SENATE BILL 626

47th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2006

INTRODUCED BY

Leonard Tsosie

AN ACT

MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE INTERNET TO THE HOGANS INITIATIVE.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     Section 1. APPROPRIATION.--Five million seven hundred forty thousand five hundred ninety-six dollars ($5,740,596) is appropriated from the general fund to the following agencies in the following amounts for expenditure in fiscal year 2007 for New Mexico's portion of the internet to the hogans initiative, a statewide intergovernmental collaborative designed to ensure that no New Mexico hogan is left behind in the evolving digital world. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2007 shall revert to the general fund. The appropriations are as follows:

          A. to the Indian affairs department:

                (1) one hundred fifty-six thousand eight hundred forty-eight dollars ($156,848) for administrative costs to establish a fiscal administrative site at a tribal college for the internet to the hogans initiative; and

                (2) fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for a land use master to advise local Navajo chapters on establishment of communication corridors and to serve as a liaison with the Navajo Nation to coordinate use of specific lands within chapter boundaries;

          B. to the board of regents of the university of New Mexico:

                (1) for its public television station, one hundred ten thousand dollars ($110,000) to implement a teleconferencing pilot project at the White Rock chapter of the Navajo Nation to demonstrate and test technology and wireless communication, power and electrical systems, call routing and teleconferencing; and

                (2) for its health sciences center, for use by the Navajo telehealth commission:

                     (a) one million two hundred thousand dollars ($1,200,000) to leverage existing Navajo telehealth project programs to improve the scope, accessibility and quality of medical services for people who live in New Mexico in the Navajo Nation; and

                     (b) four hundred eighty thousand dollars ($480,000) to develop a cardiac rehabilitation program for people who live in New Mexico in the Navajo Nation to provide rehabilitation services to Navajo people suffering from heart disease; 

          C. to the public education department, for use in schools in districts with a Native American kindergarten through twelfth grade population of at least fifty-one percent:

                (1) two million eight hundred ninety-five thousand dollars ($2,895,000) to improve Native American electronic access to bilingual and other culturally relevant programming, of which two million seven hundred fifty-five thousand dollars ($2,755,000) is to be used to match public school funds with those of the federal government and other entities to provide college preparatory coursework, teacher collaboration and training and distance learning classes in mathematics, science or language arts through the internet; and

                (2) four hundred ninety-eight thousand seven hundred forty-eight dollars ($498,748) to examine current Navajo-English bilingual programming and create a model bilingual program for pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade students, using input from consultants and educational entities that include the indigenous language institute, the university of New Mexico school of medicine's office of diversity and the Navajo education technology consortium;

          D. to the higher education department, two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) for the governing board of San Juan college for a community college-based initiative to expand the programs of the Navajo technology empowerment center by developing technology-based training materials for community educational organizations, creating Navajo web content for access by community members, advocating technology awareness at the community level, seeking additional funding for technology and broadband initiatives, acting as a regional technology support center and coordinating the activities of governmental and nongovernmental entities that conduct business in the region; and

          E. to the state library, one hundred fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) to provide for computer maintenance and technical support staffing to expand access to digital technology for state tribal libraries and chapter houses, including developing a network and web-page development.

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