Daily Lobo new mexico
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tuesday
January 24, 2012
The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
Lottery Scholarship fund may run out by 2014 by Chelsea Erven and Ashley McElroy news@dailylobo.com
Powerball lottery ticket prices went up this month, but New Mexico lottery officials said the increased price won’t save the struggling Legislative Lottery Scholarship fund. Powerball prices jumped from $1 to $2 on Jan. 15, but New Mexico Lottery Authority spokeswoman Linda Hamlin said the increase in revenue will fund bigger jackpots
to encourage more New Mexicans to buy tickets and keep the Lottery Authority out of debt. “We believe the changes in the Powerball game…will help us reach our sales and revenue targets rather than fall short,” she said. “And certainly, we will do all that we can in a responsible manner to use our limited resources to excite Powerball players, grow sales and maximize revenues for the scholarship program.” Hamlin said New Mexico lottery sales have been down since
reaching a record high of $150.6 million in 2006. She said scratcher ticket sales, which account for about 60 percent of total New Mexico Lottery sales, dropped about $16 million since 2007. About 30 percent of all lottery sales go into the scholarship fund, which supports more than 9,000 UNM students, UNM Director of Student Financial Aid Brian Malone said. While sales have gone down since 2006, UNM tuition has steadily risen and the number of students receiving
the scholarship has grown 28.5 percent since 2005. The Legislative Lottery Scholarship covers full tuition costs for eight consecutive semesters. Students must maintain a 2.5 GPA and earn at least 12 credit hours per semester to remain eligible. The New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee predicted last year that the fund could be depleted as soon as 2014. Hamlin said the state Lottery Authority is predicting flat sales through
Students share Lottery Scholarship stories “There needs to be more strict criteria as to who receives the scholarship and who doesn’t. Somebody who does nothing can receive it.” — Rachelle Ray, junior,
communications and journalism
fiscal year 2016, which means money going into the scholarship fund won’t increase. Malone said he wouldn’t speculate on how UNM might deal with the rapidly depleting scholarship because decisions about its solvency are in the hands of the Legislative Finance Committee. “I do not think (the program) it will cease to exist, rather, I suspect it will change, either in amounts of tuition covered, or in the manner in which eligibility is determined or measured.”
“The lottery was one of the main reasons I chose to major in computer engineering. It has had a major influence in what career path to follow.” — Alan Canedo, sophomore, computer engineering
“The Lottery (Scholarship) was one of the reasons I chose to come to UNM. It allows me to not have to work fulltime and go to school.” — Brandon Hainy, senior,
“Without the lottery, I wouldn’t have had the chance to come to UNM. I would have just had to go to CNM.” — Ashley Peralta, junior,
political science
art studio
Photos by Adria Malcolm / Daily Lobo
Bill aims to keep grads in NM with tax credit by Luke Holmen holmen@unm.edu
GPSA members are pushing the State Legislature to pass Senate Bill 16, a bill written by the GPSA Lobby Committee which could help secure jobs for recent UNM graduates. A coalition of senators held a press conference Tuesday highlighting a package of bills known as the Helping Incentivize Real Employment Initiative (HIRE Initiative), an economic package which includes SB 16. The Daily Lobo spoke with the GPSA Lobby
Inside the
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Committee’s Travis McIntyre about his efforts to generate support for the bill. Daily Lobo: What is Senate Bill 16? Travis McIntyre: This is a bill that gives a $5,000 credit to companies to hire New Mexico graduates…within 18 months of their graduation. (The bill provides these credits to companies) in the STEM fields, which include science, technology, engineering, mathematics and health fields. Only 40 percent of graduating students stay and work in the state, and we realized there is a brain drain, so we asked,
“What can we do to fix this? How can we get students to stay?” The answer we came up with is to incentivize businesses. The higher education department is focusing on STEM fields, and we fit strategically into this model that is already in place. The reason they are focusing on these fields is they have the most growth potential in this state. This bill targets those areas. DL: Why did the GPSA Lobby Committee write this bill? TM: We came up with the bill, to be honest with you. Timothy Keller and Jim Smith are co-sponsors,
Self serving
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and in all due deference to those sponsors … (they) have been happy to move forward with our idea. With Marc Saavedra, (Director of Government Relations at UNM), we brainstormed this brain drain bill, and there hasn’t been a bill like this before. We met with Sen. Keller at a reception where students and legislators met and talked to him about the bill, and he picked it up and…pre-filed it. DL: How important is this bill, what have graduate students been doing to promote it, and how likely is it to pass? TM: This is our priority. Along
with other students, I’ve been up there every day since the session started, speaking with senators about the bill and trying to track their support. They are going to meet either Wednesday or Friday in the Corporations Committee to vote on it within the committee to ratify. … It needs to be voted on in the Senate Finance Committee (before it can be put to vote by the entire Senate). I don’t want to speculate, but I feel pretty good about it passing. Both Democrats and Republicans think it’s good. It’s a high-tech job bill, it’s strategic, and it helps students.
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