An Act To Ensure Funding Sources for County Jails
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 30-A MRSA §701, sub-§2-C, as repealed and replaced by PL 2017, c. 475, Pt. A, §50, is amended to read:
2-C. Tax assessment for correctional services beginning July 1, 2015. Beginning July 1, 2015, the counties shall annually collect no less than $62,172,371 from municipalities for the provision of correctional services in accordance with this subsection. The counties may collect an amount that is more than the base assessment limit established in this subsection, except that the additional amount each year may not exceed the base assessment limit as adjusted by the growth limitation factor established in section 706-A, subsection 3 or 4%, whichever is less and is subject to the provisions of section 706-A, subsection 5. If a county collects in a year an amount that is more than the base assessment limit established for that county pursuant to this subsection, the base assessment limit in the succeeding year is the amount collected in the prior year. For the purposes of this subsection, "correctional services" includes management services, personal services, contractual services, commodity purchases, capital expenditures and all other costs, or portions thereof, necessary to maintain and operate correctional services. "Correctional services" does not include county jail debt unless there is a surplus in the account that pays for correctional services at the end of the state fiscal year.
The assessment to municipalities within each county may not be less than the base assessment limit, which is:
A. A sum of $4,287,340 in Androscoggin County;
B. A sum of $2,316,666 in Aroostook County;
C. A sum of $11,575,602 in Cumberland County;
D. A sum of $1,621,201 in Franklin County;
E. A sum of $1,670,136 in Hancock County;
F. A sum of $5,588,343 in Kennebec County;
G. A sum of $3,188,700 in Knox County;
H. A sum of $2,657,105 in Lincoln County;
I. A sum of $1,228,757 in Oxford County;
J. A sum of $5,919,118 in Penobscot County;
K. A sum of $878,940 in Piscataquis County;
L. A sum of $2,657,105 in Sagadahoc County;
M. A sum of $5,363,665 in Somerset County;
N. A sum of $2,832,353 in Waldo County;
O. A sum of $2,000,525 in Washington County; and
P. A sum of $8,386,815 in York County.
summary
This bill removes the 4% growth limitation factor on county tax assessments for correctional services and treats excessive tax assessments for county correctional services the same as for other county services.