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|
SPONSOR: |
Cisneros |
DATE TYPED: |
1-29-02 |
HB |
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SHORT TITLE: |
NMIMT Center for Water Quality |
SB |
117 |
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|
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ANALYST: |
Baca |
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APPROPRIATION
|
Appropriation
Contained |
Estimated
Additional Impact |
Recurring or Non-Rec |
Fund Affected |
||
|
FY02 |
FY03 |
FY02 |
FY03 |
|
|
|
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$500.0 |
|
|
Recurring |
General Fund |
(Parenthesis)
Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Duplicates
HB 134, Relates to HB 45 & SB 27
Commission on Higher Education (CHE)
LFC Files
SUMMARY
Synopsis
of Bill
Senate Bill
appropriates $500,000 from the general fund to the New Mexico Institute of
Mining & Technology (NMIMT) to establish the New Mexico center for water
quality.
Significant
Issues
New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA)
states "Water issues in the state
need immediate attention and study. The
key to addressing the complex issues begins with educating the public on water
relationship issues such as agricultural consumptive use, depletion rates,
hydrologic connection between surface and ground water, land use risks to
water, domestic water systems…”
A request was not included in NMIMT's budget
request to the NMIMT Board of Regents, and thus was not included in the list of
priority projects submitted by NMIMT to the Commission on Higher Education for
review. See attached Appropriation
Matrix.
The quality and quantity of water in the state
to support increasing domestic consumption, agricultural uses and industrial
needs is a major public policy concern for the state and many counties and
municipalities.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
The appropriation of
$500.0 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance
remaining at the end of FY2003shall revert to the general fund.
ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS
According to CHE, this bill would add one more research/public service project to the current list of ninety-four projects which are funded as separate line items outside of the higher education funding formula. According to CHE policy, each of these projects must be subjected to a thorough evaluation once every four years to be eligible for continued funding. This evaluation process has been developed by the CHE to be consistent with the Accountability in Government Act (AGA) mandated by the state legislature.
CONFLICT/DUPLICATION/COMPANIONSHIP/RELATIONSHIP
Senate Bill 117 duplicates HB134. The bill relates to House Bill 45 and Senate
Bill 27, which are duplicates and appropriate $600,000 to New Mexico State
University (NMSU) to conduct water management research.
OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
The state currently funds the Water Resources Research
project at NMSU. The current fiscal
year appropriation from the general fund is $398,200. The duplicate bills identified above, HB45 and SB27, appropriate
an additional $300,000 to this project.
The following information is submitted for information
only. It is not intended as a
commentary on the merits of the bill:
This program was included in
NMIMT’s request was not included in the budget request submitted to the
CHE. Consequently, the program was not
reviewed by the CHE.
Higher education institutions receive indirect cost revenues from federal contracts and grants. A portion of the indirect cost revenue, or earned overhead, is used to support items such as the salaries of the accountants responsible for monitoring the contracts and grants, or for paying utilities and other expenses required to maintain the space where the contract and grant activities are housed. However, a great deal of this money is used as seed money to develop new research and public service projects at institutions. This money is unrestricted in the sense that the governing board of the institution has the flexibility to choose which projects are supported with these funds.
The state higher education funding formula allows
institutions to retain 100 percent of this indirect cost revenue. One of the purposes of retaining these funds
is to provide seed money and matching funds for projects such as the one
proposed in this bill.
POSSIBLE QUESTIONS
1. How does this program relate to
the water activities being conducted at NMSU ?
2. If funded, will this program
duplicate programs at NMSU ?
[1]Begin typing on the * in replace mode. Do not add or delete spaces.