An Act To Authorize Municipalities To Impose Service Charges to Tax-exempt Property Owned by Certain Organizations Whose Primary Activities Are Not Charitable
Maine Legislature, Session 124, LD 1146
Committee: Taxation
Sponsors: CELLI, AYOTTE, GIFFORD, GOODE, SAVIELLO, THOMAS
Amends: 36 MRSA §508

MAINE STATE LEGISLATURE 
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124th MAl ELEGISLATURE 
Legislative Document 
No. 1146 
H.P. 
House of Representatives, March 23, 2009 
An Act To Authorize Municipalities To Impose Service Charges to 
Tax-exempt Property Owned by Certain Organizations Whose' 
Primary Activities Are Not Charitable 
Reference to the Committee on Taxation suggested and ordered printed. 
Presented by Representative CELLI of Brewer. 
17l~1Z frl· 77/!i£~{ 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Cosponsored by Representatives: AYOTTE of Caswell, GIFFORD of Lincoln, GOODE of 
Bangor, JOY ofCrystal,SAVIELLO of Wilton, THOMAS of Ripley. 
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Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 36 MRSA §508, sub-§l, as enacted by PL2007, c. 627, §12, is repealed 
and the following enact.ed in its place: 
1. Imposition. A municipality may impose service charges on the owner of the 
following classes of property exempt from property tax: 
A. Residential property, other than student housing or parsonages, that is totally 
exempt from taxation under section 652 and that is used to provide rental income; 
and 
B. Property exempt from taxation under section 652, subsection 1, paragraph A, B, F 
or K if less than 50% of the revenue of the organization is spent directly on charitable. 
activities. For the purposes of this paragraph, "charitable activities" means activities 
that provide goods or services gratuitously or based on ability to pay to a an indefinite 
class of persons who are the legitimate subjects of charity or relieve the government· 
of some of its burden. 
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Service charges must be calculated according to the actual cost of providing municipal 
services to the property and to the persons who use that property, and revenues derived 
from the charges must be used to fund, to the extent possible, the costs of those services. 
The municipal legislative body shall identify those institutions and organizations upon 
which service charges are to be levied. A municipality that imposes service charges on 
an institution or organization must impose those service charges on every similarly· 
situated institution or organization. For the purposes of this section, "municipal services" 
means all services provided by a municipality other than education and welfare. 
SUMMARY 
This bill· expands the authority of municipalities to impost: service charges on certain 
property tax exempt properties to include charitable and benevolent institutions, literar.y 
and scientific organizations, chambers of commerce, boards of trade and property leased 
by exempt hospitals that do not spend atleast 50% of their revenuesdirecdy on charitable 
activities. 
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