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

SPONSOR Ortiz y Pino

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/20/07

3/1/07 HB

SHORT TITLE Election of Certain School District Boards

SB 928

ANALYST Wilson

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to HJR 10, HB 146, HJR 3 and SJR 18

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 928

provides that school districts with a population of more than 200,000 shall hold a

special election prior to June 30, 2008 to submit to the voters the question of whether the district

should have a local school board consisting of four members elected from single-member

districts plus three members appointed by the mayor of the largest municipality of the district.

The bill provides further that if the voters decide in favor of the question that the school board

shall, no later than December 1, 2009; divide the district into four single-member districts. The

current board members would serve until March 1, 2011.

The bill also calls for the secretary of education to appoint three residents of the district to an

advisory selection committee, which would in turn recommend residents of the school district to

the mayor for appointment to the school board.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

NFI

Senate Bill 928 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

PED provided the following:

This bill implicates serious constitutional issues of taking away a person’s franchise i.e., right

to vote, and conflicts with Article XII, Section 15 of the New Mexico Constitution, which pro

vides that:

In those local school districts having a population of more than 200,000, as shown by the

most recent decennial census, the qualified electors of the districts may choose to have a

local school board composed of seven members, residents of and elected from single

member districts.

If a majority of the qualified electors voting in such a district election vote to have a

seven-member board, the school district shall be divided into seven local school board

member districts which shall be compact, contiguous and as nearly equal in population as

possible. One school board member shall reside within, and be elected from each local

school board member district. Change of residence to a place outside the district from

which a school board member was elected shall automatically terminate the service of

that school board member and the office shall be declared vacant.

The school board member districts shall be established by resolution of the local school

board with the approval of the state legislature, and may be changed once after each

federal decennial census by the local school board with the approval of the state

legislature.

The elections required under this amendment shall be called and conducted as provided

by law for other local school board elections. The state board of education shall, by

resolution, establish the terms of the first board elected after the creation of such a seven-

member board.

As the New Mexico Constitution specifically states that if a district with a population of more

than 200,000 votes to have a seven-member board, those members would be elected from seven

single-member districts, this bill is in direct conflict with the New Mexico Constitution;

accordingly the Constitution would need to be amended prior to enacting this legislation, which

would in actuality have no effect on the bulk of the communities in New Mexico, due to the

population requirement.

Public Law 94-171, enacted in 1975, governs the federal census, which occurs at 10-year

intervals. The last federal census was in 2000.

SJR 18 proposes an amendment to the state constitution, which is aimed at remedying the

conflict with the state constitution. However, unless SJR 18 is approved, and unless and until the

proposed amendment is voted on favorably by the public, the conflict remains. Furthermore, the

resolution only addresses Albuquerque and the bill speaks more broadly to districts with

populations over 200,000, which could encompass additional districts, both now and in the

future. As it only addresses Albuquerque, the resolution also implicates Article IV, Section 24 of

the New Mexico Constitution, which provides that the Legislature shall not pass local or special

laws pertaining to elections or many other areas.

Senate Bill 928 – Page

3

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

The Secretary of State and the local county clerks will have additional items on the ballots, but

this could be handled as part of their ongoing responsibilities.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

This bill relates to HJR 10, School Board Recall Election Voters, HB 146, School Board Recall

Petitions & Elections, and HJR 3, School Elections with General Elections.

The bill also has a companion joint resolution, SJR 18, which proposes an amendment to the

state constitution possibly aimed at remedying the conflict with the state constitution discussed

above in Significant Issues. However, the timeframe for putting the question to the public

conflicts in the two; the resolution calls for that to occur at the first general election following

adoption of the amendment; the bill calls for that to occur no later than June 30, 2008 at a special

election.

DW/mt