Sec. 1. 36 MRSA §652, sub-§1, ¶A, as amended by PL 1997, c. 668, §20, is further amended to read:

A. The real estate and personal property or portions thereof owned and occupied or used solely for their own purposes by benevolent and charitable institutions incorporated by this State. Such an institution may not be deprived of the right of exemption by reason of the source from which its funds are derived or by reason of limitation in the classes of persons for whose benefit such funds are applied.

For the purposes of this paragraph, "benevolent and charitable institutions" include, but are not limited to, nonprofit nursing homes and nonprofit boarding homes and boarding care facilities licensed by the Department of Human Services pursuant to Title 22, chapter 1665 or its successor, nonprofit community mental health service facilities licensed by the Commissioner of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services pursuant to Title 34-B, chapter 3 and nonprofit child care centers incorporated by this State as benevolent and charitable institutions. For the purposes of this paragraph, "nonprofit" means a facility exempt from taxation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Code;

Sec. 2. 36 MRSA §652, sub-§1, ¶B, as amended by PL 1979, c. 467, §2, is further amended to read:

B. The real estate and personal property or portions thereof owned and occupied or used solely for their own purposes by literary and scientific institutions. If any building or part of a building is used primarily for employee housing, that building, or that part of the building used for employee housing, shall is not be exempt from taxation.

Sec. 3. 36 MRSA §652, last ¶, as enacted by PL 1993, c. 422, §5, is amended to read:

An organization or institution that desires to secure exemption under this section shall make written application and file written proof of entitlement for each parcel to be considered on or before the first day of April in the year in which the exemption is first requested with the assessors of the municipality in which the property would otherwise be taxable. If granted, the exemption continues in effect until the assessors determine that the organization or institution is no longer