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An Act Regarding Residential Drinking Water Arsenic Testing
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  30-A MRSA §4748  is enacted to read:
§ 4748. Water filter surcharge
 
1.  Surcharge.     In addition to the tax imposed on the sale of a water filter pursuant to Title 36, section 1811, there is imposed a surcharge of 3% on the value of any water filter sold at retail in this State.
 
2.  Administration.     All surcharges collected under subsection 1 must be credited to the authority for use in the home repair program administered by the authority that provides loans and grants to low-income homeowners for necessary home repairs. The surcharge must be collected at the time of the sale of the water filter and remitted to the State Tax Assessor in the same manner as the sales tax. The State Tax Assessor shall forward any amount collected pursuant to subsection 1 to the authority, less the cost of administering the surcharge, which may not exceed 10% of the amount collected.
Sec. 2. 33 MRSA §173-A, as enacted by PL 2003, c. 457, §1 and as amended by PL 2003, c. 689, Pt. B, §6, is further amended by adding at the end a new paragraph to read:
Beginning January 1, 2016, unless the transaction is exempt under section 172, the seller of residential real property shall provide to the purchaser a form developed by the Director of the Bureau of Health within the Department of Health and Human Services that allows the purchaser to formally decline to have the water at the property tested for arsenic.
 
SUMMARY
This bill requires that a seller of residential real property provide to the purchaser a form that allows the purchaser to formally decline to have the water at the property tested for arsenic.
The bill imposes a 3% surcharge on the retail sale of water filters. The proceeds are to be used by the Maine State Housing Authority for the home repair program administered by the authority that provides loans and grants to low-income homeowners for necessary home repairs.