2023 New Mexico Statutes › Chapter 6 - Public Finances › Article 5A - Requirements for Receiving Funds from Certain Organizations › Section 6-5A-1 - Definitions; requirements for governmental entities that receive funds or property from certain organizations.

A. As used in this section:
(1) "agency" means any state agency, department or board, any public institution of higher education or public post-secondary educational institution and any county, municipality or public school district;
(2) "organization" means an organization that has been granted exemption from the federal income tax by the United States commissioner of internal revenue as an organization described in Section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended or renumbered, and whose principal and authorized purpose is to complement, contribute to and support or aid the function of or forward the purposes of a single agency through financial support or contribution of services, goods, data or information that help or aid the agency in carrying out its statutory purpose and goals, including, but not limited to, the provision of scholarships to students of educational institutions and the provision of grants to supplement ongoing research or to provide funds for research and programs being carried out by an agency;
(3) "post-secondary educational institution" means an educational institution designated in Article 12, Section 11 of the constitution of New Mexico and includes an academic, vocational, technical, business, professional or other school, college or university or other organization or person offering or purporting to offer courses, instruction, training or education through correspondence or in person to any individual within this state over the compulsory school attendance age, if that post-secondary educational institution is directly supported in whole or in part by state or local taxation; and
(4) "transferred" means given or otherwise transferred, with or without consideration.
B. Prior to an agency accepting property or funds that have been transferred to an agency by an organization, the agency and the organization shall enter into a written agreement that includes at least the following:
(1) a concise statement of the organization's purpose and of how that purpose is supportive of the agency's statutory responsibilities and authority;
(2) provisions explicitly describing the relationship of the agency to the organization in connection with such issues as authority, autonomy and information sharing and reporting;
(3) provisions defining the extent to which the organization may complement and support functions that are the statutory responsibility of the agency;
(4) requirements that the organization:
(a) if its gross annual income exceeds two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000), have a financial accounting system considered adequate under customarily and currently accepted accounting standards and that the financial affairs of the organization be audited annually in accordance with generally accepted governmental auditing standards by an independent professional auditor who would be required to furnish to the agency copies of the annual audit, which, exclusive of any lists of donors or donations, shall be a public record, and to make the associated working papers available to the agency for review upon its written request for a period of three years after the audit report date; or
(b) if its gross annual income is two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) or less, file a statement with the agency in the form of a balance sheet showing the assets of the organization, its liabilities, its income, classified by general source, and its expenditures, classified by object;
(5) a provision requiring that any funds or property transferred to the agency by the organization be considered subject to all state laws and regulations governing the disbursement and administration of public funds and public property, except to the extent of any specific conditions of the transfer that are acceptable to the agency and do not require actions that are punishable as crimes under state law;
(6) a provision stating that the agency has reviewed the bylaws of the organization and found them acceptable and a provision requiring that the organization furnish copies of the bylaws to the agency;
(7) a provision requiring specification of the consideration that the agency received from the organization for any agency services provided in support of the organization; and
(8) a provision requiring the application by the organization of the standard described in Section 6-8-10 NMSA 1978 as the standard for evaluating investments of the organization.
C. The written agreement required by Subsection B of this section is not required for each transfer but is a precondition of an agency's acceptance of any transfers. The agreement may be amended by mutual written agreement of the agency and the organization.
D. Nothing in this section subjects an organization to the provisions of the Open Meetings Act [Chapter 10, Article 15 NMSA 1978] or makes its records, other than the annual audit required under this section, public records within the purview of Section 14-2-1 NMSA 1978.
History:
Laws 1992, ch. 27, § 1; 2011, ch. 174, § 1.
ANNOTATIONS
Cross references.
— For Section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986,
see
26 U.S.C. § 501(c).
The 2011 amendment,
effective June 17, 2011, in Subsection B, increased the threshold amount of gross annual income that subjects an organization to the requirement that it have an adequate financial accounting system and that it be audited annually from one hundred thousand dollars to two hundred fifty thousand dollars; and changed the threshold amount of gross annual income that subjects an organization to the requirement that it file a balance sheet with the recipient agency from one hundred thousand dollars to two hundred fifty thousand dollars.
Section 6-5A-1(D) NMSA 1978 does not serve as a statutory exemption to the Inspection of Public Records Act.
— In consolidated appeals arising from two lawsuits brought by plaintiff against defendants, the university of New Mexico foundation, the university of New Mexico lobo club, and the board of regents of the university of New Mexico, under the Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA), §§ 14-2-1 through 14-2-12 NMSA 1978, seeking donor lists and records and communications related to a naming agreement between the university of New Mexico and a restaurant chain that obtained naming rights to a major sporting facility operated by the university, and where defendants argued that these records were exempt from disclosure under § 6-5A-1 NMSA 1978, and that the records were not public records under IPRA, the district court did not err in ruling that § 6-5A-1(D) did not function as an exemption to IPRA, because a plain reading of § 6-5A-1 establishes that the legislature expressly designated organizations' annual audits as public records, but also made clear that it was not doing the same for other records. Thus, while an organization's records might be public records subject to inspection, § 6-5A-1 does not specifically exempt any records from disclosure.
Libit v. UNM Lobo Club
, 2022-NMCA-043, cert. granted.