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SPONSOR: |
Nunez |
DATE TYPED: |
|
HB |
733 |
||
SHORT TITLE: |
Raise Food Service Sanitation Fees |
SB |
|
||||
|
ANALYST: |
Padilla |
|||||
REVENUE
Estimated Revenue |
Subsequent Years Impact |
Recurring or
Non-Rec |
Fund Affected |
|
FY03 |
FY04 |
|
|
|
|
|
$160.0 |
Recurring |
Food
Service Sanitation Fund |
|
|
|
|
|
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Revenue Decreases)
LFC Files
Responses
Received From
New
Mexico Environment Department
SUMMARY
Synopsis
of Bill
House Bill 733 amends the Food Service
Sanitation Act to allow the New Mexico Environment Department’s Environmental
Improvement Board to set food permit fees between $100 and $200 annually with
no more than a $25 increase per fiscal year.
The fees apply to food service establishments.
Significant
Issues
Current statute limits permit fees to $100. Given this limit, NMED says it collects only
one-third of the cost of permitting and inspecting food service establishments
in the state. Additional fee revenue
would help NMED assist its current food-permitting program by training
personnel, expanding public outreach and performing inspections. NMED suggests it will be able to adopt a new
performance measure if higher fees are adopted:
percentage of food service personnel receiving food safety and
sanitation training.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
The increased fee revenue allowed by this bill
will, per existing statute, be deposited in the Food Service Sanitation
Fund. NMED estimates that a future
increase of $25 in the permit fee will generate approximately $160.0 in
revenues to the fund. Because the
increased fees allowed by this bill have to be established by the Environmental
Improvement Board, NMED believes increased fee revenue will not be generated
until after fiscal year 2004.
ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS
NMED believes an increase in fees that would be
allowed by this bill could be managed with existing staff.
SUGGESTED AMENDMENT
NMED suggests an amendment to current statute (Section 25-2-5.1) regarding the Food Service Sanitation Fund to accompany this bill:
The “food service sanitation
fund” is created in the state treasury to be administered by and is
appropriated to the department of environment for the purpose of paying the
costs of administering regulations promulgated by the board to carry out the
provisions of the Food Service Sanitation Act [this article].
LP/ls