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

SPONSOR T. Garcia

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/18/08

HB 166

SHORT TITLE Mora County Sheriff's Office Personnel

SB

ANALYST Propst

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$35.0

Non-recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Department of Public Safety (DPS)

Department of Finance and Administration (DFA)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 166, Making an Appropriation to Increase the Salaries of Mora County Sheriff’s

Office Personnel, appropriates $35 thousand from the general fund to the Department of Finance

and Administration for the purpose of supplementing for one year the salaries of deputies and

dispatchers in the sheriff’s office of Mora County.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $35 thousand contained in this bill is a non-recurring expense to the general

fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY09 shall revert to the

general fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Mora County's overall fiscal condition does not allow them to staff county law enforcement at a

salary that is comparable to other agencies. Currently the Mora County Sheriff's Department is

the lowest paid department. Non-certified deputies start at $9.00 per hour and certified start at

$10 per hour. The Mora County Sheriff's office has been at the same rate of pay for years.

House Bill 166 – Page

2

Employees don't stay since they are able to get better pay elsewhere. They spend approximately

$20 thousand for each deputy they send to training which includes the academy, uniform and

fuel.

Mora County doesn't have a jail and has to transport offenders to San Miguel, Taos or Guadalupe

County for housing. Sometimes San Miguel will send the offender to Cibola and when the Mora

County Sheriff's Department goes to pick up the offender for court, they have to spend more time

and money to go further.

The proposed legislation is aimed at supplementing for one year the salaries of deputies and

dispatchers in the sheriff's office of Mora County. DFA notes that concern of what will happen

with their salaries in the future years.

WEP/mt