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

SPONSOR:	Hurt		DATE TYPED:	01/23/02		HB
SHORT TITLE:		Limit Legislative Bill Introductions				SB	SJR 2
					ANALYST:		Burch

APPROPRIATION

Appropriation Contained		Estimated Additional Impact		Recurring or Non-Rec	Fund Affected
FY02	FY03	FY02	FY03
			30.0	Nonrecurring	General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC files

Attorney General

Secretary of State

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Joint Resolution 2 proposes to amend Article 4, Section 19 of the New Mexico Constitution to restrict the number of bills introduced by each legislator to 10 bills, unless each additional bill is accompanied by another bill introduced by that legislator proposing to repeal an existing law.

Significant Issues

This proposal would limit the total number of bills to 700 bills in the House and 420 bills in the Senate, totaling 1,120 bills. This total is about 600 to 740 bills less than the total introductions in each of the last two 60-day sessions and about 80 to 150 bills more than the actual total introductions in each of the last two 30-day sessions (see “Substantive Issues” section below).

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

If passed, this question would appear on the ballot in the November 2002 general election. The Secretary of State reports it costs $30.0 to place an item on the ballot for advertising and printing. Included in the cost is: (1) the publishing of constitutional amendments in English and Spanish for four consecutive weeks in one newspaper in each county of the state; (2) the oral translation and

radio broadcast into the Native American languages of Tewa, Tiwa, Towa, Keres, Zuni, Mescalero Apache, Jicarilla Apache and Navajo; and (3) the printing of amendments booklets in English and Spanish (including Spanish language translation cost) and distribution to all county clerks (100,000 booklets were printed for 2000 general election). Therefore, there would be a nonrecurring cost to the general fund of $30.0 in FY03. This legislation does not include an appropriation needed to fund these costs.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

Also, the Secretary of State reports the proliferation of constitutional amendments is having a serious impact on some of New Mexico’s counties’ voting systems because of ballot crowding.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Currently, there is no limit on the number of bills introduced. Following is a table of the number of bills introduced during the last 7 years for the regular sessions:

TABLE 1. NUMBER OF BILLS INTRODUCED

Bill Type	1995 60 Days	1996 30 Days	1997 60 Days	1998 30 Days	1999 60 Days	2000 30 Days	2001 60 Days
House bills	1,188	793	1,392	544	929	540	997
House concurrent resolutions	1	2	0	0	1	1	2
House joint resolutions	14	19	19	22	25	20	30
House joint memorials	65	79	100	88	91	82	87
House memorials	38	7	28	30	55	25	32
House capital outlay requests	0	0	0	499	858	757	2,043
Senate bills	1,207	863	1,300	424	800	501	863
Senate concurrent resolutions	3	1	0	1	1	1	2
Senate joint resolutions	23	24	16	16	27	23	38
Senate joint memorials	101	103	75	54	67	76	87
Senate memorials	30	10	14	33	46	39	42
Senate capital outlay requests	0	0	0	518	1,018	819	2,325
Total	2,670	1,901	2,944	2,229	3,918	2,884	6,548

NOTE: In years 1997 and earlier, capital outlay proposals were made by bill. Beginning in 1998 and forward, capital outlay proposals were made as “capital outlay requests” rather than bills.

TABLE 2. NUMBER OF BILLS COMPARED TO OTHER LEGISLATION

Bill Type	1995 60 Days	1996 30 Days	1997 60 Days	1998 30 Days	1999 60 Days	2000 30 Days	2001 60 Days
Bills	2,395	1,656	2,692	968	1,729	1,041	1,860
Memorials, resolutions and requests	275	245	252	1,261	2,189	1,843	4,688
Total	2,670	1,901	2,944	2,229	3,918	2,884	6,548

As indicated in the tables above, the Legislature tends to propose more bills in 60-day sessions than in 30-day sessions. In 30-day sessions the number of bills introduced that would be under the purview of the proposal generally fall below the limit imposed by the proposal. In 60-day sessions, the bills are more than the limit imposed by the proposal; there may be some savings in 60-day sessions, although it is undeterminable at this time.

QUESTSIONS

1. Does the sponsor intend to limit introduction of “bills” only or does the sponsor intend to include memorials, joint memorials, resolutions, joint resolutions and concurrent resolutions in the limitation?

DKB/ar

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