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

SPONSOR Sanchez, B.

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/09/2007

3/07/2007 HB

SHORT TITLE

Increase Certain School Board Sizes, CA

SJR 6/aSFL#1/aHVEC

ANALYST Moser

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

NFI

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of HVEC Amendment

House Voters and Elections Committee amendment to Senate Joint Resolution 6 as amended

strikes Senate Floor amendment 1 which had clarified that the school board elections be required

pursuant to the proposed constitutional amendment are to be held during general elections.

Additionally, the HVEC amendment provides for “mail-in ballots" or as otherwise provided by

law. It also states that language in Article 7, Section 1 of the New Mexico Constitution (which

in pertinent part states that “all school elections shall be held at different times from other

elections") shall not impact the board elections.

Synopsis of SFL Amendment #1

Senate Floor Amendment to Senate Joint Resolution 6 provides that school districts impacted by

this Memorial shall conduct school board elections during general elections. The amendment

removes the reference to “local school board elections."

Senate Joint Resolution 6/aSFL/aHVEC – Page

2

Synopsis of Original Bill

Senate Joint Resolution 6 proposes an amendment to Article 12, Section 15 of the Constitution of

New Mexico

to require the state’s largest districts, population over 200,000, to be comprised of

nine board members instead of the current seven board members.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Pursuant to Article 19, Section 1, of the Constitution of the state of New Mexico, a majority of

both chambers of the Legislature must vote in favor of this resolution to amend the Constitution.

This action would place this matter before the voters in the next general or special election. SJR

6 would increase school boards in large districts from seven to nine members.

In short, SJR 6 would amend the New Mexico Constitution to require the state’s largest districts

to be comprised of nine board members instead of the current seven board members.

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