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

SPONSOR Nunez

DATE TYPED 01/26/05 HB 90

SHORT TITLE NMSA Agriculture & Horticulture Research

SB

ANALYST Woods

APPROPRIATION

Appropriation Contained Estimated Additional Impact Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY05

FY06

FY05

FY06

$394.0

Recurring General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to the appropriation for New Mexico State University in the General Appropriations Act.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

New Mexico State University (NMSU), College of Agriculture and Home Economics (CAHE)

New Mexico Commission on Higher Education (CHE)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 90 – Making an Appropriation to New Mexico State University to Conduct Research

on Sustainable and Organic Agriculture and Horticulture – appropriates $394,000 from the gen-

eral fund to the Board of Regents of New Mexico State University in FY06 to investigate long-

term organic, biological control, and precision agricultural technologies. Any unexpended or

unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2006 shall revert to the general fund.

Significant Issues

NMSU-CAHE indicates that natural biological control and precision agricultural technologies

will be combined to offer crop, nursery, range, and urban pest and weed controls that are safer,

less expensive, non-polluting, and adaptable to organic, high-return agriculture.

House Bill 90 -- Page 2

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

NMSU-CAHE notes that new technology has greatly enhanced the ability to carry out the bio-

logical control of invasive insects, weeds and plant pathogens, and implementation of organic

agriculture; however, application of these technologies requires a long term commitment of re-

sources at some level, to ensure a smooth progression of research and applications of this tech-

nology to the public.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $394,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY06 shall revert to the gen-

eral fund.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

NMSU-CAHE will retain oversight of this program.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

Relates to the appropriation for NMSU in the General Appropriations Act.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

NMSU-CAHE suggests that this program could generate economic returns in two principal ar-

eas:

•

lower agricultural, urban pest control, nitrogen, and water costs; and

•

access to organic, high return markets. This would be a particularly viable area if Ameri-

can agriculture loses subsidies, as New Mexico growers could still maintain economically

viable operations by accessing organic niche markets.

This request was not in the list of priority projects submitted by New Mexico State University to

the Commission on Higher Education for review. Consequently, this request was not included in

the Commission’s funding recommendation for FY06.

ALTERNATIVES

The CHE advises that higher education institutions receive indirect cost revenues from federal

contracts and grants. Further, that 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. 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.

BFW/lg