A bill aimed at raising nearly $2 million a year in tax revenue to pay for New Mexico's Outdoor Classroom Program died in committee on the last day of the session.
HB 583, better known as the “Leave No Child Inside” bill, was tabled by the House Industry and Business Committee Feb. 15 after several committee members opposed raising taxes to provide permanent funding for the new program. The legislature did, however, approve $250,000 to fund the “New Mexico Outdoor Classroom” initiative for another fiscal year.
“There appears to be little or no enthusiasm for a tax to pay for the Outdoor Classroom program,” said Gail Chasey, a state representative who sponsored the bill. “At the hearing in the House Business & Industry Committee, many of the members suggested that private industry would be willing to donate to such an effort.”
News that the bill was headed for a hearing prompted loud cheers last month at the annual kickoff breakfast for the OR Winter Marketplace in Salt Lake City.
The bill would have levied an excise tax of 1% on the sale of television sets, video games or any video game equipment beginning January 1, 2009 to raise an estimated $1.85 million a year for the program. The legislature created the program in 2005 amid rising concerns over childhood obesity to provide outdoor education to children of low-income families.
The tax revenues would have been paid into a new “Leave No Child Inside Fund,” that would also accept grants, corporate and other donations. The fund would be used to develop curriculum, pay for materials and transport children to public lands and outdoor education sites.
The legislature rejected a similar funding bill in 2006, opting instead to appropriate $250,000 for a pilot program in FY 2007-08.
The Sierra Club spent much of 2007 working with the state departments of education and parks to educate the public about how a lack of outdoor activities and physical education was undermining children's academic performance and leading to higher rates of attention deficit disorder, childhood diabetes and other illnesses, according to Michael Casaus, director of Sierra Club's Building Bridges to the Outdoors program in New Mexico. By the time HB 583 came before the legislature, he said 38 groups were supporting it. Casaus said backers of the bill were willing to reduce the proposed tax to 0.5%, but that committee members opposed levying any new taxes. Given New Mexico's budget situation, however, Casaus said he was thankful for the $250,000 in funding for FY 2008-09.
“We had a tough budget year and a lot of agency budgets got cut to zero,” he said.
