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

SPONSOR Anderson

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/18/08

HB 161

SHORT TITLE Restroom Access Act

SB

ANALYST Cox

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 161 concerns itself with restroom access, relating to employees’ restrooms rather than

public restrooms. It defines customers, sorts of medical conditions that lead to access of an

employee restroom, health practitioners, and retail establishments. These definitions are all in

relation to the Restroom Access Act. A retail establishment will provide a customer access to its

employee restroom under certain conditions. These are conditions related to the lack of public

restrooms, safety conditions at the establishment, and customer’s medical conditions. There are

no civil penalties for the omission of allowing a customer access to an employee restroom,

excepting gross negligence and injury or death to a customer. There are Penalties related to

denial of access to a customer of an employee restroom. These are related to Section 31-19-1 of

NMSA 1978. If found guilty, the conviction is a petty misdemeanor. A fine of 6 months in

County jail and/or a fine of $500 (five hundred dollars) may be imposed.

This House Bill strengthens the accessibility of customers with certain medical conditions to

employee restrooms at retail establishments.

PC/nt