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

SPONSOR Campos

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/7/07

2/10/05 HB

SHORT TITLE NM Highlands Safe Rides Home From Bars

SB 790

ANALYST Guambaña

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$15.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 790 appropriates $15,000 from the General Fund to the Board of Regents of New

Mexico Highlands University (NMHU) for the purpose of providing a Safe Ride Home from

area bars and nightclubs near NMHU.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $15,000 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.

This request was not submitted by NMHU to HED for review and is not included in the Depart-

ment’s funding recommendation for FY 08.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Per HED, the Alcohol Alert website states that New Mexico had 488 car accident deaths in 2005.

Of these, 189 were alcohol related, comprising 39% of the state total deaths. Ninety-one percent

Senate Bill 790 – Page

2

of these 189 involved drunk drivers whose blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level was equal to

or greater than .08 grams per deciliter. Nationally, persons who are not intoxicated have a BAC

of less than .01 grams per deciliter. Several college campuses including, but not limited to Kan-

sas State University, South Dakota State University, the University of Nebraska, and Boston

University have Safe Ride Home programs intact.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

HED states that if the Safe Ride Home Program utilizes taxi cabs, NMHU will need to determine

if the city has enough cabs to fill this need. An alternative is to determine whether NMHU can

provide this service through already-existing institutional vehicles.

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS

What are the current drunk driving statistics specific to Las Vegas.

How many students does the Safe Ride Home Program hope to serve.

Does the city of Las Vegas have enough taxi cabs to fill this need.

AG/sb