New Mexico Land Grant Permanent Fund Distribution to Early Childhood Education Amendment (2018)

New Mexico Land Grant Permanent Fund Distribution to Early Childhood Education Amendment
Election date November 6, 2018
Topic State and local government budgets, spending and finance and Education
Status Not on the ballot
Type Constitutional amendment	Origin State legislature
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The New Mexico Land Grant Permanent Fund Distribution to Early Childhood Education Amendment was not on the ballot in New Mexico as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on November 6, 2018.

The measure would have allocated one percent of the five-year average of year-end market values of the money in the Land Grant Permanent Fund (LGPF) to early childhood education services beginning in 2020. According to the Legislative Finance Committee, the amendment would have had the state spend an estimated $159 million from the fund on early childhood education in 2020.

The LGPF is also known as the Permanent School Fund. As of 2018, revenue in the LGPF came from leases and royalties on non-renewable natural resources, such as oil and gas, and returns on invested capital. As of 2018, the New Mexico Constitution provided that the annual distribution from the fund is five percent. This amendment would have increased the total annual distribution to six percent. The New Mexico State Legislature would have been authorized to suspend the one percent distributed to early childhood services by a three-fifths vote in each house.

The measure would have defined early childhood education as "nonsectarian and nondenominational services for children until they are eligible for kindergarten."

Text of measure

Constitutional changes

See also: Article XII, New Mexico Constitution

The measure would have amended Section 7 of Article XII of the New Mexico Constitution. The following underlined text would have been added and struck-through text would have been deleted:

Note: Hover over the text and scroll to see the full text.

Investment of Permanent School Fund

A. As used in this section, “fund” means the permanent school fund described in Article 12, Section 2 of this constitution and all other permanent funds derived from lands granted or confirmed to the state by the act of congress of June 20, 1910, entitled “An act to enable the people of New Mexico to form a constitution and state government and be admitted into the union on an equal footing with the original states.”

B. The fund shall be invested by the state investment officer in accordance with policy regulations promulgated by the state investment council.

C. In making investments, the state investment officer, under the supervision of the state investment council, shall invest and manage the fund in accordance with the Uniform Prudent Investor Act.

D. The legislature may establish criteria for investing the fund if the criteria are enacted by a three-fourths vote of the members elected to each house, but investment of the fund is subject to the following restrictions:

(1) not more than sixty-five percent of the book value of the fund shall be invested at any given time in corporate stocks;

(2) not more than ten percent of the voting stock of a corporation shall be held; and

(3) stocks eligible for purchase shall be restricted to those stocks of businesses listed upon a national stock exchange or included in a nationally recognized list of stocks;

E. All additions to the fund and all earnings, including interest, dividends and capital gains from investment of the fund shall be credited to the fund.

F. Except as provided in Subsection G of this section, the annual distributions from the fund shall be five percent of the average of the year-end market values of the fund for the immediately preceding five calendar years.

G. In addition to the annual distribution made pursuant to Subsection F of this section, unless suspended pursuant to Subsection H I of this section, an additional annual distribution shall be made pursuant to the following schedule; provided that no additional distribution shall be made pursuant to the provisions of this subsection in any fiscal year If the average of the year-end market values of the fund for the immediately preceding five calendar years is less than ten billion dollars ($10,000,000,000):

(1) in fiscal years 2005 through 2012, an amount equal to eight-tenths percent of the average of the year-end market values of the fund for the immediately preceding five calendar years; provided that any additional distribution from the permanent school fund pursuant to this paragraph shall be used to implement and maintain educational reforms as provided by law; and

(2) in fiscal years 2013 through 2016, an amount equal to one-half percent of the average of the year-end market values of the fund for the immediately preceding five calendar years; provided that any additional distribution from the permanent school fund pursuant to this paragraph shall be used to implement and maintain educational reforms as provided by law. Additional annual distributions shall be made as follows, unless suspended pursuant to this subsection or Subsection I of this section:

