Sec. 1. 20-A MRSA §15652, sub-§4, as repealed by PL 1999, c. 401, Pt. GG, §5, is reenacted to read:

4.__Normalized regional cost adjustment.__"Normalized regional cost adjustment" means a factor that is used to adjust a median household income value up or down to reflect variations in regional costs.__The department shall contract for the acquisition of annual normalized regional cost adjustment data, based on the National Chamber of Commerce model, except as follows.__Beginning in fiscal year 1998-99, the weight of the housing component of the market basket is 14%, instead of 28% and the weights of the other market basket components are increased proportionately.__In addition, for any municipality whose regional cost adjustment is less than 1.0, that adjustment is increased to 1.0.

Sec. 2. 20-A MRSA §15657, sub-§2, as amended by PL 1999, c. 401, Pt. GG, §9, is further amended to read:

2. Local median household income. The local median household income is divided by the statewide average median household income. That amount is divided by the normalized regional cost adjustment as defined in section 15652, subsection 4. The final result is multiplied by an income weight of 0.15. The department shall use local median household income data as estimated at the fiscal year 1997-98 level until final Federal Decennial Census figures are established for the year 2000. The fiscal year 1997- 98 estimated census figures must be adjusted so that no municipality's census figure exceeds twice the state average percentage increase from fiscal year 1996-97 to fiscal year 1997- 98.

SUMMARY

This bill reinstates the use of a cost-of-living factor in the school funding formula.