ARTICLE 17 SUBSTITUTE A

RELATING TO STATE AID

SECTION 1. Section 45-13-1 of the General Laws in Chapter 45-13 entitled “State Aid” is hereby amended to read as follows:

§ 45-13-1. Apportionment of annual appropriation for state aid. – (a) As used in this chapter, the following words and terms have the following meanings:

(1) "Population" means the most recent estimates of population for each city and town as reported by the United States department of commerce, bureau of the census.

(2) "Income" means the most recent estimate of per-capita income for a city, town or county as reported by the United States department of commerce, bureau of the census.

(3) "Tax effort" means the total taxes imposed by a city or town for public purposes or the totals of those taxes for the cities or towns within a county (except employee and employer assessments and contributions to finance retirement and social insurance systems and other special assessments for capital outlay) determined by the United States secretary of commerce for general statistical purposes and adjusted to exclude amounts properly allocated to education expenses.

(4) "Reference year" means the second fiscal year preceding the beginning of the fiscal year in which the distribution of state aid to cities and towns is made.

(b) Aid to cities and towns shall be apportioned as follows: For each county, city or town, let R be the tax effort divided by the square of per capita income, i.e., R = (tax effort)/(income x income).

The amount to be allocated to the counties shall be apportioned in the ratio of the value of R for each county divided by the sum of the values of R for all five (5) counties.

The amount to be allocated for all cities and for all towns within a county shall be the allocation for that county apportioned proportionally to the total tax effort of the towns and cities in that county.

The amount to be allocated to any city or town is the amount allocated to all cities or all towns within the county apportioned in the ratio of the value of R for that city (or town) divided by the sum of the values of R for all cities (or all towns) in that county; provided, further, that no city or town shall receive an entitlement in excess of one hundred forty-five percent (145%) of that city or town's population multiplied by the average per capita statewide amount of the annual appropriation for state aid to cities and towns. Any excess entitlement shall be allocated to the remainder of the cities and towns in the respective county in accordance with the provisions of this section. For fiscal year 2004, notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a), aid calculations shall be based on a blended rate of ninety percent (90%) of the data from the 1990 census and ten percent (10%) of the data from the 2000 census. In each of the succeeding nine (9) fiscal years, the calculations shall be based on a blended rate that increases the percentage of data utilized from the 2000 census by ten percent (10%) from the previous year and decreases the percentage of the data utilized from the 1990 census by ten percent (10%) from the previous year.

(c) The total amount of aid to be apportioned pursuant to subsection (b) above shall be specified in the annual appropriation act of the state and shall be equal to the following:

(i) For fiscal years ending June 30, 1994 through June 30, 1998, the total amount of aid shall be based upon one percent (1%) of total state tax revenues in the reference year.

(ii) For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1999, the total amount of aid shall be based upon one and three-tenths percent (1.3%) of total state tax revenues in the reference year.

(iii) For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2000, the total amount of aid shall be based upon one and seven-tenths percent (1.7%) of total state tax revenues in the reference year.

(iv) For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2001, the total amount of aid shall be based upon two percent (2.0%) of total state tax revenues in the reference year.

(v) For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2002, the total amount of aid shall be based upon two and four-tenths percent (2.4%) of total state tax revenues in the reference year.

(vi) For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2003, the total amount of aid shall be based upon two and four-tenths percent (2.4%) of total state tax revenues in the reference year.

(vii) For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2004, the total amount of aid shall be based upon two and seven-tenths percent (2.7%) of total state tax revenues in the reference year.

(viii) For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2005, the total amount of aid shall fifty-two million four hundred thirty-eight thousand five hundred thirty-two dollars ($52,438,532).

(ix) For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006, the total amount of aid shall be based upon three percent (3.0%) of total state tax revenues in the reference year.

(x) For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2007 the total amount of aid shall be based upon three and four-tenths percent (3.4%) of total state tax revenues in the reference year Sixty-four million six hundred ninety-nine thousand three dollars ($64,699,003).

(xi) For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, the total amount of aid shall be based upon three and seven-tenths percent (3.7 %) of total state tax revenues in the reference year.

(xii) For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009, the total amount of aid shall be based upon four and one-tenths percent (4.1%) of total state tax revenues in the reference year.

(xiii) For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010, the total amount of aid shall be based upon four and four-tenths percent (4.4%) of total state tax revenues in the reference year.

(xiv) For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011, the total amount of aid shall be based upon four and seven-tenths percent (4.7%) of total state tax revenues in the reference year.

(d) The assent of two-thirds (2/3) of the members elected to each house of the general assembly shall be required to repeal or amend this section.

SECTION 2. This article shall take effect upon passage.