LD 1
pg. 10
Page 9 of 70 An Act To Increase the State Share of Education Costs, Reduce Property Taxes an... Page 11 of 70
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LR 328
Item 1

 
9.__Election.__A municipality may elect to raise its property
tax levy limit upon the affirmative vote of the voters by
municipal election held at any regular or special election.__
Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, such election may be
called only upon the affirmative vote of a majority of the
municipality's legislative body and must be governed according to
state law and any applicable municipal charter.__The warrant for
the election must set forth the question to be determined, which
must be in the following form:__"Do you favor raising the levy
limit of the [name of municipality] for the purpose of [insert
purpose]?"

 
10.__Treatment of surplus; reserves.__Any property tax
revenues collected by a municipality in any fiscal year in excess
of its property tax levy limit, as determined by a final audited
accounting, must be transferred to a property tax relief fund,
which each municipality must establish, and used to reduce
property tax levies in subsequent fiscal years.__Nothing in this
subsection is intended to limit the ability of a municipality to
maintain adequate reserves pursuant to section 5801, provided
that annual allocations or appropriations of funds to reserves
are treated as appropriations subject to the appropriation limits
set forth in subsection 1.

 
11.__Fractional divisions.__A municipality may, consistent
with Title 36, section 710, exceed its property tax levy limit in
such reasonable amount as necessary to avoid fractional
divisions.

 
12.__Enforcement.__In the event a municipality makes
appropriations in violation of this section, the State Tax
Assessor may require the municipality to adjust its appropriation
limit downward in an amount equal to the illegal appropriation
and impose such other penalties as the Legislature may provide.

 
PART D

 
Sec. D-1. 5 MRSA §17154, sub-§6, ķE, as amended by PL 2003, c. 504, Pt.
B, §1, is further amended to read:

 
E. Notwithstanding this section, the employer retirement
costs related to the retirement system applicable to those
teachers whose funding is provided directly or through
reimbursement from private or public grants must be paid by
local school systems from those funds. "Public grants" does
not include state or local funds provided to school
administrative units under Title 20-A, chapters 315, 606 and
606-B.


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