bottles and sippy cups.

L.D. 1129 is a blend of two proposals, one by a Republican and one by a Democrat, and provides a narrower definition of which consumer products are regulated and caps a chemical watch list at 70.

MaineToday Media State House Writer Susan Cover can be contacted at 620-7015 or at: scover@mainetoday.com