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committees of the NM Legislature. The LFC does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of these reports

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

SPONSOR

Park

DATE TYPED 02-11-05 HB 438

SHORT TITLE School for the Blind Property Acquisition

SB

ANALYST Woods

APPROPRIATION

Appropriation Contained Estimated Additional Impact Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY05

FY06

FY05

FY06

$6,900.0

Non-Recurring General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to the appropriation for New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired in the

General Appropriations Act.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

New Mexico State Land Office (SLO)

New Mexico Commission on Higher Education (CHE)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 438 – Making an Appropriation to the Board of Regents of the New Mexico School

for the Blind and Visually Impaired for Property Acquisition and Subsequent Construction – ap-

propriates $6,900,000 from the general fund to the Board of Regents of the New Mexico School

for the Blind and Visually Impaired for expenditure in FY06 to acquire property and develop

plans for subsequent construction of a new facility. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance

remaining at the end of FY06 shall revert to the general fund.

Significant Issues:

CHE indicates that the commission has been in communication with the New Mexico School for

the Blind and Visually Impaired and the New Mexico State Land Office to pursue a property

House Bill 438 -- Page 2

trade for this project. Further, that this project was ranked number 14 by the CHE out of 94 capi-

tal project requests submitted by 27 different institutions and the CHE has recommended funding

in the amount of $2,600,000 for this project.

SLO notes that this arrangement poses no significant issues for the land office in that if the

money were used to buy new land and construct new buildings for the school, the land office

would still manage currently existing lands designated for the school for the benefit of the

school. SLO suggests that, presumably, any new lands purchased with the appropriated money

in this bill would be held by the state or directly by the school for its use as it sees fit; but it

would not affect the state trust ownership of lands already designated for the school.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $6,900,000 contained in this bill is a non-recurring expense to the general

fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY06 shall revert to

the general fund.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

The New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired will retain oversight of this project.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP OR RELATIONSHIP

Relates to the appropriation for New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired in the

General Appropriations Act.

BFW/sb