An Act To Provide Information to Property Tax Payers

Sec. 1. 36 MRSA §507,  as amended by PL 1997, c. 643, Pt. HHH, §2 and affected by §10, is repealed and the following enacted in its place:

§ 507.  Taxpayer information

A municipality that issues a property tax bill to a taxpayer must issue the following information in a form determined by the State Tax Assessor.

Sec. 2. Standard form of property tax bill. No later than October 15, 2007, the State Tax Assessor shall determine a standardized form for the property tax bill provided to taxpayers pursuant to the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 36, section 507 and provide this form to all entities that issue property tax bills.

Sec. 3. Application. That section of this Act that repeals and replaces the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 36, section 507 applies to property tax bills issued for property tax years beginning on or after April 1, 2008.

summary

This bill requires the State Tax Assessor to determine a standardized form for property tax bills issued by municipalities and provide this form to municipalities. The form must include the following information:

1. The amount or percentage by which the taxpayer's tax has been reduced by the distribution of state-municipal revenue sharing, state reimbursement for the Maine resident homestead property tax exemption and state aid for education;

2. The assessed value of a homestead, before and after the calculation of a Maine resident homestead property tax exemption, and the amount of the exemption applied to the homestead;

3. The percentage of property taxes distributed to education and local, county and state government;

4. The outstanding bonded indebtedness of the issuing municipality; and

5. The date interest begins to accrue.