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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR Papen
ORIGINAL DATE
LAST UPDATED
2/26/07
HB
SHORT TITLE County Emergency Service & Communication Tax SB 1015
ANALYST Schardin
APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)
Appropriation
Recurring
or Non-Rec
Fund
Affected
FY07
FY08
See Narrative
Recurring
Federal Funds
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Duplicates HB 1077
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
Responses Received From
Department of Health (DOH)
Human Services Department (HSD)
Health Policy Commission (HPC)
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
Senate Bill 1015 amends Section 7-20E-22 NMSA 1978, which currently allows counties to
impose a “county emergency communications and emergency medical services tax" of 0.25
percent. That tax may be imposed in either a countywide area or only the areas of a county that
are not part of a municipality.
The bill would change the name of the tax to the “county emergency communications and
emergency medical and behavioral health
services tax." The bill would also allow a county that
imposes the tax to dedicate the revenue to provision of behavioral health services including
alcohol abuse and substance abuse treatment. Currently, revenues generated by the tax must be
dedicated to the operation of an emergency communications center that is a consolidated public
safety answering point or to the operation of emergency medical services.
pg_0002
Senate Bill 1015 – Page
2
The bill includes that only counties that operate or contract for the operation of a behavioral
health services facility for alcohol abuse, substance abuse and inpatient and outpatient behavior
health treatment may dedicate tax revenues for the purpose of behavioral health services.
The effective date of the bill’s provisions is July 1, 2007.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
The bill does not alter the amount of revenue that can be raised by counties through the tax.
However, it does expand the services to which revenue from the tax may be dedicated to include
behavioral health services.
HSD notes that some of the behavioral health services that will be expanded through the bill will
be provided to Medicaid enrollees. This will make those services eligible for a federal match
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
DOH notes that the bill will allow counties an additional source of funding for behavioral health
and substance abuse services.
According to HPC, over 500 thousand New Mexicans have substance abuse or mental health
problems. HPC estimates that for every $1 spent on mental health services, there is a savings of
$7 through reduced social, government and economic costs. New Mexico currently spends $41
on the consequences of substance abuse for every $1 spent on substance abuse prevention. Less
than 20 percent of adults needing public sector behavioral health services in New Mexico are
currently served.
Under current law, New Mexico’s local governments are authorized to impose up to 4.6875
percent of local option gross receipts taxes (that figure excludes several additional local option
taxes that have been authorized for selected local governments). On average, a local option gross
receipts tax of about 1.6 percent is actually imposed by local governments statewide. Combined
with the state gross receipts tax of 5 percent, the statewide tax rate is therefore 6.6 percent.
PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS
According to HSD, the bill is in line with HSD strategic goal 4, task 4.4: increase rural, frontier,
and border access to behavioral health services.
DUPLICATION
Senate Bill 1015 duplicates House Bill 1077.
TECHNICAL ISSUES
HSD and DOH note that the descriptions of behavioral health services in the bill on page 3, lines
5 and 6 and page 5, lines 2 though 5 do not match exactly. The bill makes it unclear which
behavioral health services will be eligible for funding from the tax.
pg_0003
Senate Bill 1015 – Page
3
OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
It is unclear why the bill allows revenue from the tax to be dedicated only to behavioral health
rather than all types of health expenses.
SS/nt