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

SPONSOR Komadina

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/31/07

HB

SHORT TITLE

Quality of Life For Persons with Disabilities

SB 333

ANALYST Weber

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$500.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Governor’s Commission on Disability (GCD)

Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 333 appropriates $500 thousand from the general fund to the Governor’s

Commission on Disability to improve the quality of life for persons with disabilities and promote

public awareness about disabilities in the public schools.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $500 thousand 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

The Governor’s Commission on Disability relates the following.

A previous year for quality of life issues funded several programs.

Senate Bill 333 – Page

2

These initiatives include:

• A quality of life grant program awarding over $200.0 to fifteen nonprofit agencies and

organizations around the state. There were over 80 applications for funding and $1,300.0

in requests.

• Established a clearinghouse of disability related programs. This will allow individuals

with disabilities to have a central resource to find disability organizations in New

Mexico;

• Support the Southwest Conference on Disability. This is the only cross disability

conference in the nation which focuses disability from the social, cultural model as

oppose to an academic or medical perspective. Attendees at the conference include

people with disabilities, family members, service providers, researchers and other

interested parties. The conference was held October 4-6, 2006 and was the most

successful conference to date. There were approximately 600 attendees from 24 states

and 3 countries. Over 140 New Mexicans with disabilities were provided full

scholarships. Governor Bill Richardson, U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman, and Speaker of the

House Ben Lujan spoke at the conference giving their support of disability issues.;

• Support the John Hopkins Institute symposium on paralysis in conjunction with UNM;

• Organize a symposium to define quality of life from a disability perspective. Most

quality of life definitions are based on people without disabilities. Quality of life differs

for different people and different disabilities. This is a symposium to focus on a quality

of life perspective for people with disabilities in New Mexico.

This appropriation is for similar projects and will include a program to visit schools throughout

New Mexico and promote awareness about disabilities.

MW/nt