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

SPONSOR Trujillo

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

02/08/07

HB HJM 34

SHORT TITLE

Review Guardianship of Adults

SB

ANALYST Hanika Ortiz

ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT (dollars in thousands)

FY07

FY08

FY09 3 Year

Total Cost

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

Total

$0.1

see narrative

Recurring General

fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Joint Memorial 34 directs the developmental disabilities planning council to convene a

task force to review the processes by which guardians of adults under the Uniform Probate Code

are appointed, trained, supervised and reviewed.

The memorial provides that the task force be composed of representatives from the

developmental disabilities council, the administrative office of the courts, the adult protective

services division of the aging and long-term services department, the department of health, other

appropriate state agencies, New Mexico district court judges, the New Mexico guardianship

association, the protection and advocacy system, the senior citizens law office, individual and

corporate guardians, elders, individuals with disabilities, advocates or other representatives of

elders or adults with disabilities and other interested individuals. The representatives of state

agencies should constitute less than fifty percent of the membership of the task force.

The task force should consider potential statutory or regulatory changes, training requirements,

identification and dissemination of best practices and other recommendations that would

improve New Mexico’s system for qualification, appointment and oversight of guardians of

adults with limited capacity.

House Joint Memorial 34 – Page

2

The recommendations of the task force should be presented to the interim legislative health and

human services committee no later than October 31, 2007.

Copies of this memorial are to be transmitted to the developmental disabilities council.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

There will be a fiscal impact on state agencies associated with time spent by staff to participate

on the task force.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

By reviewing the process by which guardians of adults under the Uniform Probate Code are

appointed, trained, supervised and reviewed, recommendations can be made to improve the

system.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

The memorial states that recent studies have demonstrated that there is very little effective

oversight of guardianship arrangements once they have been established, including one study

that showed that only twelve percent of private guardians have filed required annual reports.

The memorial further states that there is no systematic process through which existing

guardianship orders and arrangements are reviewed to determine whether such arrangements are

still needed or appropriate, even though some existing orders are twenty years old or more and

the ward's circumstances or capacity may have changed;

AHO/nt