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(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Duplicates/Conflicts with/Companion to/Relates to

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

No comments were received from the Bicycle Racing Commission

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

The bill would delete the Bicycle Racing Act.

Significant Issues

The notion of competitive bicycle racing is appealing to many New Mexicans. The New Mexico legislature enacted the Bicycle Racing Act in 1991 in order to allow parimutuel bicycle racing on Keiren velodrome tracks. Since that time, however, the Bicycle Racing Commission (BRC) which was created to regulate bicycle racing has failed to develop a regulatory structure to allow bicycle racing in New Mexico.

The BRC was dormant during its first two years of existence due to appointment of one commissioner who was unwilling to attend commission meetings. Then the BRC received $32.2 general fund to develop regulations for Keiren velodrome bicycle racing. However, when these regulations were submitted to the Office of the Attorney General, they were found to be in violation of the Bicycle Racing Act. At the same time, the BRC was forced to operate in violation of statute requiring that it be funded only with parimutuel revenues from bicycle racing and that it maintain an office and executive director.

In order for the BRC regulations to be implemented, the Bicycle Racing Act would need to be amended to allow implementation of the BRC regulations. However, the BRC has not offered such an amendment in the 1999 legislature. Also, neither the Legislative Finance Committee nor the Governor's recommended budget for the BRC includes general fund support which would be necessary for the agency to initiate its regulatory operations.

Finally, it should be noted that, in its proposed regulations, the BRC has delegated most of the statutory responsibilities to the employees ("commissionaires") of bicycle-racing promoters. Delegated activities include a starter, a registrar, a finish judge, a photo finish camera operator, a bicycle inspector, a parimutuel manager, and a drug control officer. Under the current BRC regulations, it is possible that no BRC member or employee would attend BRC-regulated bicycle races, despite statutory requirements that commission employees select bicycle racers for saliva and urine tests at every race and which require the commission to supervise the operations of parimutuel machines and equipment and the operation of all money rooms, accounting rooms and seller's and cashier's windows and to supervise the weighing and inspection of bicycles at races.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

There would be no fiscal impact from passage of this bill.

DH/njw