Fiscal impact reports (FIRs) are prepared by the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) for standing finance
committees of the Legislature. LFC does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of these reports if they
are used for other purposes.
F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR Cullen
LAST UPDATED
ORIGINAL DATE 03/04/2025
SHORT TITLE Organ Donor Public Assistance & Registry
BILL
NUMBER House Bill 513
ANALYST Chilton
ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT*
(dollars in thousands) Agency/Program
FY25 FY26 FY27
3 Year
Total Cost
Recurring or
Nonrecurring
Fund
Affected
Department of
Public Safety
No fiscal
impact
$250.0 $50.0 $300.0 Recurring General Fund
Regulation and
Licensing
Department
$6,700.0
No fiscal
impact
No fiscal
impact
$6,800.0 Nonrecurring General Fund
Regulation and
Licensing
Department
No fiscal
impact
$110.0 $110.0 $220.0 Recurring General Fund
Department of
Game and Fish
No fiscal
impact
$300.0 $300.0 $300.0 Recurring General Fund
Taxation and
Revenue
Department
No fiscal
impact
$385.0
No fiscal
impact
No fiscal
impact
Nonrecurring
MVD
Suspense
Fund
Taxation and
Revenue
Department
No fiscal
impact
$141.0 $141.0 $282.0 Recurring General Fund
Total $6,700.0 $1,151.0 $591.0 $7,902.0
Parentheses ( ) indicate expenditure decreases.
*Amounts reflect most recent analysis of this legislation.
Relates to Senate Bill 118.
Sources of Information
LFC Files
Agency Analysis Received From
Regulation and Licensing Division (RLD)
New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (DGF)
Department of Public Safety (DPS)
Taxation and Revenue Department (TRD)
Agency Analysis was Solicited but Not Received From
Health Care Authority (HCA) House Bill 513 – Page 2
SUMMARY
Synopsis of House Bill 513
House Bill 513 (HB513) makes virtually identical changes to 54 sections of state law adding to
occupational and professional application and licensing forms as well as applications for public
assistance programs a space to indicate if the person applying or applying to be licensed wishes
to be or is an anatomical donor of their entire body or part of their body under the Jonathan
Spradling Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (Section 24-6B NMSA 1978). If the person
wishes to be an anatomical donor after death and has not previously indicated the desire to do so
on a driver’s license application, the person can sign the form prescribed in Sections 1 to 4 of
this bill in the presence of a witness. The forms filled in and witnessed would then be transmitted
to the Motor Vehicles Division (MVD) of the Taxation and Revenue Department (TRD), which
would maintain a registry of such prospective donors. Information in that registry would be made
available to hospitals and to organ and tissue donor programs just before or after a donor’s death.
The effective date of this bill is January 1, 2026.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
There is no appropriation in House Bill 513.
The Department of Public Safety (DPS) indicates a first-year cost estimate of $250 thousand
with on-going costs of $50 thousand for software update and maintenance.
The Regulation and Licensing Department (RLD) would incur high expense for software
modifications for all of its affected boards as well as ongoing costs relative to this bill’s
provisions of $110 thousand per year. Explanation of its one-time cost of $6 million for software
and associated costs follows:
Based upon costs incurred in recent years for changes/upgrades to those licensing
software platforms (collectively known as the “NM Plus” system), it can be anticipated
that RLD will require an appropriation of not less than six million dollars ($6,000,000)
for the changes and additions that would be required if HB513 is passed. In addition to
licensing software changes, RLD would need to contract with a third-party vendor to
provide the ability to ensure that an applicant/licensee wishing to become a donor at the
time of licensing or renewal has this selection witnessed by another person. There would
be technical costs associated with the information transfer. It would cost an estimated
additional four hundred thousand dollars ($400,000) to implement the transfer and IT
employee/contractor cooperation. It would also cost a further three hundred thousand
dollars ($300,000) to implement the changes on the NM Plus system for each of the
boards, to modify each board’s application/renewal process for each license type. There
would also need to be a reporting feature added to the licensure process so that those
wishing to make an anatomical donation are added to the database. Further, the six
million seven hundred thousand dollar $6,700,000 appropriation would need to be in
place in FY25 to have contracts in place to ensure that the necessary software changes
and witness attestation requirements are made prior to the June 20, 2025, deadline that is
mandated in HB513.
