New Mexico Public Regulation Commission Corporation Chartering Amendment, Constitutional Amendment 3 (2012)

Constitutional Amendment 3
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Type:	Constitutional amendment
Constitution:	New Mexico Constitution
Referred by:	New Mexico State Legislature
Topic:	Admin. of gov't
Status:	a

The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission Corporation Chartering Amendment, or Constitutional Amendment 3, was a legislatively-referred constitutional amendment on the November 6, 2012 ballot in the state of New Mexico, where it was approved.

The measure removed the job of chartering corporations from the Public Regulations Commission and proved it to the New Mexico Secretary of State. According to reports, the measure was proposed during 2012 state legislative session, and was sent to the ballot after legislature voted to do so before the end of session on February 2012.

Election results

See also: 2012 ballot measure election results

The following are official election results:

New Mexico Constitutional Amendment 3 (2012)
Result		Votes	Percentage
a Yes		322,861	50.75%
No		313,283	49.25%

Results via New Mexico Secretary of State.

Text of measure

Ballot language

The language that voters saw on the ballot read as follows:

“

A Joint Resolution Proposing To Amend Article 11, Section 2 Of The Constitution Of New Mexico And To Enact A New Section Of Article 11 To Remove Authority To Charter And Regulate Corporations From The Public Regulation Commission And Provide Authority To Charter Corporations To The Secretary Of State. For ____________ Against ____________

”

Support

The following are arguments that were made in support of the measure. The information below was obtained from the League of Women Voters of Los Alamos:

• "Transferring the responsibility for corporate filings to the Secretary of State would create a “one-stop shop” for all businesses filings. Currently, the Secretary of State registers some businesses, like Limited Liability Partnerships, while the PRC registers others, like Limited Liability Companies. The Secretary of State also registers state trademarks and service marks and files documents required by the Uniform Commercial Code."
• "Removing responsibility for chartering businesses would allow the PRC to focus on its core duties of regulating utilities, which are very different from the secretarial duty of filing business documents."

Opposition

The following are arguments that were made in support of the measure. The information below was obtained from the League of Women Voters of Los Alamos:

• "There would be a one-time cost associated with transferring the PRC’s corporate registration responsibilities to the Secretary of State."
• "The Legislature has not studied whether the Secretary of State’s office is the ideal state agency in which to place the responsibility for corporate registration, so that duty should remain with the PRC until the Legislature undertakes such a study."
• "The corporate registration division has not been the source of most of the scandals or corruption that have plagued the PRC, so moving it would not address those problems."

Path to the ballot

According to Article XIX of the New Mexico Constitution, it takes a majority vote of all members of both houses of the New Mexico State Legislature to refer a proposed amendment to the ballot.

See also

Suggest a link

• New Mexico 2012 ballot measures
• 2012 ballot measures
• List of New Mexico ballot measures
• New Mexico Legislature
• List of ballot measures by state

External links

• New Mexico General Election 2012 Sample Ballot