A. The governing body of a municipality may by ordinance establish a municipal utility permanent fund for each utility owned and operated by the municipality.

Terms Used In New Mexico Statutes 3-23-5.1

  • Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
  • Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
  • Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.

B. The municipal utility permanent fund shall be a fund in the municipal treasury into which may be deposited money from the sale of municipal utility assets or any portion of the unappropriated utility fund cash surplus that is in excess of fifty percent of the prior fiscal year‘s municipal utility budget. Money in the fund may be invested by the municipal board of finance as provided in Sections 6-10-10, 6-10-36 and 6-10-44 N.M. Stat. Ann..

C. Earnings from investment of a municipal utility permanent fund may be budgeted and appropriated by the governing body of the municipality for expenditure for any purpose related to the operation, maintenance and improvement of the municipal utility or deposited in the municipal utility permanent fund.

D. Money in the municipal utility permanent fund may be appropriated or expended only pursuant to approval of the voters of the municipality. The municipality may adopt a resolution calling for an election on the question of the expenditure of a specified amount of the municipal utility permanent fund for a specified purpose. The election shall be held within sixty days after the adoption of the resolution by the governing body. The election shall be called, conducted, counted and canvassed pursuant to the provisions of the Local Election Act [N.M. Stat. Ann. Chapter 1, Article 22]. If a majority of the voters of the municipality voting on the question votes to approve the expenditure, that amount of money shall be available for appropriation from the municipal utility permanent fund for expenditure by the municipality for the specified purpose. If a majority of the voters of the municipality voting on the question votes against the expenditure, no money in the municipal utility permanent fund may be appropriated or expended for that purpose. Following an election at which the question was not approved, that question shall not again be submitted to the voters of the municipality for at least one year from the date of that election.

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