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committees of the NM Legislature. The LFC does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of these reports
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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR Varela
ORIGINAL DATE
LAST UPDATED
2/6/06
2/10/06 HB 598
SHORT TITLE Fund Sources on Finance Warrants
SB
ANALYST Schardin
ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT (dollars in thousands)
FY06
FY07
FY08 3 Year
Total Cost
Recurring
or Non-Rec
Fund
Affected
Total
(400.0) (400.0)
(800.0) Recurring General
Fund
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
Responses Received From
Department of Finance and Administration (DFA)
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
House Bill 598 amends Section 6-5-7 NMSA 1978 so that not only warrants but also their sup-
porting documentation must contain the particular fund from which the appropriation in the war-
rant is to be paid.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
Based on estimates of DFA’s pre-audit staff, DFA estimates that this amendment will save
DFA’s financial control division about $400 thousand by eliminating the need to produce about
100,000 payment vouchers each year by allowing a single invoice to be charged to multiple
funds.
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
The provisions of House Bill 598 aim to make the state’s warrant payment process more effi-
cient. Under current law, when an appropriation is paid out of several different funds, several
warrants must be produced to pay a single invoice. This process is inefficient and costly because
invoices must be photocopied and vouchered several times. DFA reports that the current process
is also prone to error and abuse.