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





SPONSOR: Papen DATE TYPED: 03/09/01 HB
SHORT TITLE: Rural County Geographic Information Systems SB 683
ANALYST: Padilla


APPROPRIATION



Appropriation Contained
Estimated Additional Impact
 Recurring

or Non-Rec

 Fund

Affected

FY01 FY02 FY01 FY02
$ 496.0 Non-recurring General Fund



(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)



Relates to Senate Bill 56





SOURCES OF INFORMATION



LFC Files

Office of Information Technology Management

Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department



No Response Received:



Department of Finance and Administration (DFA)

Taxation and Revenue Department

Regulation and Licensing Department



SUMMARY



Synopsis of Bill



Senate Bill 683 appropriates $496.0 from the general fund to DFA's Local Government Division for the purpose of acquiring geographic information systems (GIS) for counties with less than 250,000 people for the following purposes:







Significant Issues



The only county excluded from the funding in this bill is Bernalillo county. The bill is somewhat ambiguous but appears to apply also to incorporated rural communities with populations less than 10,000.



The acquisition of geographic information systems by counties and rural municipalities could have positive implications for a number of state government agencies. EMNRD, for example, notes that its Forestry Division would benefit from having better rural property ownership data during forest fires so that it could contact threatened owners. The Mining and Minerals Division would benefit from better land use planning information for hard rock and coal mine permitting activities.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS



The appropriation of $496.0 contained in this bill is a non-recurring expense to the general fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2002 shall revert to the general fund.



ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS



DFA's Local Government Division would be responsible for the distribution of the funds. DFA did not respond to the LFC request for input on this bill.



OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES



The bill requires the GIS software to be both windows and network compliant and have an open database for seamless integration with existing small government computer and network systems.



CONFLICT/DUPLICATION/COMPANIONSHIP/RELATIONSHIP



This bill relates to Senate Bill 56, which appropriates $105.0 to the Taos Valley Acequia Association and the Rio Chama Acequia Association for the purpose of developing regional acequia geographic information systems.



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