Sec. 1. 36 MRSA §578, sub-§1, as amended by PL 1999, c. 708, §21, is repealed and the following enacted in its place:

1.__Organized areas.__The municipal assessors or chief assessor of a primary assessing area shall adjust the State Tax Assessor's 100% valuation per acre for each forest type of their county by whatever ratio, or percentage of current just value, is applied to other property within the municipality to obtain the assessed values.__Forest land in the organized areas, subject to taxation under this subchapter, must be taxed at the property tax rate applicable to other property in the municipality, which rate is applied to the assessed values so determined.

The State Tax Assessor shall pay any municipal claim found to be in satisfactory form within 90 days after receipt of the claim.

The State Tax Assessor shall determine annually the amount of acreage in each municipality that is classified and taxed in accordance with this subchapter.__A municipality actually levying and collecting municipal property taxes and within whose boundaries this acreage lies is entitled to annual payments from money appropriated by the Legislature provided it submits an annual return in accordance with section 383 and if it achieves the appropriate minimum assessment ratio described in section 327.__The State shall reimburse municipalities 90% of the tree growth tax revenue lost as a result of this subchapter.__A municipality that fails to achieve the minimum assessment ratio established in section 327 loses 10% of the reimbursement provided by this section for each one percentage point the minimum assessment ratio falls below the ratio established in section 327.

The tree growth tax revenue loss is the difference between:

A.__The tax revenue that would be generated by the municipality, if not for this subchapter, on the just value assessment of all property classified as forest land within the municipality pursuant to this chapter, plus the total general purpose aid for local schools revenues that would have been received pursuant to Title 20-A, chapter 606 by the municipality or as the municipality's share if the classified forest lands were not enrolled under the Maine Tree Growth Tax Law, plus the revenue-sharing funds that would have been received by the municipality pursuant to Title 30-A, chapter 223, between April 1st of the previous year through March 31st of the current year, if the classified forest lands were not enrolled under the Maine Tree Growth Tax Law; and