An Act To Promote Transparency in Budgeting
Maine Legislature, Session 121, LD 1780
Committee: State and Local Government
Sponsors: COLWELL, ROTUNDO, ADAMS, DUNLAP, PELLON, SA VIELLO
Amends: 5 MRSA §3305, 30-A MRSA §5657

Legislative Document 
No. 1780 
H.P.1302 
House of Representatives, December 22,2003 
An Act To Promote Transparency in Budgeting 
Approved for introduction by a majority of the Legislative Council pursuant to Joint Rule 
203. 
Received by the Clerk of the House on December 17,2003. Referred to the Committee on 
State and Local Government pursuant to Joint Rule 308.2 and ordered printed pursuant to Joint 
Rule 401. 
Presented by Speaker COLWELL of Gardiner. 
Cosponsored by Senator ROTUNDO of Androscoggin and 
17/~ 
/J?1JltlC~ 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Representatives: ADAMS of Portland, DUNLAP of Old Town, McLAUGHLIN of Cape 
Elizabeth, PELLON of Machias, SA VIELLO of Wilton. 
Printed on recycled paper 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 5 MRSA §3305, sub-§l. -UN. as amended by PL 1997, c. 
393, Pt. B, §4, is further amended to read: 
N. 
Coordinate the development of solid waste management 
policy including: 
(1) 
Collecting and analyzing solid waste management 
and recycling data from all available sources including 
commercial and municipal entities; 
(2) 
Preparing a solid waste management and 
plan 
to 
be 
submitted 
to 
the 
Governor 
Legislature 
by 
January 
1, 
1998 
and 
every 
thereafter; and 
recycling 
and 
the 
years 
(3) 
Providing 
municipalities 
activities; aae 
technical 
in 
waste 
and financial 
reduction 
assistance to 
and 
recycling 
Sec. 2. 5 MRSA §3305. sub-§l. -UO. as enacted by PL 1995, c. 
625, Pt. A, §10, is amended to read: 
O. 
Own, 
design, 
develop 
or 
operate, 
or 
contract 
with 
private parties to operate, a solid waste disposal facility, 
as provided in Title 38, chapter 24, subchapter IVT 4; and 
Sec. 3. 5 MRSA §3305, sub-§l, -UP is enacted to read: 
P. 
Compile and make accessible to the public on a publicly 
accessible site on 
the Internet those municipal 
budgets 
submitted in accordance with Title 30-A, section 5657. 
Sec. 4. 30-A MRSA §5657 is enacted to read: 
§5651. 
Submission of annual municipal budget to State Planning 
Office 
1. 
Requirement. 
A municipality shall submit annually to 
the State Planning Office a copy of that municipality's annual 
budget. 
2. 
Compilation 
and 
public 
dissemination 
of 
municipal 
budgets. 
The 
State 
Planning Office 
shall 
compile 
municipal 
budgets submitted in accordance with subsection 1 and shall make 
that information available to the public on a publicly accessible 
site on the Internet. 
Page l-LR2346(1) 
J 
• 
3. 
Penalty for noncompliance. 
A municipality that fails to 
submit 
its 
annual 
budget 
to 
the 
State 
Planning 
Office 
in 
accordance with subsection 1 is not eligible to receive funds 
through state-municipal revenue sharing under section 5681. 
SUMMARY 
This bill requires municipalities to submit copies of their 
annual budgets to the State Planning Office, which will compile 
the information and make it available on a publicly accessible 
si te on the Internet. 
A municipality that fails to submit a 
copy of its budget as required is ineligible to receive funds 
under state-municipal revenue sharing .