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

SPONSOR Feldman

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/24/06

HB

SHORT TITLE Expand NM Pre-Dental Clubs

SB 85

ANALYST Earp

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$65.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to Senate Bill 83 and House Bill 172

Relates to Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

Department of Health (DOH)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 85 appropriates $65,000 from the general fund to the Higher Education Department

(HED) to increase funding for pre-dental clubs and to fund pre-dental clubs at four additional

institutions of higher education.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $65,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2007 shall revert

to the general fund.

The sum of $28,500 was appropriated for this purpose in Chapter 34, Laws of 2005 (Senate Bill

190.) The Legislative Finance Committee funding recommendation for fiscal year 2007 has in-

Senate Bill 85 – Page

2

cluded this amount as a component of a block-grant appropriation to HED for special project ex-

pansion. The Executive has not recommended continued funding for this line-item appropria-

tion. Therefore, approval of the appropriation in this bill would result in the augmentation of the

funding contained in HB 2 if the LFC recommendation for the General Appropriation Act is

adopted, but the Senate Bill 9 appropriation would constitute the total amount of funding if the

Executive recommendation is adopted.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The Department of Health indicates that New Mexico continues to experience a shortage of den-

tists. The Governor's Oral Health Council has recommended that pre-dental clubs be established

at all institutions of higher learning statewide. Pre-dental clubs would have the ability to provide

career counseling and mentorship programs to undergraduate students. The objective is to better

prepare New Mexico students for entry into dental schools and to increase the number of New

Mexicans in the dental profession.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

HED is granted responsibility for administering the appropriation contained in this bill and

would sub-allocate the available funding to higher education institutions having or developing

pre-dental clubs.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

This bill is related to Senate Bill 83 and House Bill 172, both of which seek to address the short-

age of dental care professionals in New Mexico through the expansion of dental hygiene pro-

gram capacity in the state.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

Information provided by HED indicates that, like many other health care professions, the issues

of aging professional personnel and a growing state population pose challenges in dental care.

New Mexico ranks 49

th

among the states in the number of dentists per capita. Further, there are

particular shortages of dental professionals in rural areas of the state.

There are two dental hygienist programs in the state. The program at the University of New

Mexico accepts 24 new students per year and the program at San Juan College accepts 12 pa-

tients per year. The number of licensed dental hygienists has increased since 1995; however, this

growth has not kept up with New Mexico population growth.

DE/yr