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

SPONSOR Vaughn

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

3/06/2007

3/08/2007 HM 70/aHHGAC

SHORT TITLE State Cowboy Song Competition

SB

ANALYST Schuss

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

SUMMARY

Synopsis of HHGAC Amendment

The proposed amendment by the House Health and Government Affairs Committee replaces

references to “arts" with “music". The amendment also adds a statement to say that the Governor

has created a State Music Commission.

Synopsis of Original Bill

House Memorial 70 requests that the New Mexico Arts Commission create a competition for

composers of a State Cowboy Song.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

House Memorial 70 states that a member of the House of Representatives in the year 2007

offered the state an opportunity to adopt an official state cowboy song and the state has a state

song, a state ballad and a state bilingual song. A good deal of the controversy surrounding

adoption of an official state cowboy song arose because of competition among composers who

wanted to be known as the composer of the state cowboy song. The members may be able to

agree on declaring an official state cowboy song so long as the process for selecting such a song

is less arbitrary than by a vote of a majority of the members of the legislature, whose tastes and

musical abilities may vary;

House Memorial 70/a HHGAC – Page

2

The House of Representatives of the State of New Mexico requests that the New Mexico Arts

Commission conduct a competition for a New Mexico cowboy song and that the competition be

open to any person born in New Mexico or who has lived in New Mexico consecutively for the

past twenty years. HM 70 requests that the competition accept entries for at least six months

prior to selection and that the winner of the competition be announced at least a month before the

start of a legislative session and that a jury selected by the New Mexico Arts Commission select

the New Mexico cowboy song from among the entries, based on a majority vote. Entrants in the

competition will be requested to agree to release to the state any rights to the song composed for

the competition and the New Mexico Arts Commission will present the New Mexico cowboy

song to a future legislative session for consideration as the official state cowboy song.

BS/mt