The end of a legislative session is pretty much always a whirlwind, but this year felt particularly hectic. After two weeks of long days and nights in the State House, voting on hundreds of bills in the Senate and House chambers, we wrapped up the bulk of our work in the early hours of June 18. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, lawmakers had to adjust how we do our work to make sure we were keeping ourselves, our staff and the public safe, while still allowing you to share your input on the bills we were considering. It was a lot of work, and there were some serious growing pains, but in the end it was incredibly rewarding.

We were able to pass a wide array of measures to help improve the lives of everyday Mainers; I wanted to highlight just a few of them for you here.

Two bills I sponsored this year were aimed at helping working Mainers gain better control of their finances. The first, LD 1622, will help more working Mainers plan and save for their retirement. We’re long past the days when the majority of retirees could rely on a pension to carry them through their golden years. Right now, more than a third of Mainers over retirement age rely solely on Social Security for income. When the average annual income from Social Security is just $18,000, it’s clearly not enough to live on. Under this new measure, which received bipartisan support, employers who don’t offer their own retirement savings plans will facilitate a deduction for their employees, straight from their paycheck. These employers do not contribute any matching funds to the plan, meaning there’s no undue financial burden placed on them, and their workers have the same easy means to save as those who work for larger employers with 401K programs. I’ve worked on this bill for years, and I’m incredibly proud to see it cross the finish line to become law.

The next bill I wanted to share with you is LD 1645, which will help protect private student loan borrowers and their cosigners. As more people turn to furthering their education to secure a good-paying job, and as the cost of education has increased, students have had to take out larger and larger loans. Additionally, parents and grandparents often step in to cosign private loans. More than 70,000 Mainers hold private student loan debt, and as of 2018, more than 20,000 Mainers over the age of 60 owed student debt. Over the past few years, I’ve worked to protect student loan borrowers from predatory lending practices. LD 1645 will further strengthen the Student Loan Bill of Rights we passed last year, by ensuring those who have private student loan debt have common-sense, fair protections.

I was also proud to be part of a suite of bills to help make prescription drugs more affordable for Mainers. The Making Health Care Work for Maine package includes five bills that work together to help lower the cost of prescription drugs, provide transparency about why drug prices increase, and create an emergency insulin program. I’m happy to share with you that all five of these bills passed through the Legislature with strong bipartisan support. My bill — which builds on my previous work to strengthen drug price transparency laws, allowing lawmakers to close loopholes and identify bad actors — has been signed into law. Gov. Janet Mills also signed into law a bill from my colleague Sen. Cathy Breen, which makes an emergency 30-day supply of insulin available to eligible Mainers at any pharmacy for less than $35. This law will save lives right now as we work to rein in the skyrocketing cost of insulin. One bill is on the special appropriations table awaiting funding, and as I’m writing this, the other two are awaiting Gov. Mills’ approval. It’s vital that all five of these bills are passed into law.

The Legislature was to reconvene June 30 to finish up the last of our work, including voting on a budget proposal that finally increases the state’s share of funding for K-12 education to 55 percent, and restores revenue sharing to a full 5% by 2023. I’m sure it will be another long day, but coming together with my colleagues to pass measures that help you, your family and your neighbors will always be worth it.

Eloise Vitelli is a state senator representing District 23, consisting of Arrowsic, Bath, Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Dresden, Georgetown, Phippsburg, Richmond, Topsham, West Bath, Woolwich and the unorganized township of Perkins.