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

SPONSOR King

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/7/07

2/14/07 HB 864

SHORT TITLE Expand Santa Fe Farmers’ Market

SB

ANALYST Guambaña

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$87.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to House Bill 22, House Bill 86, Senate Bill 235, and Senate Bill 237.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Department of Agriculture (NMDA)

Department of Health (DOH)

Higher Education Department (HED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 864 appropriates $87,000 from the General Fund to the Board of Regents of New

Mexico State University (NMSU) for the purpose of the Farmers’ Market Expansion in Santa Fe.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $87,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the General Fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY 08 shall revert to the

General Fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

According to HED, The Santa Fe Farmer's Market reports that it has generated over $1.5 million

in direct sales, an increase of more than $300,000 from the previous year. Currently, the market

House Bill 864 – Page

2

is located in temporary locations during the summer and winter months. Members of the Santa

Fe Farmers’ Market began the process of creating the Santa Fe Farmers’ Institute, the non-profit

(501c3) that would take charge of establishing a permanent site for the market in the Railyard

and implement programs to promote agriculture in northern New Mexico. This appropriation

assists in programming and revenue critical to the establishment of a permanent site included in

the master planning process located in Santa Fe’s Railyard District.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

Per DOH, the Farmers’ Market Program relates to the Department’s FY 08 Strategic Plan which

includes initiatives in the area of public health as well as in the matter of reducing childhood and

adolescent obesity and diabetes in all populations. DOH utilizes the percent of WIC program

participants ages 2-5 who are not overweight as the performance measure.

RELATIONSHIP

House Bill 22 appropriates $150,000 from the General Fund to the Board of Regents of NMSU

for expenditure in FY 08 for the DOA to promote and develop New Mexico’s Farmers’ Markets

for economic development.

House Bill 86 appropriates $250,000 from the General Fund to the Board of Regents of NMSU

for expenditure in FY 08 for the DOA to support the Farmers’ Market Enhancement Program.

Senate Bill 235 and the NMSU Small Farm Initiative (SFI) seeks an appropriation of $200

thousand directed to NMSU’s Cooperative Extension Service for the development of an

integrated teaching, research and extension facility on the NMSU campus to support small and

limited-resource farms and ranches, and sustainable agriculture teaching, research and extension

activities in New Mexico.

Senate Bill 237 appropriates $250,000 from the General Fund to the Board of Regents of NMSU

for expenditure in FY 2008 for the DOA to support the Farmers’ Market Nutrition Enhancement

Program.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

NMDA states that the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market benefits over 200 vendors, and serves as the

primary retail outlet for small-scale growers in northern New Mexico. DOH also notes that the

Santa Fe Farmers’ Market makes fresh healthy high-quality produce more readily available to

the population in general and specifically to Women, Infant and Children (WIC) enrollees.

AG/sb