FISCAL NOTE
FUND(S):
Sources of Revenue:
General Fund
Legislation creates:
Neither Program nor Fund
Fiscal Note Summary
Effect this measure will have on costs and revenues of state government.
Fiscal Note Detail
| Effect of Proposal |
Fiscal Year |
2004
Increase/Decrease
(use"-") |
2005
Increase/Decrease
(use"-") |
Fiscal Year
(Upon Full
Implementation) |
| 1. Estmated Total Cost |
0 |
56,364,970 |
27,292,089 |
| Personal Services |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Current Expenses |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Repairs and Alterations |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Assets |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Other |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 2. Estimated Total Revenues |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Explanation of above estimates (including long-range effect):
The purpose of this bill is to require county boards to provide transportation to and from school for each school child who needs and desires transportation and to prohibit a board from creating a new route in which the time required to transport students exceeds the following: thirty minutes for elementary school students, forty-five minutes for middle school students, and sixty minutes for high school students.
Since current statute requires county boards to provide transportation only to school children that live more than two miles distance from school, this bill would require the transportation of additional students. In addition, the term "new route" is not defined in the bill. With declining or increasing student enrollments, every cunty board must delete, combine, add, extend or otherwise alter, to some extent, most of its current bus routes each year to meet student needs. Considering these two factors, this cost estimate was computed based on the assumption that 75% of the current bus routes would need to be modified to an extent sufficient for them to be considered new routes.
Furthermore, since practically all county boards of education employ service personnel in excess of the number allowed to be funded under the Public School Support Program (PSSP), and the bill does not contain any provisions for increasing the number of service personnel allowed to be funded under the PSSP or increase the allowance for the purchase of additional school buses, the cost would have to be borne by the various county boards of education.
The estimated cost of this proposal to the county boards for the first year is $56,364,970, including the purchase of 607 additional school buses, excluding any additional costs for the construction of new schools. For each year, thereafter, the estimated cost to the county boards would be $27,292,000 per year, again excluding any construction costs.
A large number of county boards estimated in the data collection survey that there are at lest 468 different bus routes through-out the state where the proposed maximum limits could not be met for all students, even with the additional number of bus oeprators and school buses discusssed in the preceding paragraph, because of the distance some students live from the nearest school or the terrain that must be traveled. As a result, additional schools would need to be built to serve these students and additional staff would have to be employed. The costs for constructing and staffing these new facilities were not included in this cost estimate.
Memorandum
Person submitting Fiscal Note: Kathy Reed
Email Address: kreed@access.k12.wv.us