[Local-Maine-Schools] LD 804, “An Act to Ensure Responsible Government Spending and Investment”

[Brian Hubbell]

LR 1386, Senator Edmunds' concept legislation regarding school
regionalization, developed in coalition with the MEA and MMA, is now a
full legislative document:

LD 804,  "An Act to Ensure Responsible Government Spending and Investment"

You can see it at:
http://janus.state.me.us/legis/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?LD=804

Senator Damon is listed as a co-sponsor.

The summary is below.

--Brian

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Summary

Part A of this bill establishes new procedures to govern the act of
exceeding or increasing the various spending limitations that
currently apply to state, county, municipal and school governments. On
the state level, Part A establishes a system to make the determination
of compliance with the spending limitation system an accurate
year-to-year comparison if the Legislature decides to fund a General
Fund expenditure outside of the General Fund appropriation process.
For counties, schools and municipalities, the existing approval
procedures to exceed the current spending limitations would still be
required, but, if the local government was proposing to exceed or
increase the applicable limitation and the local government was the
recipient of net new funding from the State, the approval would have
to be accomplished by a referendum vote. For municipal and school
governments, a 2/3 vote of the legislative body, such as the town
meeting or school district meeting or city council, would avoid the
need to obtain a referendum approval of the budget.

Part B of this bill establishes a 5% limit on the amount of General
Fund and Highway Fund revenues that may be allocated for tax-supported
debt service in any fiscal year. Part B also directs the State
Treasurer to annually calculate and report to the Legislature on the
aggregate unfunded actuarial liability of the State, taking into
consideration health and life insurance and pension benefits that are
scheduled to be provided to retired state employees, teachers and
other governmental workers provided benefits pursuant to state law.

Part C of this bill establishes as a goal a 10% reduction by the year
2010 in the statewide expenditure for educational administrative
services in kindergarten to grade 12 public education as that
expenditure is measured as a percent of total personal income. It
establishes goals for specific categories of costs and services. It
also establishes a comprehensive system of analysis, recommendation,
outreach and implementation to be accomplished on the local level
through the creation of regional planning alliances to achieve that
goal within the 26 career and technical education regions in Maine. If
the cost reduction goal is not achieved, the Commissioner of Education
must submit a plan to the Legislature to achieve the cost reductions.

Part D of this bill amends the law governing the responsibilities of
the Executive Department, State Planning Office to collect data and
report about the effects of government spending limitation law on
Maine's overall tax burden. Part D requires the State Planning Office
to work with the Maine Development Foundation to prepare the required
compliance reports in a manner designed to be accessible to the
general public. Part D also requires the State Planning Office to
perform calculations of Maine's state and local government employment
and expenditure levels in comparison with other states for the purpose
of identifying categories of government employment and expenditure
that deviate significantly from national and peer state averages.
Finally, Part D directs the State Planning Office, working in
conjunction with Maine Revenue Services, to establish a contract with
the Maine Development Foundation to comprehensively analyze the
sources of government revenue available to each state in the United
States, including Maine, with a focus on comparing the various state
and local taxes and fees in terms of nominal revenues by category, tax
and revenue burdens, rates of taxes and fee schedules and levels of
reliance and exportation.