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SPONSOR: |
Rodella |
DATE TYPED: |
2/3/03 |
HB |
207 |
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SHORT TITLE: |
School bus Service Contracts |
SB |
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ANALYST: |
L. Baca |
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APPROPRIATION
Appropriation
Contained |
Estimated
Additional Impact |
Recurring or
Non-Rec |
Fund Affected |
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FY03 |
FY04 |
FY03 |
FY04 |
|
|
|
NFI |
|
|
|
|
(Parenthesis
( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
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