AUGUSTA — Municipal officials from across Maine testified Friday in favor of two bills that would protect the state revenue sharing that sends millions of dollars to cities and towns each year.
The proposals, one sponsored by Assistant Senate Minority Leader Roger Katz, R-Augusta, and the other by Senate President Justin Alfond, D-Portland were heard by the Legislature’s budget-writing committee.The Katz bill, L.D. 713, would direct some $200 million into city and town budgets across Maine over the next two years, according to state budget estimates. It would phase in full funding of revenue sharing over three years.
The state is supposed to give 5 percent of sales- and income-tax revenues to municipalities, which use the money to supplement the property tax revenue that funds local budgets. But lawmakers have scaled back revenue sharing in recent years, despite protests from municipalities.
Alfond’s bill, L.D. 940, would make revenue sharing a compact between the state and municipalities, a legal arrangement that would make it harder for legislators to reduce funding.
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