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

SPONSOR Cervantes

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/1/2007

HB 301

SHORT TITLE NMSU Social Entrepreneurship Program

SB

ANALYST McOlash

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$50.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Duplicates SB 46.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

New Mexico State University – College of Business (NMSU – COB)

Higher Education Department (HED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 301 appropriates $50,000 from the General Fund to the Regents of NMSU for

expenditure in FY08 to support the Social Entrepreneurship Program at the Arrowhead Center.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $50,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the General Fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY08 shall revert to the

General Fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Social entrepreneurship, or an entrepreneurial approach to social problems, is the latest

phenomenon in the development world. The Arrowhead Center already provides assistance to

social organizations, many of them non-profits, who seek business advice to develop or sustain

House Bill 301 – Page

2

their business. As an example, Arrowhead Center provided business assistance to Rivers

Academy, a local non-profit school that accommodates first through twelfth grade students who

are challenged academically and/or socially because of learning disabilities, academic disorders,

or their special needs. The school was on the verge of shutting its doors and looked to

Arrowhead Center for strategic direction. After a semester of consulting and developing a

sustainable financial plan, Rivers Academy is now providing an education to more students than

ever.

Arrowhead Center, Inc. has provided business assistance to nearly 150 entrepreneurs across the

state by providing business plans and feasibility studies to for-profit companies. Increasingly,

however, there has been a growing demand from social entrepreneurs to provide business

expertise to non-profit corporations. As the leader for economic development at NMSU, the

Arrowhead Center intends to expand its services into social ventures, promoting economic

development in both the for-profit and non-profit community. If awarded, Arrowhead Center,

Inc. plans to use its funding to design, implement, and grow a social entrepreneurship program to

provide services to all counties and communities across the State.

This proposal was submitted to HED by NMSU as a request for additional base funding in the

amount of $50,000 but was not included in the HED recommendation for FY 2008.

The Department recommended a continuance of FY07 recurring funding in the amount of

$106,900 for the Arrowhead Center for Business Development in FY08.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

The University has outlined goal/performance objectives related to this funding:

Goal/Performance Objective

Performance

Indicator

FY 2007 -

2008

NA/csd

1

To develop a social entrepreneurship program

1.2

Design Social Entrepreneurship program

By 6/30/07

1.3

Provide research and support services to social

entrepreneurship projects

7

1.4

Number of NMSU students involved in social

entrepreneurship projects

14

1.5

Identify new programs in global entrepreneurship

By 03/31/07