SENATE BILL 186

53rd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2017

INTRODUCED BY

Elizabeth "Liz" Stefanics

AN ACT

RELATING TO STATE AUDITS; ALLOWING FOR HARDSHIP ASSISTANCE FOR ANNUAL AUDITS OF SMALL AGENCIES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     SECTION 1. Section 12-6-4 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1969, Chapter 68, Section 4, as amended) is amended to read:

     "12-6-4. AUDITING COSTS.--

          A. Except as provided in Subsection B of this section, the reasonable cost of all audits shall be borne by the agency audited, except that:

                [A.] (1) a public housing authority other than a regional housing authority shall not bear the cost of an audit conducted solely at the request of its local primary government entity; and

                [B.] (2) the administrative office of the courts shall bear the cost of auditing the magistrate courts. A metropolitan court shall be treated as a single agency for the purpose of audit and shall be audited as a unit, and the cost of the audit shall be paid from the appropriation to the metropolitan court. The district courts of all counties within a judicial district shall be treated as a single agency for the purpose of audit and shall be audited as a unit, and the cost of the audit shall be paid from the appropriation to each judicial district. The court clerk trust account and the state treasurer account of each county's district court shall be included within the scope of the judicial district audit.

          B. An agency with an annual budget of less than twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) may apply to the state auditor for hardship assistance in the conduct of the agency's annual audit. The state auditor shall provide by rule for a hardship assistance application process and criteria for selection for hardship assistance. If the state auditor grants hardship assistance, it shall conduct or pay for the agency's annual audit for the applicable year."

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