An Act To Remove from the Calculation of the Cost of Education the Maine Public Employees Retirement System Teacher Plan Unfunded Actuarial Liability (AFTER DEADLINE)
Maine Legislature, Session 129, LD 2024
Committee: Education and Cultural Affairs
Sponsors: MILLETT, KORNFIELD, BREEN, JACKSON, BRENNAN, DODGE, FARNSWORTH, INGWERSEN
Amends: 20-A MRSA §5806, 20-A MRSA §15671

Legislative Document
No. 2024
S.P. 714
In Senate, January 14, 2020
An Act To Remove from the Calculation of the Cost of Education 
the Maine Public Employees Retirement System Teacher Plan 
Unfunded Actuarial Liability
(AFTER DEADLINE)
Approved for introduction by a majority of the Legislative Council pursuant to Joint Rule 
205.
Reference to the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs suggested and ordered 
printed.
DAREK M. GRANT
Secretary of the Senate
Presented by Senator MILLETT of Cumberland.
Cosponsored by Representative KORNFIELD of Bangor and
Senators: BREEN of Cumberland, President JACKSON of Aroostook, Representatives: 
BRENNAN of Portland, DODGE of Belfast, FARNSWORTH of Portland, INGWERSEN of 
Arundel, McCREA of Fort Fairfield.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  20-A MRSA §5806, sub-§2, as repealed and replaced by PL 2013, c. 497, 
§1, is amended to read:
2.  Maximum allowable tuition.  The maximum allowable tuition charged to a 
school administrative unit by a private school is the rate established under subsection 1 or 
the state average per public secondary student cost as adjusted, whichever is lower, plus 
an insured value factor.  The insured value factor is computed by dividing 5% of the 
insured value of school buildings and equipment by the average number of pupils 
enrolled in the school on October 1st and April 1st of the year immediately before the 
school year for which the tuition charge is computed.  From school year 2009-2010 to 
school year 2013-2014, a school administrative unit is not required to pay an insured 
value factor greater than 5% of the school's tuition rate or $500 per student, whichever is 
less, unless the legislative body of the school administrative unit votes to authorize its 
school board to pay a higher insured value factor that is no greater than 10% of the 
school's tuition rate per student.  For the 2014-2015 school year, a school administrative 
unit is not required to pay an insured value factor greater than 6% of the school's tuition 
rate per student, unless the legislative body of the school administrative unit votes to 
authorize its school board to pay a higher insured value factor that is no greater than 10% 
of the school's tuition rate per student.  Beginning in the 2015-2016 school year, a school 
administrative unit is not required to pay an insured value factor greater than the amount 
of the prior school year's insured value factor adjusted by a percentage equal to the 
percentage change in the state share percentage of the total cost of funding public 
education in the prior school year as determined by section 15671, subsection 7, 
paragraph C B as compared to the applicable percentage for the current school year.  In 
no case may the insured value factor be less than 6% or greater than 10% of the school's 
tuition rate per student, unless the legislative body of the school administrative unit votes 
to authorize its school board to pay an insured value factor that exceeds the amount 
otherwise permitted by this subsection by no more than 5% of the school's tuition rate per 
student.  For the 2013-2014 school year only, the maximum allowable tuition charged to 
a school administrative unit by a private school that participates in the Maine Public 
Employees Retirement System must be increased above the amount otherwise permitted 
under this section by an amount equal to the calculated normal cost of teacher retirement 
for that school divided by the number of enrolled students as of October 1, 2012.
Sec. 2.  20-A MRSA §15671, sub-§7, ¶C, as amended by PL 2019, c. 343, Pt. C, 
§2, is repealed.
SUMMARY
Current law provides a method of calculating the state share percentage of the total 
cost of funding public education from kindergarten to grade 12 that includes the unfunded 
actuarial liability of the Maine Public Employees Retirement System as it applies to 
teachers.  This bill repeals that provision of law.