SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 16
49th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2010
INTRODUCED BY
Bernadette M. Sanchez
FOR THE LAND GRANT COMMITTEE
A JOINT MEMORIAL
EXPRESSING THE LEGISLATURE'S INTENT IN AMENDING THE PROVISIONS OF CHAPTER 49, ARTICLE 1 NMSA 1978 RECOGNIZING CERTAIN COMMUNITY LAND GRANTS-MERCEDES AS POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS OF THE STATE.
WHEREAS, in 2004, the legislature enacted Senate Bill 142, which was signed into law as Laws 2004, Chapter 124; and
WHEREAS, Laws 2004, Chapter 124, Section 3 provided that certain land grants-mercedes were to be governed as political subdivisions of the state; and
WHEREAS, it was not the intent of the legislature to classify the common lands of land grants-mercedes as state lands by declaring those land grants-mercedes to be political subdivisions of the state; and
WHEREAS, because the common lands of all land grants-mercedes are treated as private property by and subject to property taxes pursuant to the constitution of New Mexico, neither the legislature nor any executive agency is authorized to designate the common lands of land grants-mercedes as state lands by statute or rule;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that its intent in enacting Laws 2004, Chapter 124 was not to treat the common lands of land grants-mercedes as state lands; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that actions taken by the cultural affairs department and the cultural properties review committee, in carrying out the provisions of the Cultural Properties Act, the Cultural Properties Protection Act and the New Mexico Prehistoric and Historic Sites Preservation Act, which resulted in nineteen thousand acres of the Cebolleta land grant being treated as state land, were based on an incorrect reading of the law; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the cultural affairs department, the cultural properties review committee, the land grant council and the board of trustees of the Cebolleta land grant.
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