An Act To Enhance Property Tax Relief through the State-municipal Revenue-sharing Program
Maine Legislature, Session 122, LD 0372
Committee: State and Local Government
Sponsors: ROTUNDO, PERRY, DUDLEY, DUNN, FISHER, LERMAN, MARLEY
Amends: 30-A MRSA §5681

Legislative Document 
No. 372 
S.P.II9 
In Senate, January 25,2005 
An Act To Enhance Property Tax Relief through the State-
municipal Revenue-sharing Program 
Reference to the Committee on State and Local Government suggested and ordered printed. 
Presented by Senator ROTUNDO of Androscoggin. 
JOY J. O'BRIEN 
Secretary of the Senate 
Cosponsored by Senator: PERRY of Penobscot, Representatives: DUDLEY of Portland, 
DUNN of Bangor, FISHER of Brewer, LERMAN of Augusta, MARLEY of Portland. 
Printed on recycled paper 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 30-A MRSA §5681, sub-§2, ,B, as enacted by PL 1987, c. 
737, Pt. A, §2 and Pt. C, §106 and amended by PL 1989, c. 6; c. 
9, §2; and c. 104, Pt. C, §§'8 and 10, is further amended to read: 
B. 
"Property tax burden" means the total real and personal 
property 
taxes 
assessed 
in 
the 
most 
recently 
completed 
municipal fiscal year, except the taxes assessed on captured 
value within a tax increment financing district, divided by 
the latest state valuation certified to the Secretary of 
State and reduced by .01. 
Sec. 2. 30-A MRSA §5681, sub-§2, "C, D and E, as enacted by PL 
1999, c. 731, Pt. u, §l, are repealed. 
Sec. 3. 30-A MRSA §5681, sub-§3, as amended by IB 2003, c. 2, 
§2, is further amended to read: 
3. 
Revenue-sharing 
funds. 
To 
strengthen 
the 
state-municipal fiscal relationship pursuant to the findings and 
objectives 
of 
subsection 
1, 
there 
is established 
the 
Local 
Gove rnment 
Fund. 
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~HaaT To assist those municipalities that collaborate with other 
municipalities, counties or state agencies to obtain savings in 
the cost of delivering local and regional governmental services L 
there is established the Fund for the Efficient Delivery of Local 
and Regional Services. 
Sec. 4. 30-A MRSA §5681, sub-§4-B, as enacted by PL 1999, c. 
731, Pt. U, §4, is repealed. 
Sec. 5. 30-A MRSA §5681, sub-§5, as amended by PL 2003, 
c. 
673, Pt. V, §5 and affected by §29, is further amended to read: 
5. 
Transfers to funds. 
On the last day of each month, the 
Treasurer of State shall transfer to the Local Government Fund a 
percentage, as provided in this subsection, of the receipts from 
the taxes imposed under Title 36, Parts 3 and 8, and Title 36, 
section 2552, subsection 1, paragraphs A to F, and credited to 
the General Fund without any reduction, except that the postage, 
state 
cost 
allocation 
program 
and 
programming 
costs 
of 
administering state-municipal revenue sharing may be paid by the 
Local 
Government Fund. 
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The 
Page l-LR154l(1) 
percentage transferred to the Local Government Fund on the last 
day of each month is: 
A. 
For months beginning before July 1, 2005, 5.1%; and 
B. 
For months beginning on or after July 1, 2005, 5.2%. 
Sec. 6. 30-A MRSA §5681. sub-§5-B, as enacted by IB 2003, c. 
2, §3, is amended to read: 
5-B. 
Fund for the Efficient Delivery of Local and Regional 
Services. 
For the months beginning on or after July 1, 2004 and 
before the distributions required by sl:l.9seet:iells subsection 4-A 
alla-4-~, 2°"" of all receipts transferred each month pursuant to 
subsection 5 must be deposited in the Fund for the Efficient 
Delivery of 
Local 
and 
Regional 
Services, 
as 
established in 
subsection 3, 
and distributed to those municipalities that can 
demonstrate significant and sustainable savings in the cost of 
delivering 
local 
and 
regional 
governmental 
services 
through 
collaborative approaches to service delivery, enhanced regional 
delivery systems, the consolidation of administrative services, 
the creation of broad-based purchasing alliances or the execution 
of inter local agreements. 
Sec. 7. 30-A MRSA §5681, sub-§7, as enacted by PL 1989, c. 
871, §1 and affected by §22, is amended to read: 
7. 
Indian 
territory. 
For 
purposes 
of 
state-municipal 
revenue sharing, the Passamaquoddy Tribe and the Penobscot Nation 
Indian Territories 
sRa±± 
must 
be 
treated 
as 
if 
they 
were 
municipali ties. 
In the absence of a levy of real and personal 
property taxes in either or both Indian territories, the property 
tax assessment is computed by multiplying the state valuation for 
the Indian territory for the period for which revenue sharing is 
being determined by the most current average equalized property 
tax rate of all municipalities in the State at that time as 
determined by the State Tax Assessor and reduced by .01. 
SUMMARY 
This 
bill 
changes 
the 
state-municipal 
revenue-sharing 
formula by discounting the first 10 mills of a municipality's 
property tax rate. 
The current state-municipal revenue-sharing 
program counts the municipality's tax effort for education even 
though this is already considered within the State's school 
finance 
formula. 
A 10-mill 
discount 
targets 
state-municipal 
revenue sharing largely toward the noneducational component of a 
municipality's tax effort.