The change comes as districts were approaching a 2027 deadline requiring all new bus purchases to be electric, a timeline local officials said they were not ready to meet.
Under the revision, districts that had been required to begin purchasing exclusively electric buses by 2027 will now have until 2032. The deadline for full fleet conversion has been pushed back from 2035 to 2040.
The provision, embedded in the Education, Labor and Family Assistance portion of the budget, drew support from the region’s legislative delegation, which had pushed for changes after hearing concerns from local school officials and transportation providers.
Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner (D, Round Lake) called the delay a top priority she had advanced after meeting with bus garage administrators, transportation companies and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to better understand the practical hurdles facing districts.
“This delay ensures that school districts are not burdened with unsustainable costs or an unreasonable timeline for implementation,” Woerner said.
She had raised concerns earlier this year after reviewing local data on districts transitioning to electric buses, saying her initial worries about the difficulty of the shift had been confirmed by real-world experience.
Sen. Dan Stec (R-C, Queensbury) said the change provides financial relief for districts.
“Since being enacted in 2022, I’ve heard from school officials across our region that the electric bus mandate is unrealistic, due to its exorbitant costs and unattainable timelines,” he said, adding he intends to keep pushing for a full repeal.
Stec has previously argued more broadly that “the juice is not worth the squeeze” when it comes to the mandate.
Assemblyman Robert Smullen (R-C, Mohawk Valley) welcomed the pause but argued it does not resolve the core issue for rural districts. He cited cold-weather performance, long routes, charging infrastructure gaps and projected costs as reasons the mandate should include a full opt-out for rural schools.
“A delay is better than nothing, and I’m glad we forced some sanity into this process,” Smullen said. “But kicking these green dreams down the road for five more years still leaves our schools trapped under an unfunded mandate.”
Local districts have already seen many of those challenges firsthand. At a March 31 presentation in Queensbury reviewing early adoption of electric buses, administrators outlined significant cost and operational hurdles.
In Queensbury, administrators said meeting the original mandate would require increasing annual bus spending from about $1.3 million to nearly $4 million. Adding just four electric buses also drove a 23 percent increase in the district’s electric bill in a single year.
Officials said infrastructure upgrades alone could cost roughly $1.4 million, and that about 10 percent of bus routes would not be able to be completed on a single charge — a concern for longer rural routes.
In extreme cold, those limitations became more pronounced. During a stretch of temperatures reaching 19 degrees below zero earlier this year, all four of the district’s electric buses became inoperable after entering a reduced-power “Turtle Mode.”
“It’s costing more in electric; it’s costing more in the cost of the bus, it’s costing more in terms of what we have to put in for infrastructure — it’s just costing more, and all of that’s paid for in taxpayer dollars,” said Queensbury school official Scott Whittemore at the presentation.
The delay reflects concerns raised by school districts statewide about cost, charging infrastructure, and vehicle availability — issues state lawmakers and school officials have cited as key concerns, especially in rural areas.
The budget, now the latest in more than a decade and still being finalized in parts, includes the delay as lawmakers continue negotiating remaining components.
© 2026 The Post Star (Glens Falls, N.Y.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
