Money from the library bond program shall be distributed in the following manner:

1. A. Notification: When the library bond program funds are approved by the voters, the state library shall send a letter of notification and acceptance agreement to all public libraries informing them of their eligibility to receive the funds and the amount of funds they are eligible to receive. The agreement must be signed and returned to the state library one-hundred twenty (120) days before the start of the authorized expenditure period. Libraries that do not return the signed agreement within the required time period shall not be eligible to receive funds. Upon receipt of the agreements, the state library shall calculate the final allocation and the libraries shall be notified of any changes within ninety (90) days before the authorized expenditure period.
2. B. Allocation: The amount allocated to eligible public libraries is dependant upon the amount of bond funds approved by the state legislature and approved by the voters in a bond election. The state library may publish and make publicly available a list showing the bond fund allocations for each eligible library.

3. C. Criteria for allocation of funds: The state librarian shall establish the amount of funds to be allocated to each eligible library system using the following criteria.

   (1) Library shall be a local public library.

   (2) Library shall have filed an approved annual report with the state library.

   (3) Library shall return a signed agreement accepting the funds and agreeing to abide by the terms and conditions of this rule.

   (4) Non-profit libraries shall have an agreement with a local funding authority to act as their fiscal agent for these funds.

   (5) The library’s and the local funding authority’s accounting records shall be sufficient to document expenditures of library bond program money. At the sole discretion of the state library, such records may be audited annually or as needed by the state library or its designated representative.

   (6) County population and the library’s legal service area shall be used to determine the amount of library bond program funds that shall be allocated to each eligible library.

4. D. Distribution of funds: Money from the library bond program funds shall be distributed in the following order:

   (1) library system allocation: each eligible local public library system, including rural library services facilities, shall receive a fixed allocation dependent upon the total library bond funds available;

   (2) per capita allocation: remaining library bond funds shall be distributed to each county on a per capita basis using the latest U. S. census bureau estimates, as follows: (a) each library shall receive funds based upon the legal service area population and proportional credit for the unassigned population in each county; and, (b) local public libraries that are the only local public library in their county shall receive the entire per capita allocation for the county.

5. E. Maintenance of effort:

   (1) Library’s book or materials budget shall not be reduced by the local funding authority as a result of eligibility for library bond program funds.

   (2) Upon demonstrated evidence that such a reduction has occurred, the library shall be ineligible to receive funds in the next library bond program.

[4.5.8.8 NMAC - N, 2/14/2008]