121st Maine Legislature
		Office of Fiscal and Program Review
		LD 985
		An Act To Improve the State's Returnable Bottle Law and Adjust Handling Fees
		LR 1324(12)
						Fiscal Note for Senate Amendment " " to Committee Amendment "A"
		Sponsor: Sen. Cathcart
		Fiscal Note Required: Yes
Fiscal Note
					Projections	Projections
			2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07
Net Cost (Savings)
	General Fund		$1,370,969	$1,574,868	$1,681,172	$1,678,419
Appropriations/Allocations
	General Fund		$126,469	$64,412	$64,412	$64,412
Revenue
	General Fund		($1,244,500)	($1,510,456)	($1,616,760)	($1,614,007)
	Fiscal Detail and Notes
	This amendment includes General Fund appropriations for the Bureau of Revenue Services which were omitted from Committee Amendment "A".  The amounts are $126,469 and $64,412 in fiscal years 2003-04 and 2004-05, respectively.
	This amendment exempts certain beverage containers from the requirement that unclaimed deposits will be deposited into the General Fund.  This exemption will eliminate much of the revenue that would have been collected for the General Fund by the bill as amended by Committee Amendment "A".  The overall effect of the bill as amended is an amount of General Fund revenue over the 2004-05 biennium which will at least cover the biennial General Fund costs of the bill; the final amounts will depend on the number of commingling agreements that are entered into and can not be determined at this time.
	Delaying the date by which the reimbursement fees for returned containers are increased will reduce the anticipated increase in Other Special Revenue Funds revenue collected by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources in fiscal year 2003-04; the amounts can not be determined at this time.
	This amendment also exempts certain breweries and bottlers from the increased handling fees. The net effect of this Other Special Revenue Funds revenue reduction is likely to be insignificant.
	The following table shows the net General Fund impact of the bill as amended for the 2004-05 biennium:
						Biennial
				2003-04	2004-05	Total
General Fund Appropriations:
- Department of Administrative and Financial Services				$126,469	$64,412	$190,881
- Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources				$50,482	$66,181	$116,663
Appropriations Total				$176,951	$130,593	$307,544
General Fund Revenues:				$68,000	$239,544	$307,544