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





SPONSOR: Ingle DATE TYPED: 2/23/99 HB
SHORT TITLE: County by County Water Study SB 633
ANALYST: Pacheco-Perez


APPROPRIATION



Appropriation Contained
Estimated Additional Impact
Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY99 FY2000 FY99 FY2000
$ 150.0 Recurring GF



(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Revenue Decreases)



SOURCES OF INFORMATION



Commission on Higher Education (CHE)



SUMMARY



Synopsis of Bill



This bill appropriates $150.0 to the Board of Regents of the New Mexico State University for the range improvement task force of the Cooperative Extension Service to perform a county-by-county study of water demands and current allocations and to determine future needs. This bill carries an emergency clause.



Significant Issues



According to the CHE, the project proposed in this bill was not included in the list of eleven special project requests made by the institution.



FISCAL IMPLICATIONS



The appropriation of $150.0 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund for expenditure in fiscal years 1999 and 2000. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY00 shall revert to the general fund.





OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES



According to the CHE, the state higher education funding formula allows institutions to retain 100% of earned overhead on federal grants and contracts for the purpose of providing seed money and matching funds for projects such as that proposed in this bill. Of this indirect cost revenue, a portion is used to support salaries of administrative persons monitoring the contracts, utilities and other overhead expenses required to maintain the activities of the contract. However, a great deal of the indirect cost revenues is available to develop new research and public service projects as well as to expand academic departments. The revenue is unrestricted in the sense that the governing board of the institution has the flexibility to chose which projects are supported with these funds.



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