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

SPONSOR Maestas

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/26/07

HM HJM 68

SHORT TITLE Study Decriminalization of Traffic Offenses

SB

ANALYST Peery-Galon

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Response Received From

Administrative Office of the District Attorney (AODA)

Public Defender Department (PDD)

No Responses Received From

Administrative Office of the Courts

Taxation and Revenue Department

New Mexico Municipal League

New Mexico Association of Counties

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Joint Memorial 68 requests the Administrative Office of the Courts convene a task force

of the following representatives: New Mexico Association of Counties, New Mexico Municipal

League, Public Defender Department, New Mexico District Attorney Association and Motor

Vehicle Division of the Taxation and Revenue Department. The task force is to study the

feasibility of and procedure for decriminalizing traffic offenses and recasting traffic violations as

civil infractions. The task force is to report on the study and any recommendation to the

appropriate interim legislative committee no later than November 2007.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

AODA notes depending on the number of participants in this task force, agencies might faces

shortfalls in their travel budgets due to travel costs to attending meetings.

House Joint Memorial 68 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Most traffic offense violations provide for the imposition of only fines and not jail time. PDD

notes it is not responsible for the representation of those individuals charged with only traffic

offenses. The Public Defender Department does represent those charged with other criminal

offenses that may arise out of the same incident where an individual is charged with a traffic

offense.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

The Administrative Office of the Courts will be impacted administratively in convening the task

force and conducting the study on the feasibility of and procedure for decriminalizing traffic

offenses.

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