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

SPONSOR Jennings

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

02//09/06

HB

SHORT TITLE NMMI Scholarships

SB 413

ANALYST Williams

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$500.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to Appropriation in Section 4 of the General Appropriation Act for New Mexico Military

Institute special project expansion

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 413 appropriates $500.0 thousand from the general fund to the Higher Education De-

partment for the purpose of increasing funding for the General Richard T. Knowles legislative

scholarship program at New Mexico Military Institute.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $500 thousand 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

not revert.

Senate Bill 413 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

NMMI notes the current program is under-funded. The goal is to fully fund the current program,

then expand to full scholarships if and when funding permits (rather than a 40 percent scholar-

ship). Additional corpus of $6 million needed for current program if all awards made each year.

HED notes this request was not made by NMMI during the HED funding recommendation proc-

ess.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

Is it the sponsor’s intent for this funding to be a non-recurring appropriation to the endowment

fund or a recurring appropriation to support the program on an on-going basis.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

Initiated in 1989, the General Richard T. Knowles Legislative Scholarship Program allows each

legislator to nominate a Knowles scholar each year (112 awards). NMMI notes at the current

funding level, NMMI would be unable to pay if all of the scholarships were awarded.

During the 2005 legislative session, NMMI received approval to transfer up to $500.0 thousand

to the endowment fund from end-of-year balances.

HED notes the program “covers the cost to tuition, fees, and an amount applied towards other

expenses at NMMI. The Scholarship may be automatically renewed for at total of four years if

the student maintains satisfactory academic progress towards graduation and acceptable per-

formance in the NMMI Corps of Cadets among other requirements.”

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS

1.

How would the funding align or impact with performance accountability measures cur-

rently submitted by NMMI to LFC and DFA.

2. Is it the sponsor’s intent for this funding to be a non-recurring appropriation to the en-

dowment fund or a recurring appropriation to support the program on an on-going basis.

AW/mt