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

SPONSOR Robinson

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/9/06

HB

SHORT TITLE UNM Latin American Student Recruitment

SB 427

ANALYST Hoffmann

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$150.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to Senate Bill 658 and Senate Bill 415.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 427 appropriates $150,000 from the general fund to the Board of Regents of the Uni-

versity of New Mexico for Latin American student recruitment programs.

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.

Senate Bill 427 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

This request was not on the list of priority projects submitted by UNM to the New Mexico

Higher Education Department (HED) for review and was not included in the Department’s fund-

ing recommendation for FY07.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

Senate Bill 415 appropriates $207,000 for the same purpose as this bill.

Senate Bill 658 “RESIDENT TUITION FOR CERTAIN STUDENTS” amends Section 21-1-3

NMSA 1978 to allow Latin American citizens from countries participating the Organization of

American States’ educational portal to pay resident tuition rates at the state educational institu-

tions enumerated in Article 12, Section 11 of the constitution of New Mexico.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

The Higher Education Department notes that in the past, because of its geographic diversity,

UNM became known as the “University of the Americas.” However, since September 11th, ob-

taining international visas has become increasingly difficult and costly. As a result, UNM’s geo-

graphic diversity has steadily declined. Today, 90% of the UNM student body comes from New

Mexico communities. Funding from this bill would help UNM to build back its geographic di-

versity targeting Mexico and Latin American countries.

CH/yr