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

SPONSOR Robinson

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/12/2007

2/16/2007 HB

SHORT TITLE UNM Alliance for Transportation Institute

SB 390

ANALYST Moser

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$150.0

Recurring

General fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

NM Department of Higher Education (HED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 390 appropriates $150,000 from the General Fund to the Board of Regents of the

University of New Mexico (UNM) to pay for continuing projects at the Alliance for

Transportation Institute.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $150,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY08 shall revert to the

general fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

HED indicates that the Alliance for Transportation Research Institute is a nationally recognized

research entity of UNM. During the last ten years of operation the institute has become an

acknowledged leader in the field of transportation research. Two examples of research initiatives

include the coordination of interagency transportation in support of welfare-to-work programs,

Senate Bill 390 – Page

2

access to jobs, the delivery of healthcare and other life services, and other research regarding

problems of rural and urban mobility. In addition, they have worked on innovative public

outreach to stakeholders with information and materials they need about specific, complex issues

such as the transport of radioactive wastes, as well as the general impacts that the transportation

of goods and people have upon the quality of air, water, habitat, and land. More recently they

began to expand the scope of research to include environmental and health research and

demonstration projects, including those related to sustainable development and healthy

communities.

A taskforce has been developed to advance knowledge of precautionary principles, which focus

on the idea that not all risk is measurable. The work of this taskforce has been on addressing

problems that are not necessarily quantifiable but that have a wide range of implications such as

work zone safety (in 2005 there were nine workforce safety related deaths in New Mexico) and

sustainable development. This appropriation would provide for the continuing work of the

Precautionary Principles Taskforce and supplement the staffing and research budget at the

Alliance for Transportation Research Institute.

This request was not submitted by the University of New Mexico to HED and is not included in

the department’s funding recommendation for FY08.

GM/mt