A. There shall be deposited in a permanent trust fund known as the "severance tax permanent fund" that part of state revenue derived from excise taxes that have been or shall be designated severance taxes imposed upon the severance of natural resources within this state, in excess of that amount that has been or shall be reserved by statute for the payment of principal and interest on outstanding bonds to which severance tax revenue has been or shall be pledged. Money in the severance tax permanent fund shall be invested as provided by law. Distributions from the fund shall be appropriated by the legislature as other general operating revenue is appropriated for the benefit of the people of the state.

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

C. The annual distributions from the fund shall be one hundred two percent of the amount distributed in the immediately preceding fiscal year until the annual distributions equal four and seven-tenths percent of the average of the year-end market values of the fund for the immediately preceding five calendar years. Thereafter, the amount of the annual distributions shall be four and seven-tenths percent of the average of the year-end market values of the fund for the immediately preceding five calendar years.

D. The frequency and the time of the distributions made pursuant to Subsection C of this section shall be as provided by law. (As added November 2, 1976; as amended November 2, 1982 and November 5, 1996.)

ANNOTATIONS

The 1996 amendment, which was proposed by S.J.R. No. 2 (Laws 1996) and adopted at the general election held November 5, 1996, by a vote of 307,442 for and 153,021 against, divided the section into subsections, rewrote Subsection A, and added Subsections B, C, and D.

The 1982 amendment, which was proposed by H.J.R. No. 12 (Laws 1981) and adopted at the general election held on November 2, 1982, by a vote of 125,727 for and 125,324 against, deleted the third sentence of the first paragraph, as set out in the original pamphlet.

The 1976 amendment, which was proposed by H.J.R. No. 5 (Laws 1975) and adopted at the general election held on November 2, 1976, with a vote of 155,365 for and 99,386 against, added a new Section 10 to Article VIII. The resolution did not state whether the provision would be a new Section 10, but the former compiler so designated it, and the present compiler has left it as such for the sake of consistency.

Compiler's notes. — See compiler's note to N.M. Const., art. VIII, § 8.

An amendment proposed by H.J.R. No. 7 (Laws 1994), which would have rewritten this section to provide that all earnings of the fund be deposited in it and providing for limited distributions from the fund was submitted to the people in the general election held on November 8, 1994. It was defeated by a vote of 173,924 for and 208,556 against.

Cross references. — For creation of severance tax permanent and income funds, see 7-27-3 NMSA 1978.

Constitutionality of 1990 workers' compensation legislation. — The 1990 workers' compensation legislation is constitutionally infirm under this section to the extent the legislature intends to supplant its judgment for that of the state investment council and the state investment officer in determining whether to invest the severance tax permanent fund in bonds issued by the employers mutual company and to direct that the severance tax permanent fund purchase those bonds. To that extent also, the legislation may constitute a prohibited loan guaranty arrangement under N.M. Const., art. IX, § 14. However, the legislature has not clearly and unequivocally mandated the purchase. Consequently, it may not be concluded that the legislation is patently unconstitutional on those grounds. 1990 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 90-25.

Fund not "permanent" as contemplated in investment of permanent school fund. — The severance tax permanent fund is not a permanent fund as contemplated by N.M. Const., art. XII, § 7, relating to investment of permanent school fund. The severance tax fund and the various land grant permanent funds are fundamentally different. 1977 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 77-10.