121st Maine Legislature
		Office of Fiscal and Program Review
		LD 1864
		An Act To Recruit and Retain College Graduates through Loan Repayment
		LR 2722(01)
		Fiscal Note for Original Bill
		Sponsor: Rep. Fischer of Presque Isle
		Committee: Education and Cultural Affairs
		Fiscal Note Required: Yes
Fiscal Note
					Projections	Projections
			2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07
Net Cost (Savings)
	General Fund		$0	$1,000,000	$0	$0
Appropriations/Allocations
	General Fund		$0	$1,000,000	$0	$0
Fiscal Detail and Notes
	This bill establishes a Future for Youth in Maine Loan Repayment Program as a non-lapsing, interest-earning, revolving fund within the Finance Authority of Maine and provides a General Fund appropriation of $1,000,000 in fiscal year 2004-05 to fund loan repayments.  Future General Fund appropriations may be required to support the program.  The amount and timing of the appropriations can not be determined at this time and will depend on the number of applicants over time.
	This bill also authorizes the Finance Authority of Maine to use the interest earned from this fund to pay for the costs of administering the program, estimated to be approximately $19,000 in one-time costs and $4,000 in annual on-going costs. The Authority has indicated that interest earned from the appropriation in this bill will be sufficient to cover these administrative costs.  However, if the appropriation in this bill is reduced, the earnings may not be sufficient to cover the costs of administering the program and an additional General Fund appropriation will be required.
	Information available to the Department of Labor to determine "labor shortage areas" in the State may not be sufficient to provide a complete assessment.  If the Department of Labor is able to fulfill the requirements of this bill using the available information, there will be no additional cost to the department.  If additional information is required in order to provide more accurate data, there would be a fiscal impact.  The ability of the department to absorb those additional costs can not be determined at this time.
	Additional costs to the Department of Economic and Community Development can be absorbed utilizing existing budgeted resources.