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

SPONSOR Garcia, T.

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/1/08

HB 562

SHORT TITLE UNM Mora Land Grant Historical Study

SB

ANALYST Haug

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$30.0 Non-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 562 appropriates $30.0 from the general fund to the Board of Regents of the

University of New Mexico for the Spanish Colonial Research Center to conduct a historical

study of the relationship between the Mora land grant and Fort Union.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $30.0 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.

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

(NMHED) for review and is not included in the Department’s funding recommendation for

FY09.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The HED states:

The Spanish Colonial Research Center was created by a partnership between the National

House Bill 562 – Page

2

Forest Service and UNM. The Spanish Colonial Research Center's primary purpose is to

develop a computerized database from Spanish colonial documents to serve the research

needs of the National Park Service's Spanish Colonial Heritage sites as well as other

appropriate federal, state, and local organizations. A renewed Memorandum of

Understanding originally signed in the summer of 1997, enables the Center to coordinate

its research activities with appropriate faculty and graduate students at UNM.

According to the Institution, New Mexico’s Hispano land grants have been largely

ignored in university courses, research, and professional training. The funds appropriated

by HB562 would supplement existing research and teaching activity relating to New

Mexico land grants at the Spanish Colonial Research Center, and support specific

outreach and study of the Mora Land Grant and the historical relationship to Fort Union,

established in 1851 as the largest fort in the American southwest. Fort Union is

designated by the United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, as a

National Monument.

GH/nt