Sec. 1. 36 MRSA §652, sub-§1, ķA, as amended by PL 2001, c. 596, Pt. B, §23 and affected by §25 and amended by PL 2003, c. 689, Pt. B, §§6 and 7, is amended to read:

A. The real estate and personal property owned and occupied or used solely for their own purposes by benevolent and charitable institutions incorporated by this State. Such an institution may not be deprived of the right of exemption by reason of the source from which its funds are derived or by reason of limitation in the classes of persons for whose benefit such funds are applied. If the benevolent and charitable institution is not the sole occupant of the property, the exemption granted under this paragraph applies only to that portion of the property owned and occupied or used by the benevolent and charitable institution.

For the purposes of this paragraph, "benevolent and charitable institutions" include includes, but are is not limited to, nonprofit nursing homes and nonprofit boarding homes and boarding care facilities licensed by the Department of Health and Human Services pursuant to Title 22, chapter 1664 or its successor, nonprofit community mental health service facilities licensed by the Commissioner of Health and Human Services pursuant to Title 34-B, chapter 3 and nonprofit child care centers incorporated by this State as benevolent and charitable institutions. For the purposes of this paragraph, "nonprofit" means a facility exempt from taxation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Code;

SUMMARY

Current law provides an exemption from property tax to property that is owned and used or occupied solely by a benevolent and charitable institution. If the property is occupied by more than one entity, one of which is a benevolent and charitable institution, there is no exemption.

This bill provides an exemption in the case of 2 or more occupants of a property to that portion of the property owned and occupied or used solely by the benevolent and charitable institution.