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

SPONSOR Gonzales

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/18/08

HB 139

SHORT TITLE Taos County At-Risk Youth Education Programs

SB

ANALYST Propst

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$215.0

Non-recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Department of Finance and Administration (DFA)

Public Education Department (PED)

Higher Education Department (HED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 139, Making an Appropriation for Educational Programs Serving At-risk Youth in

Taos County, appropriates $215 thousand from the general fund to the Department of Finance

and Administration for the purpose of paying for construction training, general educational

development certificate training, leadership and job skills training, among others, for at-risk

youth ages 16 to 24 in Taos County.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $215 thousand contained in this bill is a non-recurring expense to the

general fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY09 shall

revert to the general fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

According to DFA, the 2005 US Bureau of Census estimates the poverty rate in Taos County at

House Bill 139 – Page

2

20.9% while the national rate is estimated at 12.4%. The unemployment rate of 16-19 year olds

is 10.6% and of 20-24 years olds is 14.2%. The national unemployment average is 6.9%. Taos

County had the fifth highest unemployment ranking in the state. The number of 18-24 years olds

without a high school diploma in Taos County is at 29% while the national average is at 19.6%.

The goals of this program are to address the core issues with low income rural living in northern

New Mexico by providing education development, employment, housing and leadership skills to

at-risk youth in Taos County.

The program that is slated to receive this funding has been in existence for ten years. The

program delivers services for 20 youth per program cycle (6-12 months). 90% of the trainees

who graduate from the program are placed into relevant jobs, or apprenticeship programs or

continued education. 71 trainees obtained their GED in the last seven years. Through

collaboration with other entities in Taos County, this program has helped to build 20 homes and

40 apartments for low income citizens in Taos County. The program recently sold their first

home that was built from the ground up solely by trainees. The income generated from this sale,

will be turned around into the start up costs for the next project. This will make the construction

program sustainable, but the program needs funding for operational costs.

Up until now, funding for this program was provided through HUD. This year the funding was

appropriated through DOL and this program, along with many other rural programs, was not

selected for continued funding. The program will be applying for funding from other sources

into the future, but because of the short notice of not being selected for federal funding, this

program needs assistance to bridge the current gap in funding and keep the program operational.

WEP/mt