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

SPONSOR Nunez

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/25/2007

HB 278

SHORT TITLE NM Highlands Forestry Institute

SB

ANALYST McOlash

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$433.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to SB 55 and SB 57.

Relates to Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act (HB 7)

Responses Received From

New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA)

Energy, Minerals, & Natural Resources Department (EMNRD)

Office of the State Engineer/Interstate Stream Commission (ISC)

New Mexico Higher Education Department (NMHED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 278 appropriates $433,000 from the General Fund to the Board of Regents of New

Mexico Highlands University for expenditure in FY 2008 to operate the Forestry and Watershed

Restoration Institute (FWRI).

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $433,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the General Fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY 2008 shall revert to the

General Fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Northern Arizona University, Colorado State University and New Mexico Highlands University

are jointly developing forest restoration institutes (Institutes) in each of the three states pursuant

House Bill 278 – Page

2

to PL 108-317, signed into law in October 2004. The purposes of the non-regulatory Institutes

are to bring the unique strengths of the member universities individually, collectively and in

partnership with other institutions to help support land managers and their collaborators working

to achieve comprehensive ecological restoration treatments on the ground

.

New Mexico Highlands University has the only certified forestry program in the state. It is a

unique opportunity for NMSU to train technical and professional forest and watershed managers

for the increasing number of jobs in this field, both in the state and elsewhere.

New Mexico First held a town hall in Las Vegas called “Looking to the Future: A Town Hall

on New Mexico’s Watersheds and Forests", jointly sponsored by the FWRI, EMNRD, and

NMDA and attended by 130 residents of the State. The Town Hall included two

recommendations to support FWRI as an institute and to provide separate, recurring state budget

appropriations.

New Mexico’s two recently adopted statewide strategic plans for watershed management (The

Forest and Watershed Health Plan (FWHP) and The Non-native Phreatophyte/Watershed

Management Plan (NNPP) both supported the Institute and identified important roles for it in

implementation of these plans,

The NMHED analysis for HB 278 states:

This request was submitted by NMHU to the New Mexico Higher Education

Department for review, but is not included in the Department’s funding

recommendation for FY08. The bill's appropriation amount for additional

funding is $433,000, whereas NMHU's request to the Department was

$25,300. The Department recommends continued funding for this program at

the FY07 level of $249,700.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

Federal legislation calls for a preliminary review of the accomplishments of all the Institutes in

2006, followed in 2009 by a substantive evaluation that will determine whether the Institute will

continue to receive federal support. The question of state support may enter into this review.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

Relates to Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act (HB 7, p. 196):

General Fund Federal

Forest and Watershed Institute $249.7 $255.4

Senate Bill 57 is a conceptual duplicate but differs in format.

Senate Bill 55 appropriates $430,000 to NMHU “to fund the forest and watershed institute."

BM/nt