132nd MAINE LEGISLATURE
		LD 2159		LR 2971(01)
	An Act to Require School Buses to Be Equipped with and to Use School Bus Crossing Arms
	Preliminary Fiscal Impact Statement for Original Bill
	Sponsor: Rep. Geiger of Rockland
	Committee: Transportation
	Fiscal Note Required: Yes
Preliminary Fiscal Impact Statement
Potential State Mandate - Unfunded
Correctional and Judicial Impact Statements
	The additional workload associated with the minimal number of new cases filed in the court system does not require additional funding at this time. The collection of additional fines will increase General Fund or other dedicated revenue by minor amounts.
State Mandates
	Required Activity				Unit Affected	Local Cost
	This bill requires all school buses to be equipped with a school bus crossing arm. School districts will need to either purchase new buses or retrofit existing buses in order to meet the requirements of this bill.				School	Significant statewide
	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
	This bill requires all school buses to be equipped with a school bus crossing arm. The estimated total cost of retrofitting existing school buses to meet the requirements of this bill is $3,360,000, reflecting the need to retrofit 1,120 school buses at a cost of $3,000 per bus. There is funding proposed in the 2026-27 supplemental budget (LD 2212) to the Department of Education for retrofitting school buses with school bus crossing arms, which if enacted would provide the funding required. However, as this bill is currently written without any appropriations or transfers from the General Fund, this bill would create an unfunded mandate for local school units. Funding the mandate would require an appropriation to or transfer from the General Fund of at least $3,024,000 or 90% of the estimated total cost.