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

SPONSOR Swisstack

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

01/30/07

HB 516

SHORT TITLE Statewide Youth Violence Prevention

SB

ANALYST Geisler

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$150.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Department of Health (DOH)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 516 would appropriate $150,000 from the general fund to the Department of Health

(DOH) for expenditure in FY08 to support community-driven initiatives and programs for a

statewide youth violence prevention network. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance

remaining at the end of the FY08 shall revert to the general fund.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

DOH notes that this appropriation is not contained in the executive budget request. DOH has a

fulltime youth violence prevention coordinator who would administer the program, so there

should not be an additional operating budget impact.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

DOH notes that the prevalence of both physical fighting and physical fighting at school were

higher in New Mexico than in any other state participating in the Youth Risk and Resiliency

Survey (YRRS). New Mexico’s YRRS reports that 36.7% of students were in a physical fight

House Bill 516 – Page

2

within the 30 days preceding the survey. Fighting was more common among boys (43.5%) than

among girls (29.4%). Ninth graders were more likely to have been in a fight at school than 12th

graders (19.2% and 10.6%, respectively).

Approximately 10% of students reported that they had been threatened on school property with a

gun, knife, or club within the 12 months before the survey. Boys were more likely to have been

threatened at school than girls (12.4% and 7.4%, respectively). Skipping school because of

safety concerns was reported by 8.6% of students, which was the second highest rate among all

the YRRS states.

Dating violence (having been hit by a boyfriend or girlfriend in the past 12 months) was reported

by 10% of New Mexico students. Over 8% of students (8.4%) had been physically forced to

have sexual intercourse in their lifetimes. Girls were over two times as likely to report having

been forced to have sex than boys (11.1% and 5.4%, respectively).

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