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

SPONSOR Moore

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/26/06

HB 74

SHORT TITLE Youth Violence Prevention Programs

SB

ANALYST Earp

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$710.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

Public Education Department (PED)

Department of Health (DOH)

Children, Youth & Families Department (CYFD)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 74 appropriates $710,000 from the General Fund to the Board of Regents of Eastern

New Mexico University (ENMU) to support the continuation and expansion of youth violence

prevention programs statewide.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $710,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2007 shall revert

to the general fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

This request was not in the list of priority projects submitted by ENMU to the Higher Education

Department (HED) for review. Consequently, this request was not included in the Department’s

House Bill 74 – Page

2

funding recommendation for fiscal year 2007.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

ENMU currently administers a federal Department of Justice grant supporting this program and

would retain administrative authority and accountability for the program if this legislation is

adopted.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

HED reports that this legislation would provide state support for the STOP the Violence (Stu-

dents Taking on Prevention) program. This is a peer-to-peer outreach initiative that empowers

young people to recognize, report, and reduce the potential for youth violence. Funding for pro-

gram development and piloting was provided by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Com-

munity Oriented Policing Services. Members of Family, Career and Community Leaders of

America (FCCLA) are taking steps to address youth violence prevention and make their schools

and communities safer.

The program is currently grant funded by the U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The FCCLA sponsors the program which

currently supports a state coordinator who is housed at Eastern New Mexico University. Through

the use of contracted services; the coordinator has been able to establish successful programs

within 20 school districts in the state. Due to the success of the program; the funding request will

support the existing programs in place with the hope to double in size to 40 school districts at the

end of 2007.

The Department of Health reports that New Mexico has some of the highest rates of youth vio-

lence in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2002, New

Mexico had the worst state rates of violent deaths and suicides for all ages. Suicide and homi-

cide were the second and third leading causes of death for 15-24 year olds in New Mexico. One-

third of all injury deaths in New Mexico were violence-related. Firearms were responsible for

50% of all New Mexico homicides and 60% of all New Mexico suicides. According to the New

Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey, in New Mexico high schools, one in ten students was

threatened or injured with a weapon at school in 2003 and 12% reported being the victim of dat-

ing violence. One-third of high school students also reported being in a physical fight – 13% of

which occurred at school.

Violent acts such as suicide and homicide are often preceded by a long history of bullying, fight-

ing, victimization or witnessing of violence. These patterns of violence often start at very early

ages. Research-based best practices in violence prevention suggest that a full range of violence

prevention programs have been effective in reducing youth violence.

DKE/nt