Authority of municipalities to impose service charges on houses of religious worship

MAINE STATE LEGISLATURE The following document is provided by the LAW AND LEGISLATIVE DIGITAL LIBRARY at the Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Library http://legislature.maine.gov/lawlib Reproduced from scanned originals with text recognition applied (searchable text may contain some errors and/or omissions) RICHARD S. COHEN ATTORNEY GENERAL STATE OF MAINE DEPARTMEN'r OF Tl-IE ATTORNEY GENERAL AllGlfSTA, MAINE 04333 April 18, 1979 STEPHEN L. DIAMOND JOHN S. GLliASON JOHN M. R. PATERSON Ro!tcRT J. STOLT DEPUTY ATTORNEYS GENERAL The Honorable Robert G. Gillis House of Representatives State House Augusta, Maine 04333 Dear Representative Gillis: This responds to your request for advice as to whether municipalities are authorized to impose service charges on houses of religious worship. The scope of Maine's service charge statute is very narrow. It authorizes municipalities to impose service charges on the owners of certain institutional and organizational real property, which is otherwise exempt from state or municipal taxation. 36 M.R.S.A. § 652(L). The statute states further that a service charge may be imposed only to recover the cost of providing municipal services to one class of property: "Residential properties currently totally exempt from property taxation, yet used to provide rental income, This classification does not include student housing or parsonages." 36 M.R.S.A. § 652(L)(2)(a). In light of these restrictions on the imposition of service charges, it is difficult to imagine a situation where service charges could be imposed on houses of religious worship since a house of religio~p worship is not residential property used to provide rental income. Sincerely, ,1 •• ., ,l- C I' // c>/J,1Y,!}n/ )~ - (1·· lvvLlL (c__.. Andre G. Jan~lle Assistant Attorney General AGJ:gr