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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
1/24/06
HB
SHORT TITLE NMSU Intercollegiate Equestrian Program
SB 127
ANALYST Earp
APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)
Appropriation
Recurring
or Non-Rec
Fund
Affected
FY06
FY07
$370.0
Recurring
General Fund
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Duplicates House Bill 50
Relates to Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
Responses Received From
Higher Education Department (HED)
New Mexico State University (NMSU)
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
Senate Bill 127 appropriates $370,000 from the general fund to the Board of Regents of New
Mexico State University (NMSU) to expand the intercollegiate athletics department equestrian
program.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
The appropriation of $370,000 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 $280,300 was appropriated for this purpose in Chapter 34, Laws of 2005 (Senate Bill
190.) The Legislative Finance Committee recommendation for fiscal year 2007 has included this
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Senate Bill 127 – Page
2
amount as a component of a block-grant appropriation to NMSU for special project expansion.
The Executive recommendation does not include continued funding for this program. Therefore,
approval of the appropriation in this bill would result in the augmentation of the funding con-
tained in the General Appropriation Act if the LFC recommendation is adopted, but the appro-
priation in this bill would constitute the total amount of funding if the Executive recommenda-
tion is adopted.
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
NMSU submitted this request to the Higher Education Department (HED) as priority 9 of 9 spe-
cial project expansion items. However, HED did not include this item in its fiscal year 2007
funding recommendations to the LFC and the Executive.
ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS
NMSU currently administers the program. No additional impact would result from enactment of
this legislation.
OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
NMSU reports that new membership criterion established by the NCAA require that for an
institution to be designated a Division 1-A program, the highest level of competition in the
NCAA, it must sponsor a minimum of sixteen (16) sports. NMSU has added women’s equestrian
as its’ sixteenth sport to meet the newly established sports sponsorship criterion for Division 1-A
membership classification in the NCAA. NMSU has completed a 5,200 square foot equestrian
center, providing NMSU's College of Agriculture and Home Economics a horse teaching center
and equestrian arena. The equestrian team at NMSU competes for the national championship
every year, and the arena serves as a place for other agricultural competitions.
DE/yr