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

SPONSOR Nunez

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/1/06

HB 474

SHORT TITLE Market New Mexico Grown Wheat

SB

ANALYST Earp

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$150.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Duplicates Senate Bill 172

Relates to Appropriation in General Appropriation Act

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 474 appropriates $150,000 from the general fund to the Board of Regents of New

Mexico State University (NMSU) for the New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA) to

market New Mexico-grown wheat internationally and domestically.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $150,000 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 $47,500 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

House Bill 474 – Page

2

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

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

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

NMSU to the Higher Education Department (HED) for review. Consequently, this proposal has

not been included in the HED fiscal year 2007 funding recommendations to the Legislature.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

NMSU would be responsible for administration of the funds appropriated through this legisla-

tion.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

House Bill 474 and Senate Bill 172 are duplicate measures.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

NMDA reports that it is following the lead of the United States Department of Agriculture

(USDA) to develop value-added bio-fuels using bulk grains such as wheat. This funding will

provide the New Mexico wheat industry needed resources to evaluate not only bio-fuels but

other value-added activities. The New Mexico wheat industry is extremely important to eastern

and northeastern New Mexico. This funding will help stimulate the development of alternative

markets and usage.

DKE/yr