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F I S C A L   I M P A C T   R E P O R T

 

 

 

SPONSOR:

Rodella

 

DATE TYPED:

2/3/03

 

HB

207

 

SHORT TITLE:

School bus Service Contracts

 

SB

 

 

 

ANALYST:

L. Baca

 

APPROPRIATION

 

Appropriation Contained

Estimated Additional Impact

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY03

FY04

FY03

FY04

 

 

 

NFI

 

 

 

 

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

 

 

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

 

Responses Received From

State Department of Education (SDE)

 

 

SUMMARY

 

     Synopsis of Bill

 

House 207 amends the Section 22-16-3. of the Public School Code to allow a person who has a service contract as an individual school bus owner-operator to convert his contact to a school bus fleet operator contract without being required to submit to a competitive process.

 

The bill contains an emergency clause.

 

     Significant Issues

 

Any individual owner-operators that change status to fleet contractor would no longer be considered a school district employee and would not be entitled to school district employee benefits including continuation of retirement benefits.

 

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

 

The SDE reports that this bill has no fiscal impacts or implications.

 

 

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

 

According to the SDE analysis, State Board of Education regulation “Requirements for School Bus Contracts and Per Capita Feeder Agreements” will require an amendment to convert school bus contracts.  Potentially, school districts could reduce the number of employees.

 

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS

 

1.               How many owner-operators have expressed a desire to convert to fleet contractor status?

2.               Are fleet contractors and their employees covered by the New Mexico Public School Insurance Authority? 

3.               What advantages accrue to converting to a fleet contractor?

4.               If this legislation is adopted, does this mean an owner-operator could add buses to his operation without competitive bidding?

 

LRB/njw