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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR Rawson
ORIGINAL DATE
LAST UPDATED
1/23/2007
HB
SHORT TITLE NMSU Space Consortium & Outreach Program
SB 40
ANALYST McOlash
APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)
Appropriation
Recurring
or Non-Rec
Fund
Affected
FY07
FY08
$525.0
Recurring
General Fund
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Duplicates House Bill 54.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
Responses Received From
New Mexico State University (NMSU)
Public Education Department (PED)
Higher Education Department (HED)
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
Senate Bill 40 appropriates $525,000 from the General Fund to the Board of Regents of NMSU
for expenditure in FY 2008 to pay for the Space Consortium Outreach Program.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
The appropriation of $525,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the General Fund.
Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY 2008 shall revert to the
General Fund.
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Senate Bill 40 – Page
2
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
Higher Education Department Analysis
The New Mexico Space Grant Consortium (NMSGC) was founded in 1989.
Headquartered at New Mexico State University, NMSGC has partners across the
state including New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and University
of New Mexico. The additional educational outreach programs involved are:
Southern N.M. Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Aerospace Academy
(SEMAA) and New Mexico State University Apache Point Observatory and
Space History Museum. The consortium supports aerospace related research and
education, including scholarships, outreach programs, fellowships, and summer
internships for students and faculty in New Mexico. 330,000+ New Mexico
citizens participated in related programs from 1997-2005
(http://spacegrant.nmsu.edu).
The broad goal is to improve minority and woman student education and career
opportunities, with a focus on suborbital science and engineering opportunities.
The mission involves promoting science and engineering education and outreach,
with the objective of increasing the number of college graduates who have an
interest in suborbital programs as a career choice.
The appropriation would supplement the existing operating budget and is intended
to support the continuation and expansion of outreach programs. The proposal of
$525,000 was submitted to the New Mexico Higher Education Department by
New Mexico State University and was included in the Department’s funding
recommendations for FY08 in the amount of $50,000.
PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS
Senate Bill 40 does not indicate specific performance measures. The Higher Education
Department indicated that past criteria to evaluate the programs have included the retention of
academic partners and the addition of new partners, diversity objectives, student and faculty
recruitment and retention objectives, and competitively awarded scholarships and fellowships.
CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP OR RELATIONSHIP
Senate Bill 40 duplicates House Bill 54.
ALTERNATIVES
Higher Education Department Analysis
To use the Department's recommendation for funding the program at its current
level for FY08. Another possibility could be for NMSU to seek alternative or
additional federal funding.
Higher education institutions receive indirect cost revenues from federal contracts
and grants. This money is unrestricted in the sense that the Board of Regents of
the institution has the flexibility to choose which projects are supported with these
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Senate Bill 40 – Page
3
funds. A great deal of this money is used as seed money to develop new research
and public services projects at institutions. A portion of the indirect cost revenue,
or earned overhead, is used to support items such as the salaries of the
accountants responsible for monitoring the contracts and grants, or for paying
utilities and other expenses required to maintain the space where the contract and
grant activities are housed.
The higher education funding formula allows institutions to retain 100% of this
indirect cost revenue. One of the purposes of retaining these funds is to provide
seed money and matching funds for projects such as the one proposed in this bill.
BM/csd