| Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: |
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| | Sec. 1. 20-A MRSA §15602, sub-§11, as enacted by PL 1997, c. 469, §1, | is amended to read: |
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| | 11. State share of debt service costs for school | construction; separate budget line item; separate appropriation. | It is the intent of the Legislature that the state share of the | school construction debt service costs, as biennially established | by the Legislature pursuant to the debt service limits authorized | in section 15905, must be supported by General Fund | appropriations beginning in fiscal year 1999-2000. The | Legislature shall annually report the aggregate amount of the | state share of the allocation for debt service costs under | section 15611 as a separate line item and program account in the | budget submitted to the Legislature for consideration.__The | Legislature shall annually appropriate an amount to capitalize | the state share of debt service costs under section 15611, | subsection 2 that is separate from the appropriation for general | purpose aid for local schools. |
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| | Sec. 2. 20-A MRSA §15652, sub-§2, as enacted by PL 1995, c. 368, Pt. | Z, §1 and affected by §2, is amended to read: |
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| | 2. Income weight. "Income weight" means a value between zero | and one that is used to adjust a municipality's ratio of local | median household income to the statewide median household income. | The income weight plus the property weight, as defined in | subsection 7, must equal one. Beginning in fiscal year 1999-00, | the income weight must be the median household income data | reported in the United States Census data that was used for the | statewide component and for the local municipality component in | fiscal year 1997-98.__The department shall use the fiscal year | 1997-98 median household income data for each fiscal year until | fiscal year 2001-02 when the department shall use the median | household income data reported in the United States Census for | 2000 for each fiscal year until fiscal year 2011-12 when the | department shall use data for the United States Census for 2010. |
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| | Sec. 3. 20-A MRSA §15652, sub-§4, as amended by PL 1997, c. 643, Pt. | D, §3, is further amended to read: |
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| | 4. Normalized regional cost adjustment; public education | price index. "Normalized regional cost adjustment" means a | factor that is used to adjust a median household income value up | or down to reflect variations in regional costs. The department | shall contract for the acquisition of annual normalized regional | cost adjustment data, based on the National Chamber of Commerce | model, except as follows. Beginning in fiscal year 1998-99, the | weight of the housing component of the market basket is 14%, |
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