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

SPONSOR K. Martinez

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/30/08

HB 470

SHORT TITLE NMSU Grants Film Technician Program

SB

ANALYST Haug

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$50.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

Economic Development Department (EDD)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 470 appropriates $50.0 from the general fund to the Board of Regents of New Mexico

State University to support continued program development at the Grants campus of New

Mexico state university for training film technicians, including purchase of equipment, supplies

and film and providing stipends for industry mentors to train students.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $50.0 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 submitted by New Mexico State University Grants

campus to the New Mexico Higher Education Department for review and is not included in the

Department's funding recommendation for FY09. However, in FYO8 it did receive non-recurring

funding in the amount of $50,000.

House Bill 470 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

According to HED:

HB470 would provide funding support to NMSU-Grants to hire local New Mexico

professional film industry mentors to work with students on special film projects and

provide them networking contacts in the film industry in New Mexico. The funds would

also provide new equipment and supplies needed to prepare students for real world film

working. HB470 would increase the number of New Mexico film technicians trained to

work in the movie industry. Production companies are required to hire 60% local workers

for their film crew; in order to do so, the amount of qualified technicians must continue to

increase.

NMSU has been developing a Film Technicians Training Program (FTTP) to train

students to work in the film industry. The goal of the NMSU-Grants Digital Film

Technology training program in collaboration with PAH-Fest (Project Accessible

Hollywood) is to create a rural New Mexico training program to develop crews for the

film industry in rural areas where none currently exist. Grants' location in a diverse

landscape has made it an increasingly desirous location for film makers.

The NMSU-Grants Digital Film Technology Certificate program was developed with

assistance from Ears XXI, a digital film company founded by California filmmaker

Christopher Coppola. NMSU-Grants and Ears XXI’s mission in film training

incorporates educational goals which include helping students to create films for

international distribution. As part of this educational outreach, Ears XXI founded PAH-

Fest, a digital film festival held in Grants in collaboration with NMSU-Grants faculty and

students.

The Governor’s initiative to build the film industry potential in New Mexico will provide

this unique area of New Mexico the ability to develop career paths for NMSU-Grants

minority-majority student base. Thirty-seven percent of NMSU-Grants students are

Native American and thirty-three percent are Hispanic.

The EDD states that the initial efforts for film technician training at the Grants campus of NMSU

have been successful. Continued support of this training would provide opportunities for new

students to learn the trades and business of film production, and advance the skills of current

students to fully prepare them for a career in the film industry. It would also increase New

Mexico’s crew base: the number of trained crew members directly corresponds to the number of

productions New Mexico can accommodate.

GH/bb