Sec. 1. 36 MRSA §§6661 and 6662 are enacted to read:

§6661.__Certain leased property

A lessor of eligible property shall pay over to the lessee of that property reimbursement of property taxes received by the lessor under this chapter with respect to that property to the extent that the lessor has been reimbursed for those taxes by the lessee.

§6662.__Disallowance of reimbursement for certain property

Reimbursement under this chapter may not be made for property tax payments made with respect to property located at a facility that has permanently ceased all productive operations on April 1st of the year for which the property taxes are assessed and where no productive operations have been conducted for at least 12 months before the date that reimbursement is requested.__This section does not apply if the owner of the facility has publicly advertised that the facility is available for sale or lease and has made a good faith effort to market and sell or lease the facility to prospective buyers or lessees.

Sec. 2. Notification. The Department of Administrative and Financial Services, Bureau of Revenue Services shall develop information describing the availability of reimbursement for property taxes under the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 36, chapter 915 and the method of applying for that reimbursement. The bureau shall periodically include that information in mailings to businesses and in any materials made generally available to businesses that describe the State's business taxes. The bureau shall make copies of the information available to municipalities for distribution at the local level.

Sec. 3. Application. That section of this Act that enacts the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 36, sections 6661 and 6662 applies to property taxes assessed on or after April 1, 2002.

FISCAL NOTE

The changes to the business equipment tax reimbursement program are not expected to have any measurable impact on General Fund expenditures in the Personal Property Tax Reform account administered by the Bureau of Revenue Services within the Department of Administrative and Financial Services. The bureau will incur some minor additional costs to revise and distribute information describing the availability of the program. These costs can be absorbed within the bureau's existing budgeted resources.