House Bill 513 – Page 3
However, as noted in the technical issues section, it is not clear what HB513 means with its
witness-requirement; if RLD does not need to have a witness verify signatures, the fiscal impact
to the department would be substantially lower.
The New Mexico Medical Board does not indicate any costs or impediments to that board from
implementation of this legislation.
The Department of Game and Fish (DGF) does not estimate its costs under the bill, but states
that it would require “Staff time for at least one programmer, SQA specialist, and licensing
operations manager to plan, program and test changes to web-based software applications and
build interface with MVD. It’s difficult to quantify how long this would take.” Assuming an
average cost for salary and benefits of $100 thousand for each of these positions, SB118’s fiscal
impact to DGF would be $300 thousand on a recurring basis.
TRD would also incur costs, estimated as follows: “Implementation of this bill will have a high
impact on ITD. The estimated time to develop, test and implement the changes is approximately
1,280 hours or 8 months and approximately $390,499. ($305,200 contractual resources including
gross receipts tax, and staff workload costs of $85,299).” TRD also cites a recurring personnel
cost of $141 thousand for additional staff capacity at MVD.
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
DPS indicates that:
This legislation aligns with national and state efforts to increase organ donor enrollment,
potentially expanding the pool of registered donors in New Mexico. To maximize the
bill's impact, public awareness campaigns may be necessary to inform applicants of the
new registration option and encourage participation. Furthermore, agencies must consider
the user experience when modifying application forms, ensuring that the donor
designation process is clear, intuitive, and seamlessly integrated to promote ease of
registration.
DPS notes that this legislation would present a “logical and beneficial expansion of New
Mexico’s donor registry process but [would] require careful planning and coordination to ensure
cost-effective and efficient implementation.” DPS and other affected agencies comment that
coordinating the transfer of information from license and other applications to MVD would be
complicated. DPS also notes that “by incorporating public benefits applications, HB513
broadens the scope of organ donation outreach beyond licensed professionals to include a larger
portion of the population receiving state aid.”
RLD indicates that it will be difficult to ascertain the identity and presence of a witness when an
on-line application is filled out containing an organ donor enrollment.
DGF comments extensively on the difficulty of asking its offices and approximately 150 external
license vendors to collect the required data and to transmit that data to MVD. DGF also notes the
possibility that a hunting or fishing license purchaser declining to participate in organ donation
on the DGF form while having a driver’s license indicating the opposite would create
contradictory records. DGF feels that the legislation would be unworkable if a physical copy of
the enrollment form and signature would need to be transmitted to MVD.
House Bill 513 – Page 4
CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP
This bill duplicates Senate Bill 81 from the 2022 legislative session, which was ruled non-
germane. It is virtually identical to Senate Bill 118, except that it adds five additional license
applications for which the requirement for an organ donor option is to be made.
TECHNICAL ISSUES
RLD points out that “HB513 does not specifically include language to amend the license
application and renewal forms for the RLD’s Construction Industries Division, Manufactured
Housing Division, and Cannabis Control Division, all of which are subject to the Uniform
Licensing Act.” The discrepancy between these three divisions and RLD’s many other boards
and commissions would cause problems in software design.
RLD also points out that the system of reporting desire to be an organ donor to MVD would
work only if the applicant or licensee had a New Mexico driver license. Further modifications
would be needed to accommodate the information of those not possessing a New Mexico
driver’s license.
As pointed out by DPS, Section 29-16-6(B) NMSA 1978 states that Concealed Handgun Carry
Act participants’ identity is confidential; thus, their information could not be passed on to MVD
without an amendment to that statute.
HB513 includes the language that, “If the applicant desires to be a new donor, the form shall be
signed by the donor in the presence of a witness who shall also sign the form in the donor's
presence” when amending the Uniform Licensing Act, the Concealed Handgun Act, and Section
17-3 NMSA 1978. However, the donor statements included in HB513 only include signature
lines for a donor and for a parent or guardian if the donor is under fifteen years of age. Further,
Section 24-6B-5 NMSA 1978, which governs the manner in which an organ donor may make a
gift prior to their death, only requires that the act of organ donation be witnessed if the donor is
terminally ill or physically unable to sign a record. What HB513 means by “witness” is therefore
unclear. HB513 should be clarified to define what is meant by “witness” and to align bill
language with Section 24-6B-5 NMSA 1978.
