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

SPONSOR Cote

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/8/2007

HB 451

SHORT TITLE NMSU – Alamogordo Textbooks

SB

ANALYST McOlash

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$20.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Related to HB 451.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 451 appropriates $20,000 from the General Fund to the NMSU Regents for expendi-

ture in FY 2008 to purchase textbooks for the use of students in the library at the Alamogordo

campus of NMSU.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $20,000 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

The NMSU Alamogordo campus has a student enrollment in a range of 1,200-2,000 students per

semester. The Townsend Library at NMSU Alamogordo serves students, staff, and community.

The library has a computer lab with 34 computers available to students and the public, an audio-

House Bill 451 – Page

2

visual department, 400 periodicals, over 45,000 books and 35 online databases. The

library purchases additional texts to make available to those students who cannot afford to pur-

chase their own.

A 2005 US Government Accountability Office study found that textbook prices have increased 6

percent a year since the academic year 1987-88 -- twice the general rate of inflation. The average

annual cost of textbooks for a student in 2003-04 was $898 at a four-year college and $886 at a

two-year college, the report found. While overall prices have increased 72 percent since 1986,

the report said, college tuition and fees have increased 240 percent and textbooks 186 percent.

This request was not submitted by NMSU to HED for review and is not included in the Depart-

ment's funding recommendation for FY08.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

House Bill 4 appropriates $30,000 to purchase textbooks for the Doña Ana Community College.

BM/sb