(1) in fiscal year 2020, one percent of the average of the year-end market values of the fund for the immediately preceding five calendar years; provided that the amount of the additional distribution from the permanent school fund shall be divided as follows:

(a) seven-tenths of the distribution for the implementation and maintenance of educational programs administered by the state, as provided by law; and

(b) three-tenths of the distribution for early childhood educational services administered by the state, as provided by law;

(2) in fiscal year 2021, one percent of the average of the year-end market values of the fund for the immediately preceding five calendar years; provided that the amount of the additional distribution from the permanent school fund shall be divided as follows:

(a) three-tenths of the distribution for the implementation and maintenance of educational programs administered by the state, as provided by law; and

(b) seven-tenths of the distribution for early childhood educational services administered by the state, as provided by law; and

(3) in fiscal year 2022 and each subsequent fiscal year, one percent of the average of the year-end market values of the fund for the immediately preceding five calendar years; provided that the amount of the additional distribution from the permanent school fund shall be used for early childhood educational services administered by the state, as provided by law.

H. As used in this section, "early childhood educational services" means nonsectarian and nondenominational services for children until they are eligible for kindergarten. Such services may be provided by a school district or an entity of an Indian nation, tribe or pueblo.

H. I. The legislature, by a three-fifths' vote of the members elected to each house, may suspend any additional distribution provided for in Subsection G of this section.

Support

Officials

The following elected officials sponsored the measure in the state legislature:

• Rep. Antonio Maestas (D-16)
• Rep. Javier Martínez (D-11)
• Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard (D-43)

Arguments

• Roman Catholic Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, said, "We cannot continue with the status quo wherein our children rank in the highest percentage of those living in poverty in the United States."
• Rep. Eliseo Alcon (D-6) stated, “We pay somebody in New York City wearing a three-piece suit … to play with this money, but we’re not willing to spend it on our children.”

Opposition

Arguments

• Rep. Dennis Roch (R-67) questioned whether the revenue from the amount should be invested entirely in early childhood education. He said, "These children are going to learn more, they are going to be better prepared, and then we’re going to put them in a system that we know from time and time again has been ineffective. I’m not voting against early child development. I am not voting against kids. I’m voting against a plan that won’t work."
• Rep. Dennis Roch (R-67) said the 1 percent annual withdraw would lead to diminished returns in the future. He stated, "That’s what this proposal seeks to do — steal from the future."

Path to the ballot

See also: Amending the New Mexico Constitution

In New Mexico, both chambers of the New Mexico State Legislature need to approve a constitutional amendment by a simple majority during one legislative session to refer the amendment to the ballot for voter consideration.

The constitutional amendment was proposed during the 2018 legislative session as House Joint Resolution 1 (HJR 1) by Rep. Antonio Maestas (D-16), Rep. Javier Martínez (D-11), and Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard (D-43). On February 6, 2018, the New Mexico House of Representatives voted 36 to 33 to approve the amendment. The amendment needed 36 votes to pass the state House. All but two Democrats voted for the amendment, while all Republicans, except one absent member, voted against the amendment. HJR 1 did not pass through the Senate Finance Committee before the 2018 legislative session ended on February 15, 2018.

Vote in the New Mexico House of Representatives February 6, 2018
Requirement: Simple majority of all members in each chamber
Number of yes votes required: 36  a
	Yes	No	Not voting
Total	36	33	1
Total percent	51.43%	47.14%	1.43%
Democrat	36	2	0
Republican	0	31	1

2017 legislative session

Legislators proposed a similar amendment, also titled HJR 1, in 2017. That amendment passed the House 37 to 32. The New Mexico Senate Rules Committee voted six to five to table the amendment, however.

See also

2018 measures

• 2018 ballot measures
• Budgets on the ballot
• Education on the ballot

New Mexico

• New Mexico ballot measures
• New Mexico ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls

External links

• House Joint Resolution 1