TRD points out that lines 21-22 on page 27, that sections “refers to the concealed handgun
license application form, but this section of the act pertains to the Collection Agency Regulatory
Act. The concealed handgun license application form language needs to be removed and
replaced with language that pertains to collection agency licensing.”
Further, TRD discusses privacy issues:
Most driver’s license applications and renewals submitted to MVD contain personally
identifiable information (PII), including social security numbers (SSNs). To process these
submissions, MVD must establish a work queue where clerks manually enter data. If a
matching record exists in the system, the donor designation will be linked to that record.
If no match is found, the application or renewal may require manual redaction before
storage. In cases where no existing record is located, the application will only be
accessible within the Organ Donor system. This system must be redesigned to ensure that House Bill 513 – Page 5
redacted images are available to organ donor agents while maintaining strict data security
protocols. To minimize the handling of unnecessary PII, it is recommended that all
external entities revise their forms to include a separate page exclusively for organ donor
registration. This page should contain only the applicant’s name, driver’s license number,
date of birth, and signed consent for organ donation. This approach will reduce the
transmission of sensitive information to MVD, mitigating security risks and easing
processing burdens.”
LAC/hj/SL2
Attachments
1. List of affected applicant groups. House Bill 513 – Page 6
Attachment 1.
Section of
SB 118
Modifies this section of
Statutes NMSA 1978 Group affected
1 17-3 Applicants for fishing and hunting licenses
2 27 Public assistance applicants
3,5 29-19 Concealed handgun carry applicants
4 22-10A School personnel
6 61-1 Applicants for licensing under
Construction industries division of RLD
Crane operators licensing
Any board, commission or agency enumerated in Section 61
Cannabis control division
Any other state agency subject to Uniform Licensing Act law
7 61-2 Optometry applicants
8 61-3 Nurse applicants
9 61-4 Chiropractic physician applicants
10 61-5A Dentist and dental hygienist applicants
11 61-6 Medical practice act applicants
12, 13 61-6A Genetic counseling applicants
14, 15 61-6B Polysomnography practice act applicants
16 61-6C Physician assistant applicants
17 61-6D Anesthesiologist assistant applicants
18 61-7A Nutrition and dietetics practice act applicants
19 61-8 Podiatry act applicants
20 61-9 Professional psychologist act applic ants (see also Section 38 of this bill)
21 61-9A Counseling and therapy act applicants
22 61-11 Pharmacy act applicants
23 61-10A Occupational therapy act applicants
24 61-12B Respiratory care act applicants
25 61-12C Massage therapy practice act applicants
26 61-12D Physical therapy act applicants
27, 28 61-12F Naprapathic act applicants
29 61-12G Naprapathic doctor applicants
30 61-13 Nursing home admi nistrators act applicants
31 61-14 Veterinary practice act applicants
32 61-14A Acupuncture and Oriental medicine practice act applicants
33 61-14B Speech-language pathology, audiology and hearing aid dispensing practices act
applicants
34 61-14D Athletic trainer practice act applicants
35 61-14E Medical imaging and radiation th erapy health and safety act applicants
36, 37 61-14F Uniform athlete agents act applicants
38 61-15 Architecture act applicants
39 61-17A Barbers and cosmetologists act applicants
40 61-17B Body art safe practices act applicants
41 61-18A Collection Agency Regulation Act applicants
42 61-23 Engineering and survey ing practice act applicants
43 61-24B Landscape architects act applicants
44 61-24C Interior designers act applicants
45 61-24D Home inspecto r licensing act applicants
46 61-27B Private investigations act applicants
47 61-28B 1999 Public accountancy act applicants
48 61-29 Real estate broker and appraiser applicants
49 61-30 Real estate appraisers act applicants
50 61-31 Social work practice act applicants
51 61-32 Funeral services act applicants
52 61-33 Utility operators certification act applicants
53 61-34 Signed language interpre ting practices act applicants
54 61-36 Lactation care provider act applicants