Fiscal impact reports (FIRs) are prepared by the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) for standing finance
committees of the NM Legislature. The LFC does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of these reports
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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR Sanchez, M.
ORIGINAL DATE
LAST UPDATED
1/22/2008
1/27/2008 HB
SHORT TITLE School Board Elections
SJR 4/aSRC
ANALYST Baca
ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT (dollars in thousands)
FY08 FY09 FY10 3 Year
Total Cost
Recurring or
Non-Rec
Fund
Affected
Total
($0.1) ($0.1)
($0.1) Recurring
School District
Funds
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
SUMMARY
Synopsis of SRC Amendment
Senate Rules Committee amendments change the title and body of the resolution to allow school
board elections to be held only in “non-partisan“ elections and prohibit the holding of school
board elections in “partisan" elections.
Synopsis of Bill
Senate Joint Resolution 4 proposes to amend the New Mexico State Constitution to allow school
elections to be held at the same times as other elections. The amendment proposed shall be
presented to the people at the next general election or at any special election prior to that date
may be called for the that purpose.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
School districts currently incur costs for holding elections that are conducted through the office
of the county clerk. Combining school board elections with other elections should lessen school
district costs. Without knowing which school districts will consolidate their school board
elections with other elections, it is not possible to compute any savings that might accrue to a
school district. It is known that the size of the school district determines the costs incurred to
hold an election.
pg_0002
Senate Joint Resolution 4/aSRC – page 2
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
Historically, voter turnout for school board elections has been extremely low. Consolidating
these elections with other voting opportunities may provide greater citizen participation in the
selection of local school board members and school public policy issues. It may be argues that
adding public school issues to existing ballots exacerbate “too" long
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