Revenue sharing follow-up - By David Nadeau

Hello all. Let me first start out by thanking any one who took the time to contact their legislators regarding revenue sharing.

This is an update to my previous column.

LR 2721 (restore revenue sharing) – was voted out of the Legislative Appropriations Committee to become LD 1762 by a vote of 7 to 5 and sent on to the legislature.

LD 1762 (restore revenue sharing) – was voted on in the Legislator on February 6,2014 by a vote of 114 yeas (Y), 21 nays (N), 16 absent (AB), and sent on to the senate.

LD 1762 (restore revenue sharing) – was voted on in the senate on February 11, 2014 by a vote of 6 yeas, 2 nays, and sent on to Governor Paul LePage.

The Governor now has 10 days to react to LD 1762 (restore revenue sharing) his options:

            Sign the bill into law.

            Allow the bill to become law without a signature.

Veto the bill – to over ride a veto there needs to be a two-thirds majority vote in both houses.

Feb. 26 – update – Governor LePage allowed the bill to become law without a signature providing approximately $40 million for municipalities. 

I would be remiss at this time if I didn’t thank our legislative body that voted in favor of LD1762. Thank you again for your support I hope it continues.

At the time of writing this piece, the time line had not expired and the Governor had not made a decision. This issue most likely is not over, better minds than mine believe the Governor will veto LD1762, with that said, we still need your support, call your legislator and ask them to keep their support for LD1762.

The Maine Municipal Association publishes a magazine ever month with municipal articles. This month they have an article that covers the loss of State revenue from all venues for municipalities and schools. The article was written by Emily Shaw for Margret Chase Smith Policy Center’s Maine Policy Review. This article will show you what your councilors are facing as well as the attack on the real estate tax.

You can find the article on the Maine Municipal site at www.memun.org.

Go down to the bottom of that page on the right and you will see the magazine “The Maine Townsman”. Click under the picture on current issue. Once the current issue opens you will find the article to the right of the cover picture called, “Maine Expert: Harm is Real.”

Please take the time to read this article it will give you, as a voter, great insight into what is happening and why there is such a struggle to provide services and keep taxes as low as possible at the local level.

Thanks for your support.