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

SPONSOR Picraux

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/23/06

HB 216

SHORT TITLE UNM Office of State Medical Investigator

SB

ANALYST Earp

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$513.2

Recurring

General Fund

$146.8 Non-recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

UNM Health Sciences Center (UNM)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 216, sponsored by Representative Picraux on behalf of the interim Legislative Health

and Human Services Committee, appropriates $660,000 from the general fund to the Board of

Regents of the University of New Mexico (UNM) to provide funding for the Office of the State

Medical Investigator (OMI).

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

According to information provided by the UNM Health Sciences Center, the requested appro-

priation of $660,000 contained in this bill consists of recurring expenditures of $513,200 to sup-

port three additional FTE positions and $146.8 for non-recurring equipment needs. Any unex-

pended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2007 shall revert to the gen-

eral fund. These funds would augment the operational funding contained in the General Appro-

priation Act for the OMI. The fiscal year 2006 appropriation for this department was approxi-

mately $3.37 million.

House Bill 216 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

This proposal was endorsed by the UNM Board of Regents as priority #9 of 13 expansion pro-

jects submitted to the Higher Education Department (HED). It was not included in the HED

recommendation to the LFC or the Executive.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

The UNM Health Sciences Center reports that the forensic examination caseload at the Office of

the Medical Investigator has increased by approximately 22 percent over the past five years. At

the same time, due to law enforcement compliance and litigation, the amount of time required for

each examination has increased by 40 percent. The national standard for autopsy caseload is 250

autopsies per pathologist annually. The New Mexico OMI pathologists have been averaging

close to 500 autopsies per year. The funding proposed in this legislation would enable OMI to

hire three additional personnel to better handle the caseload.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

No significant administrative impact is evident.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

This bill relates to the annual appropriation to UNM in the General Appropriation Act for the

recurring operations of the Office of the Medical Investigator.

DE/nt