Fiscal impact reports (FIRs) are prepared by the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) for standing finance

committees of the NM Legislature. The LFC does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of these reports

if they are used for other purposes.

Current FIRs (in HTML & Adobe PDF formats) are a vailable on the NM Legislative Website (legis.state.nm.us).

Adobe PDF versions include all attachments, whereas HTML versions may not. Previously issued FIRs and

attachments may be obtained from the LFC in Suite 101 of the State Capitol Building North.

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

SPONSOR Rawson

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/23/2007

HB

SHORT TITLE NMSU Space Consortium & Outreach Program

SB 40

ANALYST McOlash

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$525.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Duplicates House Bill 54.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

New Mexico State University (NMSU)

Public Education Department (PED)

Higher Education Department (HED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 40 appropriates $525,000 from the General Fund to the Board of Regents of NMSU

for expenditure in FY 2008 to pay for the Space Consortium Outreach Program.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $525,000 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.

Senate Bill 40 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Higher Education Department Analysis

The New Mexico Space Grant Consortium (NMSGC) was founded in 1989.

Headquartered at New Mexico State University, NMSGC has partners across the

state including New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and University

of New Mexico. The additional educational outreach programs involved are:

Southern N.M. Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Aerospace Academy

(SEMAA) and New Mexico State University Apache Point Observatory and

Space History Museum. The consortium supports aerospace related research and

education, including scholarships, outreach programs, fellowships, and summer

internships for students and faculty in New Mexico. 330,000+ New Mexico

citizens participated in related programs from 1997-2005

(http://spacegrant.nmsu.edu).

The broad goal is to improve minority and woman student education and career

opportunities, with a focus on suborbital science and engineering opportunities.

The mission involves promoting science and engineering education and outreach,

with the objective of increasing the number of college graduates who have an

interest in suborbital programs as a career choice.

The appropriation would supplement the existing operating budget and is intended

to support the continuation and expansion of outreach programs. The proposal of

$525,000 was submitted to the New Mexico Higher Education Department by

New Mexico State University and was included in the Department’s funding

recommendations for FY08 in the amount of $50,000.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

Senate Bill 40 does not indicate specific performance measures. The Higher Education

Department indicated that past criteria to evaluate the programs have included the retention of

academic partners and the addition of new partners, diversity objectives, student and faculty

recruitment and retention objectives, and competitively awarded scholarships and fellowships.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP OR RELATIONSHIP

Senate Bill 40 duplicates House Bill 54.

ALTERNATIVES

Higher Education Department Analysis

To use the Department's recommendation for funding the program at its current

level for FY08. Another possibility could be for NMSU to seek alternative or

additional federal funding.

Higher education institutions receive indirect cost revenues from federal contracts

and grants. This money is unrestricted in the sense that the Board of Regents of

the institution has the flexibility to choose which projects are supported with these

Senate Bill 40 – Page

3

funds. A great deal of this money is used as seed money to develop new research

and public services projects at institutions. A portion of the indirect cost revenue,

or earned overhead, is used to support items such as the salaries of the

accountants responsible for monitoring the contracts and grants, or for paying

utilities and other expenses required to maintain the space where the contract and

grant activities are housed.

The higher education funding formula allows institutions to retain 100% of this

indirect cost revenue. One of the purposes of retaining these funds is to provide

seed money and matching funds for projects such as the one proposed in this bill.

BM/csd