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

SPONSOR Miera

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2-3-2007

HB 270

SHORT TITLE Gulf War Veterans Scholarship Program

SB

ANALYST Dearing

REVENUE (dollars in thousands)

Estimated Revenue

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

FY09

*$0.1

*$0.1 Recurring

*Vietnam and

Gulf War

Veterans’

Scholarship

Fund

*Please see narrative

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

*Newly named fund, Vietnam and Gulf War Veterans’ Scholarship Fund, formerly named the Vietnam

Veterans’ Scholarship Fund

Relates to Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

Veterans’ Services Department (VSD)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 270 carries no direct appropriation from the general fund. If enacted, the legislation

would extend the Vietnam Veteran scholarship to include U.S. Military Veterans of the Gulf

War. House Bill 270 amends Sections 21-21E-1 through 21-21E-2 NMSA 1978, Vietnam

Veterans' Scholarship fund such that references to eligibility to the program is extended to Gulf

War veterans, as well as making minor language changes to make the statute parallel with the

current names of state agencies. House Bill 270 would extend to the fund’s interest earnings and

State appropriations the non-reverting provisions that now apply only to gifts, grants and

donations. Finally, any distributions to Gulf War veterans could occur only from money placed

House Bill 270– Page

2

into the fund after July 1

st

, 2007. Any fund balance existing prior to this effective date is

reserved for Vietnam veterans.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

*

House Bill 270 carries no direct appropriation, however, additional scholarship costs could

occur with the passage of the legislation. House Bill 270 would significantly expand program

eligibility to Gulf War Veterans.

HED points to a Veterans’ Services department estimation of approximately 16,000 Gulf War

veterans within the state in establishing an incremental program cost of $45 thousand annually.

The estimate uses an inferred increase of program participation of 50%, or 40-50 out of 16,000

eligible Gulf vets. This may be a very conservative estimate, given the relative ages and life-

stages of Vietnam-era veterans versus Gulf War veterans.

The program has a formal rulemaking process, and has the discretion to formalize application

criteria. Scholarships would be limited to any amounts appropriated or otherwise directed to the

fund. Participation of veteran groups in post-secondary education through this program would

ultimately depend on the level of program advertisement as well as eligible participants’ ability

to enroll in classes (personal time constraints, etc.).

One significant issue for consideration is the availability of funding to Veterans through the

Montgomery G.I. bill. Most veterans are eligible for these scholarships for a period of ten-years

following their discharge from active duty, including Gulf War veterans. It is not known how

many of the State’s 16,000 Gulf War veterans have already participated in post-secondary

education through the G.I. bill. Because the veterans have had access to the G.I. bill though, the

demand on this potential funding source by first time college-bound veterans will have been

minimized somewhat. However, as written, House Bill 270 would allow baccalaureate degree-

holding veterans to apply for funding for masters’ level courses and programs.

*

Scholarships from this fund are limited by the appropriation, however a conservative estimate

of the additional demand

on this scholarship fund is at minimum 100 percent of the current

appropriation, or $90 thousand.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

The State Benefits division of VSD maintains that there would be no significant additional

administrative impact on the agency, however, rules and applications criteria would need to be

established.

RELATIONSHIP

House Bill 270 relates to current appropriations to the Higher Education department’s Student

Financial aid program for Vietnam veterans and others.

House Bill 270– Page

3

TECHNICAL ISSUES

Both the Higher Education and Veteran’s Service departments recommend that criteria for

eligibility to this program would include the Southwest Asia Service campaign medal. The

award would be established as shown in the members’ discharge paperwork.

The proposed legislation does not address any methodology of prioritizing applications in the

case of scholarship demand exceeding the annual appropriation.

PD/nt