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

SPONSOR

Varela

DATE TYPED

02-17-05

HB

969

SHORT TITLE

UNM Bruce King Reading Room

SB

ANALYST

Woods

APPROPRIATION

Appropriation Contained Estimated Additional Impact Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY05

FY06

FY05

FY06

$292.3

Recurring General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to the appropriation for the University of New Mexico in the General Appropriations

Act.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

No Responses Received From

New Mexico Commission on Higher Education (CHE)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 969 – Making an Appropriation to the Board of Regents of the University of New

Mexico for Former Governor Bruce King’s Archives and Reading Room at the University of

New Mexico School of Law – appropriates $292,300 from the general fund to the Board of Re-

gents of the University of New Mexico for expenditure in fiscal year 2006 for the following pur-

poses and in the following amounts:

•

$204,000 for the Phase I conservation, processing and document indexing

of the donation of personal papers of Governor Bruce King; and

•

$88,300 for the Phase II furnishing and staffing of the reading room.

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

eral fund.

House Bill 969 -- Page 2

Significant Issues

Former Governor Bruce King has been involved in New Mexico politics since 1959, when he

was elected to the state House of Representatives. He served five consecutive terms, three during

which he was Speaker of the House. In 1971, he was elected governor and went on to serve two

non-consecutive terms.

The personal papers of Governor King have been donated to the University of New Mexico

(UNM), School of Law. They are temporarily housed in a commercial storage unit awaiting con-

servation, processing and indexing. A room in the recently renovated wing of the law school has

been set aside to provide space for the reading room. This 538 square foot area has been

equipped with conservation quality environmental controls and a dry-pipe reactant fire suppres-

sion system. It is finished to the point of paint and carpeting; however, it remains unfurnished

and undeveloped as a public space. This legislation seeks to complete this project in two phases:

Phase I: Conservation, Processing and Document Indexing:

The law school has made arrangements to retain staff of the UNM Political Ar-

chives to serve as both consultants and contractors to conserve, process and index

the donation in the Online Archive of New Mexico. This conservation and proc-

essing process is anticipated to take three years and to yield some 250 boxes of

documents.

Phase II: Furnishing and Staffing the Reading Room:

UNM seeks to furnish the reading room in a manner that provides both:

1. public display space and secure storage for photographs and memorabilia

associated with the collection; and

2. meeting space that could be available to groups and associations, attor-

neys, government officials or others who might require accommodation

while on campus.

The dual use of this space will ensure that the collection will be both visible, as well as available

to the public.

This project is not included in CHE’s 2005-2006 Higher Education Funding Recommendation.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $292,300 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

UNM would retain administrative oversight of this project.

BFW/yr