129th MAINE LEGISLATURE
		LD 1230		LR 1190(03)
	An Act To Update the Civil Animal Welfare Laws
	Fiscal Note for Bill as Engrossed with: C "A" (H-380)
	Committee: Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry
Fiscal Note
Potential State Mandate - Unfunded
State Mandates
	Required Activity				Unit Affected	Local Cost
	Municipalities will be required to follow certain procedures related to stray livestock, including: to seize, impound or restrain stray livestock, deliver livestock to a facility capable of containing them, arrange for safe confinement, retain custody for 10 days, provide food, shelter and medical care, take ownership after 10 days or convey ownership to an animal shelter.				Municipality	Insignificant limited scope
	The required local activities in this bill may represent a state mandate pursuant to the Constitution of Maine. If the bill does require a local unit of government to expand or modify its activities so as to necessitate additional expenditures from local revenue, the state mandate provisions of the Constitution of Maine require either: (1) General Fund appropriations be provided to fund at least 90% of any additional necessitated local costs of the mandate; or (2) a Mandate Preamble be added to the bill and two-thirds of the members of each House vote to exempt the mandate from the funding requirement. If the bill does represent a state mandate and neither one of these actions occurs, the local units of government will not be required to implement the mandated activities.
Fiscal Detail and Notes
	While the bill imposes new procedures on municipalities that may add new costs, it also eliminates other procedures that were costly for municalities. In particular, Title 33, §1057 required a finder, potentially a municipality, to keep a stray beast for 2 months before selling and up to 6 months if it did not sell it. This bill requires a holding period of only 10 days.