121st Maine Legislature
		Office of Fiscal and Program Review
		LD 1862
		An Act To Expand Access to Higher Education and Employment for Youth
		LR 2720(01)
		Fiscal Note for Original Bill
		Sponsor: Sen. Stanley of Penobscot
		Committee: Education and Cultural Affairs
		Fiscal Note Required: Yes
Fiscal Note
					Projections	Projections
			2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07
Net Cost (Savings)
	General Fund		$0	$1,376,000	$1,337,500	$1,337,500
Appropriations/Allocations
	General Fund		$0	$1,376,000	$1,337,500	$1,337,500
Fiscal Detail and Notes
	This bill includes a General Fund appropriation of $100,000 in fiscal year 2004-05 for the Department of Economic and Community Development to establish and administer an Internship program for Maine's college students.
	The University of Maine System will require additional General Fund appropriations totaling $1,000,000 per year beginning in fiscal year 2004-05.  The University estimates the cost associated with streamlining the process of transferring credits within its own system and between it and the Maine Community College System to be $300,000 per year, the cost to enhance entrepreneurship education to be approximately $600,000 per year and the cost of developing a plan to establish centers of excellence and to reduce duplication of programs and services to be $100,000 per year.
	The Maine Community College System will require a General Fund appropriation of $276,000 in fiscal year 2004-05 for its share of the development and implementation costs associated with enhancing and broadening entrepreneurship education.  This includes the cost of a state-wide coordinator position and related expenses, as well as program development, workshop and outreach costs.  The cost is expected to increase to $337,5000 per year beginning in fiscal year 2005-06.  Additional costs associated with consulting with the Department of Economic and Community Development regarding the internship program and streamlining the process of transferring credits can be absorbed utilizing existing budgeted resources.
	Information available to the Department of Labor to determine "labor shortage areas" in the State may not be sufficient to provide a complete assessment.  If the Department of Labor is able to fulfill the requirements of this bill using the available information, there will be no additional cost to the department.  If additional information is required in order to provide more accurate data, there would be a fiscal impact.  The ability of the department to absorb those additional costs can not be determined at this time.
	This bill expresses the intent of the Legislature to provide a General Fund appropriation of $100,000 beginning in fiscal year 2005-06 for the Maine Community College System to create a 2-year associate degree program in radiology technology at the Kennebec Valley Community College.  This fiscal note assumes that this legislation does not require the Maine Community College System to create the degree program until funding is provided, so there is no immediate cost to the system associated with this measure.
	The fiscal impact to the State Board of Education and the Department of Education to implement a plan to prepare all high school students for postsecondary education can not be determined at this time and will depend on the specific requirements of this legislation.  If the requirements are within the scope of the initiatives currently being implemented by the board and the department to encourage and support postsecondary education for all high school students, then the fiscal impact would be minimal.  However, if this legislation requires a plan that is significantly different from the initiatives currently underway, the fiscal impact could be significant.