"Do you favor amending the Constitution of Maine to permit the Legislature to establish different maximum property tax rates for different classes of property and to exempt personal property from property tax as long as certain personal property is subject to an excise tax to be collected and retained by municipalities?"

The legal voters of each city, town and plantation shall vote by ballot on this question and designate their choice by a cross or check mark placed within the corresponding square below the word "Yes" or "No." The ballots must be received, sorted, counted and declared in open ward, town and plantation meetings and returns made to the Secretary of State in the same manner as votes for members of the Legislature. The Governor shall review the returns and, if it appears that a majority of the legal votes are cast in favor of the amendment, the Governor shall proclaim that fact without delay and the amendment becomes part of the Constitution on the date of the proclamation; and be it further

Secretary of State shall prepare ballots. Resolved: That the Secretary of State shall prepare and furnish to each city, town and plantation all ballots, returns and copies of this resolution necessary to carry out the purpose of this referendum.

SUMMARY

This constitutional resolution is offered by the Education Funding Reform Committee pursuant to Public Law 2001, chapter 439, Part SSS as part of a proposal presented by the committee to reduce the State's reliance on the property tax for funding public education. This constitutional resolution is accompanied by separate legislation to implement the changes proposed in the resolution and to provide further details of the proposal developed by the committee for further consideration by the Legislature. A minority of the committee recommends adoption of the committee's proposal. A majority of the committee offers the proposal for further consideration by the Legislature rather than as recommendations of the substantive changes contained in the committee's proposal.

This constitutional resolution would make 2 major changes in the constitutional requirements related to the property tax. The first change would permit the Legislature to establish classes of property and impose different maximum rates on the local property

tax that could be imposed on each class of property for the purposes of funding local education costs. The 2nd change would exempt personal property from taxation as long as certain personal property, as defined by the Legislature, is subject to an excise tax to be collected and retained by municipalities.