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

SPONSOR Papen

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/24/06

HB

SHORT TITLE NMSU Intercollegiate Equestrian Program

SB 127

ANALYST Earp

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$370.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Duplicates House Bill 50

Relates to Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

New Mexico State University (NMSU)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 127 appropriates $370,000 from the general fund to the Board of Regents of New

Mexico State University (NMSU) to expand the intercollegiate athletics department equestrian

program.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $370,000 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 $280,300 was appropriated for this purpose in Chapter 34, Laws of 2005 (Senate Bill

190.) The Legislative Finance Committee recommendation for fiscal year 2007 has included this

Senate Bill 127 – Page

2

amount as a component of a block-grant appropriation to NMSU for special project expansion.

The Executive recommendation does not include continued funding for this program. Therefore,

approval of the appropriation in this bill would result in the augmentation of the funding con-

tained in the General Appropriation Act if the LFC recommendation is adopted, but the appro-

priation in this bill would constitute the total amount of funding if the Executive recommenda-

tion is adopted.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

NMSU submitted this request to the Higher Education Department (HED) as priority 9 of 9 spe-

cial project expansion items. However, HED did not include this item in its fiscal year 2007

funding recommendations to the LFC and the Executive.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

NMSU currently administers the program. No additional impact would result from enactment of

this legislation.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

NMSU reports that new membership criterion established by the NCAA require that for an

institution to be designated a Division 1-A program, the highest level of competition in the

NCAA, it must sponsor a minimum of sixteen (16) sports. NMSU has added women’s equestrian

as its’ sixteenth sport to meet the newly established sports sponsorship criterion for Division 1-A

membership classification in the NCAA. NMSU has completed a 5,200 square foot equestrian

center, providing NMSU's College of Agriculture and Home Economics a horse teaching center

and equestrian arena. The equestrian team at NMSU competes for the national championship

every year, and the arena serves as a place for other agricultural competitions.

DE/yr