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

SPONSOR Rawson

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/25/2006

1/25/2006 HB

SHORT TITLE Additional 3

rd

Judicial District Employees

SB 97

ANALYST McOlash

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$272.6

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to: SB 34.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)

3

rd

Judicial District Attorney (JDA)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 97 appropriates $272,583 from the General Fund to the Third Judicial District Attor-

ney for salary and benefits to add four staff members: Deputy District Attorney; Senior Trial At-

torney; Administrative Secretary; and Prosecution Specialist.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $272,583 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the General Fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY 2007 shall revert to the

General Fund.

The LFC recommended $3,129,800 total in General Fund for the Third Judicial District for ex-

penditure in FY 2007. The agency did not request an expansion in its FY 2007 request.

Senate Bill 97 – Page 2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

AOC

The 2005 Legislature passed and the Governor signed a $200,000 appropriation to the New Mex-

ico Sentencing Commission for a workload measurement study of the Public Defender Depart-

ment, Offices of the District Attorney, and state courts. An RFP was issued for the study and the

respondents indicated that an additional $152,000 would be needed to complete such a study.

Senate Bill 34 requests this additional funding. It is anticipated that this study will be completed

in FY 2007.

RELATIONSHIP

Senate Bill 34 requests the $152,000 for the completion of the workload measurement study.

ALTERNATIVES

There is general agreement that there are unmet resource needs in the PDD, Offices of the Dis-

trict Attorneys, and the state courts. Statewide equity should be addressed after the completion of

this study.

BMC/mt:nt