In addition to the reimbursement for the revenue lost, the additional administrative costs that will be incurred by municipalities to implement these changes to the property tax assessments for certain farms require reimbursement as a state mandate pursuant to the Constitution of Maine. Unless General Fund appropriations are provided to fund at least 90% of the additional administrative costs or a Mandate Preamble is amended to the bill and two thirds of the members of each House vote to exempt this mandate from the funding requirement for the administrative costs, municipalities may not be required to implement these changes. The amount of the additional local administrative costs are expected to be minor.

The new sales tax exemption for qualifying animal waste storage facilities will decrease sales and use tax collections by $21,175 in fiscal year 1999-00 and $22,022 in fiscal year 2000- 01. The reduction of these tax collections will decrease the amounts transferred to the Local Government Fund for state- municipal revenue sharing in those years by $1,080 and $1,123, respectively. The resulting net reductions of General Fund revenue will be $20,095 in fiscal year 1999-00 and $20,899 in fiscal year 2000-01.

The Bureau of Revenue Services will incur some minor additional costs to implement these tax changes. These costs can be absorbed within the bureau's existing budgeted resources.

SUMMARY

This bill is a unanimous committee report of the Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry as authorized by Public Law 1997, chapter 642, section 8, subsection 3. This bill extends the moratorium on swine feeding operations until October 1, 2001. It requires the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources to enter into a memorandum of agreement on a process for issuing permits under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.

In addition, it does the following:

1. Clarifies when utilization of a regulated residual requires a nutrient management plan;

2. Provides a process for the Commissioner of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources to revoke a person's certification to prepare nutrient management plans;