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

SPONSOR Maestas

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/29/08 HB 433

SHORT TITLE National Latina/o Law Student Conference

SB

ANALYST Cox

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$50.0 Non-Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Department of Higher Education (HED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 433 requests an appropriation of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000)from the General

Fund to the Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico for expenditure in fiscal year

2009 for the Mexican American law student association of the university of New Mexico school

of law to host a national Latina/o law student conference.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) 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.

This request was not submitted by UNM to the New Mexico Higher Education Department for

review and was not included in the Department's Executive recommendations for FY09.

However, in FY08 UNM did receive a non-recurring funding in the amount of $25,000.

House Bill 433 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

HED states:

MALSA was founded in the 1970’s by a group of UNM law students seeking to promote the

advancement of Hispanics in higher education. The students’ goal was to build a support

network for Hispanic law students by focusing on the academic and social interests and needs of

Hispanic students. Today, MALSA continues its long tradition of advocating for Hispanic

students to ensure that they have a rewarding and successful experience at the UNM School of

Law.

NLLSA is an organization of law school chapters from all regions of the United States. These

chapters assemble annually every fall at the National Latina/o Law Student Conference. At this

conference, delegates representing each chapter elect fellow students to hold offices of the

National Executive Board. The NLLSA Board is comprised of six national board members and

six regional directors who agree to uphold and carry out their duties as described in the

Constitution.

This year the NLLSA conference will be held in New Mexico on October 16-18, 2008. The

conference attracts up to approximately 400 students each year. Applications to host the

conference are due in November for the following fall event. Selected states are expected to raise

no less than $65,000 to host the conference. The organization promotes responsible

fundraising by not accepting funds from any organization that does not practice the highest

standards of ethics. States that have hosted the conference in the past are Washington, Colorado,

and California; the 11th annual 2007 conference was held in Madison, Wisconsin.

PRC/bb