An Act To Support Lower Property Taxes by Restoring State-Municipal Revenue Sharing
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 30-A MRSA §5681, sub-§5, as amended by PL 2015, c. 267, Pt. K, §1, is further amended to read:
5. Transfers to funds. No later than the 10th day of each month, the State Controller shall transfer to the Local Government Fund 5% of the receipts during the previous month from the taxes imposed under Title 36, Parts 3 and 8 , and Title 36, section 2552, subsection 1, paragraphs A to F and L , and credited to the General Fund without any reduction, except that for fiscal years 2015-16 , and 2016-17 , 2017-18 and 2018-19 the amount transferred is 2% , for fiscal year 2017-18 the amount transferred is 3% and for fiscal year 2018-19 the amount transferred is 4% of the receipts during the previous month from the taxes imposed under Title 36, Parts 3 and 8 , and Title 36, section 2552, subsection 1, paragraphs A to F and L , and credited to the General Fund without any reduction, and except that the postage, state cost allocation program and programming costs of administering state-municipal revenue sharing may be paid by the Local Government Fund. A percentage share of the amounts transferred to the Local Government Fund each month must be transferred to the Disproportionate Tax Burden Fund and distributed pursuant to subsection 4-B as follows:
C. For months beginning on or after July 1, 2009 but before July 1, 2010, 15%;
D. For months beginning on or after July 1, 2010 but before July 1, 2011, 16%;
E. For months beginning on or after July 1, 2011 but before July 1, 2012, 17%;
F. For months beginning on or after July 1, 2012 but before July 1, 2013, 18%;
G. For months beginning on or after July 1, 2013 but before July 1, 2014, 19%; and
H. For months beginning on or after July 1, 2014, 20%.
SUMMARY
Current law reduces the amount transferred to the Local Government Fund for state-municipal revenue sharing from 5% to 2% for fiscal years 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19. This bill gradually restores the percentage transferred for state-municipal revenue sharing by increasing the percentage transferred to the Local Government Fund to 3% for fiscal year 2017-18 and to 4% for fiscal year 2018-19. Following fiscal year 2018-19, the percentage of state-municipal revenue sharing is scheduled to return to 5%.