An Act To Expand Tax Increment Financing To Include Adult Care Facilities and Services and Certain Child Care Facilities
Maine Legislature, Session 129, LD 1958
Committee: Taxation
Sponsors: MEYER, CLAXTON, DOUDERA, FAY, GRAMLICH, HEPLER, MORIARTY, STOVER, LAWRENCE, MOORE
Amends: 30-A MRSA §5222, 30-A MRSA §5225

Legislative Document
No. 1958
H.P. 1402
House of Representatives, January 8, 2020
An Act To Expand Tax Increment Financing To Include Adult Care 
Facilities and Services and Certain Child Care Facilities
Approved for introduction by a majority of the Legislative Council pursuant to Joint Rule 
203.
Reference to the Committee on Taxation suggested and ordered printed.
ROBERT B. HUNT
Clerk
Presented by Representative MEYER of Eliot.
Cosponsored by Senator CLAXTON of Androscoggin and
Representatives: DOUDERA of Camden, FAY of Raymond, GRAMLICH of Old Orchard 
Beach, HEPLER of Woolwich, MORIARTY of Cumberland, STOVER of Boothbay, Senators: 
LAWRENCE of York, MOORE of Washington.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  30-A MRSA §5222, sub-§1-B is enacted to read:
1-B.  Adult care facilities.  "Adult care facilities" means entities that offer programs 
for persons who are 60 years of age or older who need assistance or supervision and that 
are operated out of nonresidential commercial buildings.  The programs offered at adult 
care facilities include the provision of:
A.  Services that allow family members or caregivers to be active in the workforce;
B.  Professional and compassionate services for adults in a community and program-
based setting; and
C.  Social and health services to adults who need supervised care in a safe place 
outside the home.
Sec. 2.  30-A MRSA §5222, sub-§2-A is enacted to read:
2-A.  Child care facilities.  "Child care facilities" means entities that provide care for 
at least 10 children who are less than 18 years of age by persons who are not family 
members, legal guardians or other custodians of the children and that are operated out of 
nonresidential commercial buildings.  To meet this definition, a child care facility must 
have a full-time director and a sufficient number of staff members whose sole function is 
to provide necessary child care services.  The services offered at child care facilities 
include the provision of services that allow the children's family members, legal 
guardians or other custodians the ability to be active in the workforce.
Sec. 3.  30-A MRSA §5225, sub-§1, ¶C, as amended by PL 2019, c. 148, §3 and 
c. 260, §1, is further amended to read:
C.  Costs related to economic development, environmental improvements, fisheries 
and wildlife or marine resources projects, recreational trails, broadband service 
development, expansion or improvement, including connecting to broadband service 
outside the tax increment financing district, or employment training or the promotion 
of workforce development and retention within the municipality or plantation, 
including, but not limited to:
(1)  Costs of funding economic development programs or events developed by 
the municipality or plantation or funding the marketing of the municipality or 
plantation as a business or arts location;
(2)  Costs of funding environmental improvement projects developed by the 
municipality or plantation for commercial or arts district use or related to such 
activities;
(3)  Funding to establish permanent economic development revolving loan funds, 
investment funds and grants;
(4)  Costs of services and equipment to provide skills development and training, 
including scholarships to in-state educational institutions or to online learning 
entities when in-state options are not available, for jobs created or retained in the 
municipality or plantation.  These costs must be designated as training funds in 
the development program;
(5)  Quality child care costs Costs associated with child care facilities and adult 
care facilities and the services provided at those facilities, including finance costs 
and construction, staffing, training, certification and accreditation costs related to 
child care and adult care;
(6)  Costs associated with new or existing recreational trails determined by the 
department to have significant potential to promote economic development, 
including, but not limited to, costs for multiple projects and project phases that 
may include planning, design, construction, maintenance, grooming and 
improvements with respect to new or existing recreational trails, which may 
include bridges that are part of the trail corridor, used all or in part for all-terrain 
vehicles, snowmobiles, hiking, bicycling, cross-country skiing or other related 
multiple uses;
(7)  Costs associated with a new or expanded transit service, limited to:
(a)  Transit service capital costs, including but not limited to:  transit vehicles 
such as buses, ferries, vans, rail conveyances and related equipment; bus 
shelters and other transit-related structures; and benches, signs and other 
transit-related infrastructure; and
(b)  In the case of transit-oriented development districts, ongoing costs of 
adding to an existing transit system or creating a new transit service and 
limited strictly to transit operator salaries, transit vehicle fuel and transit 
vehicle parts replacements;
(8)  Costs associated with the development of fisheries and wildlife or marine 
resources projects; and
(9)  Costs related to the construction or operation of municipal or plantation 
public safety facilities, the need for which is related to general economic 
development within the municipality or plantation, not to exceed 15% of the 
captured assessed value of the development district; and
SUMMARY
This bill expands the permitted use of tax increment financing to include costs 
associated with certain adult care facilities and child care facilities; current law permits 
such use only for quality child care costs.