📰BIDDEFORD | Emergency Shelter Funding | Council Votes AGAINST Supporting LD 2124

February 17, 2026, At this evening’s Biddeford City Council Meeting, with a tied vote of 4 to 4 that was broke by Mayor LaFountain, councilors voted AGAINST approving a resolution in support of LD 2124, an “Act to Support Emergency Shelter Funding using Real Estate Transfer Tax Revenue”

Meeting materials state that under current law, 90% of the revenue from the real estate transfer tax is submitted to the State and 10% is retained by the counties, except that, for fiscal years 2025-26 and 2026-27, the percentage retained by the counties is reduced to 9.2%.

This bill reduces the percentage of the real estate transfer tax revenue retained by counties by 1.8% and requires 1% of the revenue to be transferred to the Maine State Housing Authority for deposit in the shelter operating subsidy program beginning September 1, 2026; beginning August 1, 2027, 1.8% of the revenue is required to be transferred to the Maine State Housing Authority to be allocated as part of the operations share of the shelter operating subsidy program. Beginning September 1, 2026, the percentage of the real estate transfer tax retained by counties is reduced to 8.2%.

Worth noting, during the discussion, York County Commissioner Richard Dutremble of Biddeford who was unanimously voted as chair of the five-member County Commissioner board during its January meeting, spoke directly to councilors advocating against supporting LD 2124.

In contrast to Mr. Dutremble, Mayor Liam LaFountain expressed the Mayor's Coalition (made up of 11 Maine mayors) has already voted to approve supporting LD 2124.

In addition, former City Council Candidate Sam Pecor spoke in support of the resolution and expressed doubt that the bill would result in any sort of “damage” to the city - similar to Mayor LaFountain, Sam's comments came as stark contrast to Commissioner Dutremble who seemed to warn of negative repercussions.

***CORRECTION - AT TIME OF PUBLISH THERE WAS AN ERROR IN THE INITAL STORY - WE HAVE CORRECTED THE ERROR IN THE ARTICLE AND IMAGE BUT FOR ADDITIONAL CLARITY- MAYOR LAFOUNTAIN VOTED AGAINST THE RESOLUTION RESULTING IN THE TIE BREAKING VOTE FOR THE RESOLUTION TO FAIL.