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

SPONSOR Martinez, R.

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

02/03/08

HB 467

SHORT TITLE

WNMU Regional Economic Statistical Research

Center

SB

ANALYST Williams

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$200.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 467 appropriates $200,000 from the General Fund to the Board of Regents of

Western New Mexico University (WNMU) for the purpose of developing and maintaining a

regional economic statistical research center.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $200,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the General Fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY 10 shall revert to the

general fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

HED notes funding would establish a University Center Technical Assistance Program, with

particular focus on Grant and Luna Counties with Hidalgo, Sierra and Catron counties added

later.

It is unclear how this proposal would duplicate or complement current economic data bank and

research analysis operations at University of New Mexico Bureau of Business and Economic

House Bill 467 – Page

2

Research (see

http://www.unm.edu/~bber/

) and New Mexico State University. These entities are

members of the New Mexico State Data Center/Business and Industry Data Center (SBD/BIDC)

Program which is a state/local/Census Bureau cooperative effort. Through this program the

Census Bureau provides SDB/BIDC affiliates with data and products from Census Bureau

programs, survey and censuses. The SDB/BIDC affiliates, in turn, disseminate the information,

provide technical assistance and may create additional “value-added" products from the data

provided. A fiscal impact report on House Bill 467 was not received from either university.

This proposal was submitted by WNMU to the HED for consideration in fall 2007, but was not

included in the Department’s funding recommendation for FY09. The proposal was ranked as

#10 among 13 among the university requests. In its November 2007 evaluation of research and

public service projects expansion requests and new initiatives, HED rated the WNMU statistical

research center as “would not oppose if funding available."

The January 2008 LFC report “Higher Education Department Review of Selected Research and

Public Service Projects" discusses best practices for funding these types of projects.

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS

1.

Is funding available from county economic development organizations and local

chambers of commerce.

2.

Would the center generate revenues from contract analysis.

3.

How would performance outcomes be measured.

4.

How would the operations of the center be different or complement existing data

collection and dissemination activities for county, regional and state level data.

AW/bb