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

SPONSOR McSorley

ORIGNAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/1/2007

HB

SHORT TITLE Utton Center Ombudsman Services

SB 594

ANALYST McOlash

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$282.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to HB 302 (Utton Center Water Ombudsman Services).

Relates to Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)

Office of the State Engineer/Interstate Stream Commission (ISC)

Higher Education Department (HED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 594 appropriates $282,000 from the General Fund to the Regents of UNM for

expenditure in FY 2008 for the Utton Transboundary Resources Center at the School of Law to

provide ombudsman services for pending stream adjudications.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $282,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the General Fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY shall revert to the general

Fund.

Senate Bill 594 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The Utton Transboundary Resources Center was established at the University of New Mexico

School of Law to carry on the work of the late Professor Albert E. Utton related to transboundary

resource issues. Professor Utton, a visionary and man of diplomacy, was co-founder of The

International Transboundary Resources Center (CIRT) and the Natural Resources Center (NRC)

at the University of New Mexico School of Law. In January of 1999, a group of Professor

Utton’s colleagues met and determined to continue his work.

The Utton Center, in carrying out its mission to promote equitable and sustainable management

and utilization of transboundary resources through impartial expertise, multi-disciplinary

scholarship, and preventive diplomacy brings together multidisciplinary teams for academic

research and field work projects. Solutions for complex transboundary resource issues are

reached using preventive diplomacy and fact-based analysis. The Utton Center examines and

analyzes the problems, develops teams to collaborate on solutions, and helps avoid costly

litigation while fostering sustainable resource management plans.

A proposal requesting an additional $120,000 was submitted to the HED by UNM but was not

included in the Department funding recommendation for FY08. The Department did recommend

a continuance of the FY07 recurring funding in the amount of $140,000.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

HB 302 (Utton Center Water Ombudsman Services) and SB 594 (Utton Center Ombudsman

Services) both appropriate $282,000 from the General Fund for the Utton Transboundary

Resources Center for stream adjudications. They, however, are not duplicates.

The General Appropriation Act (HB 7/SB 2) appropriate $140,000 for the Utton Transboundary

Resources Center.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

ISC Analysis of HB 302

The ombudsman services for the lower Rio Grande water rights adjudication

under this appropriation would assist in the implementation of a new case

management order entered by the adjudication court that will require the State

to immediately serve process on approximately 7,750 previously enjoined

water rights claimants. Compliance with the new case management order will,

in the short term, impose a large additional burden on the Office of the State

Engineer (“OSE"), which is the staff that supports water rights adjudications

filed by the State. The extent to which the ombudsman services provided for

by this appropriation would relieve some of this additional burden on the State

is uncertain.

By providing information to the public about water rights, and assisting water

rights claimants and the courts in adjudication of water rights, it is anticipated

that the ombudsman services funded by this appropriation could reduce the

amount of litigation required for settlement of water rights claims.

BM/nt