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

SPONSOR Cervantes

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/1/06

HB 351

SHORT TITLE UNM Utton Transboundary Center Ombudsman

SB

ANALYST Earp

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$100.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to Appropriation in General Appropriation Act

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 351 appropriates $100,000 from the general fund to the Board of Regents of the Uni-

versity of New Mexico for the Utton Transsboundary Resources Center to provide public educa-

tion statewide on water rights and to assist water rights claimants and the courts in the adjudica-

tion of water rights.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $100,000 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.

The sum of $38,000 was appropriated for this purpose in Chapter 34, Laws of 2005 (Senate Bill

190.) The Legislative Finance Committee funding recommendation for fiscal year 2007 has in-

cluded this amount as a component of a block-grant appropriation to NMSU for special project

expansion. The Executive recommendation does not include funding for this item. Therefore,

House Bill 351 – Page

2

depending on which recommendation is adopted, the appropriation in this bill will may result in

the augmentation of the funding contained in HB 2.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The appropriation would be used to provide public education statewide on water rights and to

assist water rights claimants and the courts in adjudication of water rights.

This proposal was not included among the special program funding requests submitted by the

University of New Mexico to the Higher Education Department (HED) for review. Conse-

quently, this proposal has not been included in the HED fiscal year 2007 funding recommenda-

tions to the Legislature.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

UNM would bear administrative responsibility for the proposed program.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

Information provided by the Higher Education Department states that the Utton Center works

closely with the UNM Water Resources Program. The Center has a two-pronged approach to ad-

dressing trans-boundary issues and engages in research, scholarship, and field actions. The pro-

gram involves scholars and practitioners from across the U.S. and Mexico to address complex

resource issues, focusing primarily on the Rio Bravo/Rio Grande, and the U.S./Mexico border in

New Mexico.

DKE/yr