An Act To Protect the Housing Opportunities for Maine Fund
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 36 MRSA §4641-B, sub-§4, as amended by PL 2005, c. 644, §4, is further amended to read:
4. Distribution of State's share of proceeds. The State Tax Assessor shall pay all net receipts received pursuant to this section to the Treasurer of State, and shall at the same time provide the Treasurer of State with documentation showing the amount of revenues derived from the tax imposed by section 4641-A, subsection 1 and the amount of revenues derived from the tax imposed by section 4641-A, subsection 2. The Treasurer of State shall credit 1/2 of the revenues derived from the tax imposed by section 4641-A, subsection 1 to the General Fund and shall monthly pay the remaining 1/2 of such revenues to the Maine State Housing Authority, which shall deposit the funds in the Housing Opportunities for Maine Fund created in Title 30-A, section 4853 , except that in fiscal year 2003-04, fiscal year 2004-05 and fiscal year 2005-06, $7,500,000 of the remaining 1/2 of those revenues must be transferred to the General Fund before any payments are made to the Maine State Housing Authority and in fiscal year 2006-07, $7,687,067 of the remaining 1/2 of those revenues must be transferred to the General Fund before any payments are made to the Maine State Housing Authority. Neither the Governor nor the Legislature may divert the revenues payable to the Housing Opportunities for Maine Fund to any other fund or for any other use. Any proposal to enact or amend a law to allow distribution of less than 1/2 of the revenues derived from the tax imposed by section 4641-A, subsection 1 to the Housing Opportunities for Maine Fund must be submitted to the Legislative Council and to the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over affordable housing matters at least 30 days prior to any vote or public hearing on the proposal. The Treasurer of State shall credit to the General Fund all of the revenues derived from the tax imposed by section 4641-A, subsection 2.
summary
This bill provides language to further protect the Housing Opportunities for Maine Fund.