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

SPONSOR Gutierrez

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/28/08

HB 372

SHORT TITLE NMSU Kenneth Barrick Endowment Fund

SB

ANALYST Haug

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$10.0 Non-Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

New Mexico State University (NMSU)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 372 appropriates $10.0 from the general fund to the Board of Regents of New Mexico

State University for the Kenneth Barrick Endowment Fund.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $10.0 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund. Any

unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2009 shall revert to the

general fund.

The HED states that this request was not on the list of priority projects submitted by NMSU to

the New Mexico Higher Education Department and was not included in the Department’s

funding recommendation for FY09.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

NMSU states:

Kenneth R. Barrick, an internationally renowned artist, award-winning muralist and

popular New Mexico State University art professor who taught thousands of students in

House Bill 372 – Page

2

university and community art classes, died Dec. 18, 2008 at the age of 94. A former

recipient of the Art in Public Places Award, Barrick has painted murals on and in various

buildings across the NMSU main campus that span several decades.

“NMSU would not be the university I know without his works of art, which have in part

defined the university," said Tracy Jamison, a previous Art in Public Places Award

recipient.

Barrick retired from the NMSU art department in 1984 after 35 years. He is responsible

for the mural of former NMSU president Roger Corbett in the student union, a mural

showing the history of the Mesilla Valley in the lobby of Hadley Hall, and exterior

murals at Jacobs Hall, Guthrie Hall, Breland Hall, Foster Hall and the Dona Ana

Community College. He also created a mural at Fire Station No. 4 in Las Cruces and at

the Santa Teresa Industrial Complex in Santa Teresa, N.M.

Barrick also worked with a chemistry faculty member to invent a paint that was resistant

to fading caused by photo degradation. He used the paint for an exterior mural on the

main chemistry building constructed in the 1950s. The colors in the painting remain

vibrant after many decades.

“His imprint, in artistic style, impressed me greatly as a kid growing up and playing at

NMSU, as a student attending the university and today as a middle-aged artist. I am still

impressed by the style and composition and boldness of his paintings," said Jamison.

The purpose of this bill is to honor the many accomplishments of this fine educator. This

endowment would be used to help maintain his murals and/ or be used for K-12 outreach

activities sponsored by the NMSU Art Department.

According to NMSU, this one time allocation would be invested in the NMSU endowment pool

managed by the NMSU Foundation.

GH/bb