Sec. 1. 30-A MRSA §373, as amended by PL 1989, c. 104, Pt. C, §§8 and 10, is repealed and the following enacted in its place:

§373.__Salaries; benefits

1.__Annual salary.__The sheriff for each county receives an annual salary of $30,000 or an amount mutually agreed to by the sheriff and the county commissioners of that county.

2.__Payments.__The sheriff receives an annual salary from the county in weekly or biweekly payments on a date determined by the county and in a sum that, in a year aggregate, will most nearly equal the annual salary.

3.__Additional sums.__In addition to the annual salary under subsection 1, each sheriff receives the additional sums for which the sheriff qualifies under the following provisions:

A.__Five hundred dollars for each 30 credit hours of post- secondary school education in the field of criminal justice, business or public administration that the sheriff successfully completes;

B.__One hundred dollars for each 10,000 persons constituting the population of the county according to the latest Federal Decennial Census;

C.__One hundred dollars for each full calendar year of full- time law enforcement or corrections experience completed subsequent to the completion of the basic municipal or county law enforcement training or the basic corrections school and prior to assuming the office of sheriff;

D.__One thousand dollars for each consecutive full calendar year of prior service as sheriff; and

E.__One thousand dollars for each jail in that county with a rated capacity of 25 or fewer inmates; one thousand five hundred dollars for each jail in that county with a rated capacity of 25 to 50 inmates; and two thousand dollars for each jail in that county with a rated capacity of more than 50 inmates.__The Department of Corrections determines a jail's inmate capacity.

4.__Benefits.__A sheriff may not receive fewer benefits than any other county employee receives, unless otherwise mutually agreed to by the sheriff and the county commissioners of that county.