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

SPONSOR T Garcia

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/15/2007

HB 1047

SHORT TITLE Luna College Softball Program

SB

ANALYST McOlash

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$145.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to HB 1048.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 1047 appropriates $145,000 from the General Fund to the Higher Education

Department for expenditure in FY 2008 to fund a softball program at Luna Community College.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $145,000 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 National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) indicates that Luna Community

College, an NJCAA member, is one of 391 junior colleges with a men’s baseball program. The

NJCAA lists 348 institutions with women’s fast-pitch softball programs, none in New Mexico.

House Bill 1047 – Page

2

The Higher Education Department raises the issue of gender equity and suggests that a “woman's

team sport, such as a softball program, may be needed in order to comply with Title IX."

The NJCAA (njcaa.org) believes in the value of equitable participation and treatment of men and

women in intercollegiate athletics and through its structure, programs, legislation and policies

will promote these values. The NJCAA will act to encourage its member institutions to assure

equity in the quantity and quality of participation in women's athletics through its programs. The

NJCAA stands with other athletic organizations in believing - at an institutional level, gender

equity in intercollegiate athletics describes an environment in which fair and equitable

distribution of overall athletic opportunities, benefits and resources is available to women and

men and in which student-athletes, coaches and athletic administrators are not subject to gender

based discrimination.

An athletic program can be considered equitable when the participants in both the men's and

women's sports programs would accept as fair and equitable the overall program of the other

gender. No individual should be discriminated against on the basis of gender, institutionally,

regionally, or nationally in intercollegiate athletics.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

HB 1048 - appropriates $100,000 for the men’s Rough Riders baseball program at LCC.

ALTERNATIVES

The Higher Education Department recommends that LUNA CC should seek other sources of

funding such as federal grants to fund this initiative or determine if the institution has existing

funds available to help support this initiative.

BM/mt