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

SPONSOR

Campos

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/30/07

HB

SHORT TITLE East Torrance Soil & Water Conservation

SB 293

ANALYST Wilson

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$40.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to SB12, SB62, SB115, HB 344

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Department of Agriculture (DOA)

Higher Education Department (HED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 293 appropriates $40,000 from the general fund to the New Mexico Department of

Agriculture for expenditure in fiscal year 2008 for the east Torrance Soil and Water

Conservation District SWCD to conduct education and training programs.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $40,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2008 shall revert

to the general fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

East Torrance District is one of the 47 SWCDs of DOA. The East Torrance District makes up

1,142,028 acres of Estancia New Mexico. A variety of land use occurs in this district including

Senate Bill 293– Page

2

25,000 acres of irrigated crop land, 2,000 acres of dry crop land, 1,059,923 acres of range land,

47,405 acres of forest, and 7,700 acres of urban land. All of the soil and water conservation

efforts in this area are conducted by one SWCD office that has only one paid employee and a

seven person volunteer board.

The East Torrance County SWCD office is trying to reach more students through Estancia’s

single private secondary school and all public schools and Head Start Programs in the area. In

addition to working with school children the office holds public outreach programs and

workshops for private land owners. According to the East Torrance County SWCD office,

demand for these programs is high but the resources are not available to meet the demand. This

appropriation will supplement the existing operating budget by adding funds to hire one

additional person to conduct outreach programs and workshops. Additionally, a small portion of

the funding will go toward materials used to teach about watershed and soil conservation issues.

This request was not

on the list of priority projects submitted by New Mexico State University to

the HED for review and was not included in the HED funding recommendations for FY08.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

The DOA will be responsible for administering the provisions of this bill as part of its ongoing

responsibilities.

RELATIONSHIP

SB293 relates to SB12, SB62, SB115, and HB 344

DW/nt