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An Act To Extend the Property Tax Exemption for Veterans to Persons Living in Cooperative Housing
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 36 MRSA §653, sub-§2  is enacted to read:
 
2.  Cooperative housing corporations.     A cooperative housing corporation is entitled to an exemption to be applied against the valuation of property of the corporation that is occupied by qualifying shareholders. An application for exemption must include a list of all qualifying shareholders and any information required by the municipality to verify eligibility of qualifying shareholders and the applicable exemption amount. The application must be updated annually to reflect changes in eligibility. The exemption is equal to the total amount calculated under subsection 1 as if the qualifying shareholders were owners of the property. A cooperative housing corporation that receives an exemption pursuant to this section shall apportion the property tax reduction resulting from the exemption among the qualifying shareholders according to the proportion of the total exemption that each qualifying shareholder would be entitled to if the qualifying shareholder were the owner of property. Any supplemental assessment resulting from disqualification for exemption must be applied in the same manner against the qualifying shareholders for whom the disqualification applies. For the purposes of this subsection, the following terms have the following meanings.
 
A.  "Cooperative housing corporation" means an entity organized for the purpose of owning residential real estate in which residents own shares that entitle them to inhabit a designated space within a residential dwelling.
 
B.  "Qualifying shareholder" means a person who is a shareholder in a cooperative housing corporation who would qualify for an exemption under subsection 1 if the person were the owner of the property.
 
SUMMARY
This bill extends veterans’ property tax exemptions to persons living in cooperative housing communities by granting an exemption to the cooperative housing corporation and requiring the benefit to be apportioned to qualifying veterans and their survivors according to the benefit that each individual would be entitled to if the individual were the owner of property.