New Mexico Statutes
Article 38 - Administration and Enforcement of Property Taxes
Section 7-38-38.1 - Recipients of revenue produced through ad valorem levies required to pay counties administrative charge to offset collection costs.

A. As used in this section:
(1) "revenue" means money for which a county treasurer has the legal responsibility for collection and which is owed to a revenue recipient as a result of an imposition authorized by law of a rate expressed in mills per dollar or dollars per thousands of dollars of net taxable value of property, assessed value of property or a similar term, including but not limited to money resulting from the authorization of rates and impositions under Subsection B and Paragraphs (1) and (2) of Subsection C of Section 7-37-7 NMSA 1978, special levies for special purposes and benefit assessments, but the term does not include any money resulting from the imposition of taxes imposed under the provisions of the Oil and Gas Ad Valorem Production Tax Act [Chapter 7, Article 32 NMSA 1978], the Oil and Gas Production Equipment Ad Valorem Tax Act [Chapter 7, Article 34 NMSA 1978] or the Copper Production Ad Valorem Tax Act [Chapter 7, Article 39 NMSA 1978] or money resulting from impositions under Paragraph (3) of Subsection C of Section 7-37-7 NMSA 1978; and
(2) "revenue recipient" means the state and any of its political subdivisions, including charter schools, but excluding institutions of higher education located in class A counties and class B counties having more than three hundred million dollars ($300,000,000) valuation, that are authorized by law to receive revenue.
B. Prior to the distribution to a revenue recipient of revenue received by a county treasurer, the treasurer shall deduct as an administrative charge an amount equal to one percent of the revenue received.
C. The "county property valuation fund" is created. All administrative charges deducted by the county treasurer shall be distributed to the county property valuation fund.
D. Expenditures from the county property valuation fund shall be made pursuant to a property valuation program presented by the county assessor and approved by the majority of the county commissioners.
History: 1978 Comp., § 7-38-38.1, enacted by Laws 1986, ch. 20, § 116; 1988, ch. 68, § 1; 1990, ch. 125, § 7; 2001, ch. 173, § 1; 2007, ch. 366, § 15.
Compiler's notes. — Laws 1990, ch. 22, § 12 repealed Laws 1988, ch. 68, § 2, which had specified administrative charges collectible by the county treasurer from "revenue recipients" as defined in this section.
The 2007 amendment, effective July 1, 2007, amended Subsection A to include charter schools in the definition of "revenue recipient".
The 2001 amendment, effective July 1, 2001, rewrote Subsection B, which formerly provided for the billing of revenue recipients, as an administrative charge, an amount equal to a certain percentage, depending on the class of the county, of the revenues received; and in Subsection C, rewrote the last two sentences which formerly read "All administrative charges shall be collected by the county treasurer and distributed to the county property valuation fund. The revenue recipient may pay the administrative charge from any fund unless otherwise prohibited by law."
The 1990 amendment, effective March 7, 1990, in Subsection A, inserted "or the Copper Production Ad Valorem Tax Act" in Paragraph (1) and made a related stylistic change.
County property valuation fund. — In creating the county property valuation fund in Subsection C of this section, the legislature created a permanent source of additional revenue to assist county assessors in fulfilling their statutory obligations to maintain current and correct values of all property within their jurisdictions, and directed county assessors to use those funds to achieve fair and timely reappraisal programs. The legislation does not impose any restrictions on the use of the funds other than the use be part of a property valuation program presented by the county assessor and approved by the county commission. Robinson v. Board of Comm'rs of the Cty. of Eddy, 2015-NMSC-035.
Where the Eddy county assessor sought to use funds from the county property valuation fund to contract with a private company for technical assistance in locating and valuing oil and gas property within Eddy county, this section does not prohibit the Eddy county commission from approving a contract with an independent contractor to assist the county assessor in valuing property, because the legislature made no attempt to restrict an assessor's discretion on the use of the fund and thus intended to leave it to the professional discretion of county assessors to decide how best to achieve the statutory goal of current and correct valuation of all property within the county. Robinson v. Board of Comm'rs of the Cty. of Eddy, 2015-NMSC-035.

Structure New Mexico Statutes