A. The director of the department of game and fish [department of wildlife] may provide special envelopes and application blanks when a special drawing is to be held to determine the persons to receive licenses. Money required to be submitted with these applications, if enclosed in the special envelopes, need not be deposited with the state treasurer but may be held by the director until the successful applicants are determined. At that time, the fees of the successful applicants shall be deposited with the state treasurer and the fees submitted by the unsuccessful applicants shall be returned to them.

B. Beginning with the licenses issued from a special drawing for a hunt code that commences on or after April 1, 2012:

1. (1) licenses shall be issued as follows:

   1. (a) ten percent of the licenses to be drawn by nonresidents and residents who will be contracted with a New Mexico outfitter prior to application; and
   2. (b) six percent of the licenses to be drawn by nonresidents who are not required to be contracted with an outfitter; and

2. (2) a minimum of eighty-four percent of the licenses shall be issued to residents of New Mexico.

   C. If the number of applicants who apply for licenses pursuant to the provisions of Paragraphs (1) and (2) of Subsection B of this section does not constitute the allocated licenses for either category, then the additional licenses available may be granted to another category of applicants. The director shall offer first choice of undersubscribed hunts to residents, whenever practicable.

   D. If the determination of the percentages in Subsection B of this section yields a fraction of:

3. (1) five-tenths or greater, the number of licenses to be issued shall be rounded up to the next whole number; and

4. (2) less than five-tenths, the number of licenses shall be rounded down to the next whole number.

   E. The fee for a nonresident license for a special drawing in a high-demand hunt covered in Subsection B of this section shall be assessed at the same rate as a license for nonresident quality elk or quality deer. As used in this subsection, "high-demand hunt" means:

5. (1) a hunt where the total number of nonresident applicants for a hunt code in each unit exceeds twenty-two percent of the total applicants and where the total applicants for a hunt exceeds the number of licenses available based on application data indicating that this criteria occurred in each of the two immediately preceding years; or

6. (2) an additional hunt code designated by the department of game and fish [department of wildlife] as a quality hunt.

   F. All antlerless elk hunts pursuant to this section shall be exclusively for New Mexico residents.

   G. Hunts on all state wildlife management areas shall be allocated exclusively to New Mexico residents.

   H. As used in this section, "New Mexico outfitter" means a person who has a business:

7. (1) with a valid New Mexico state, county or municipal business registration and a valid outfitter license issued by the department of game and fish [department of wildlife];
8. (2) that is authorized to do and is doing outfitting business under the laws of this state;
9. (3) that has paid property taxes or rent on real property in New Mexico, paid gross receipts taxes and paid at least one other tax administered by the taxation and revenue department in each of the three years immediately preceding the submission of an affidavit to the department of game and fish [department of wildlife];
10. (4) the majority of which is owned by the person who has resided in New Mexico during the three-year period immediately preceding the submission of an affidavit to the department of game and fish [department of wildlife];
11. (5) that employs at least eighty percent of the total personnel of the business who are New Mexico residents; and
12. (6) that has either leased property for ten years or purchased property greater than fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) in value in New Mexico;
13. (7) that, if it has changed its name from that of a previously certified business, the business is identical in every way to the previously certified business that meets all criteria;
14. (8) that possesses all required federal or state land use permits for the hunt; and
15. (9) that operates as a hunting guide service during which at least two days are accompanied with the client in the area where the license is valid.

History: 1953 Comp., § 53-3-7, enacted by Laws 1964 (1st S.S.), ch. 17, § 7; 1996, ch. 89, § 1; 1997, ch. 119, § 3; 2011, ch. 186, § 5.

ANNOTATIONS

Bracketed material. — The bracketed material was inserted by the compiler and is not part of the law. Laws 2025, ch. 9, § 11 provided that references in law to the department of game and fish shall be deemed to be references to the department of wildlife.

Repeals and reenactments. — Laws 1964 (1st S.S.), ch. 17, § 7, repealed former 53-3-7, 1953 Comp., relating to nonresident temporary fishing licenses, and enacted a new 17-3-16 NMSA 1978. The attorney general had ruled that Laws 1949, ch. 13, amending 17-3-13 NMSA 1978, had repealed by implication former 53-3-7, 1953 Comp. See 1949 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 49-5200.

Laws 1997, ch. 119, § 4 repealed 17-3-16 NMSA 1978, as enacted by Laws 1996, ch. 89, § 2, effective April 9, 1997. Laws 1996, ch. 89, § 2 provided for the repeal and reenactment of this section, and was to become effective on June 30, 1999.

Compiler's notes. — Laws 1997, ch. 119, § 6 provided that in the event the act is not enacted with the emergency clause, its provisions shall be made retroactive in operation to April 1, 1997. Although the act was enacted with the emergency clause, it was not signed by the governor until April 9, 1997.

The 2011 amendment, effective April 1, 2012, increased the percentage of licenses issued to residents from seventy-eight percent to eighty-four percent; lowered the number of licenses issued to nonresidents who use a New Mexico outfitter from twelve percent to ten percent and to nonresidents who do not use an outfitter from ten percent to six percent; required the director to offer unsubscribed licenses to residents; added Subsection F to restrict antlerless elk hunts to residents; added Subsection G to restrict hunts on state wildlife management areas to residents; and added Subsection H to define "New Mexico outfitter".

The 1997 amendment, effective April 9, 1997, rewrote Paragraph B(1); deleted former Paragraph B(2) providing for 3% of licenses issued to applications listing residents and nonresidents; redesignated Paragraph B(3) as B(2) and substituted "seventy-eight" for "eighty"; rewrote Subsection C; substituted "the percentages in" for "seventeen percent or three percent in Paragraphs (1) and (2)" in Subsection D; and substituted the phrase beginning with "and where" for "based on data for the two immediately preceding years; or" following "applicants" in Paragraph E(1); and inserted "of game and fish" following "department" in Paragraph E(2).

The 1996 amendment, effective July 1, 1996, designated the existing language as Subsection A; and added Subsections B through E.

Administrative regulations inconsistent with this section. – As applied to the issuance of licenses for bull elk hunting in the Valles Caldera Preserve, the regulations found in 19.31.8.24 NMAC are inconsistent with this section, which specifies how licenses issued through a special drawing must be allocated among state residents and non-residents. 2003 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 03-06.

Valles Caldera Preserve Act does not supersede this section. – The legislature did not intend that this section's requirements could be avoided by simply having the federal Valles Caldera Preserve Trust conduct a special drawing, given Congress' express intent that the Valles Caldera Preserve Act not supercede New Mexico's laws pertaining to the issuance of hunting licenses; thus, the trust cannot use its authority to regulate access to the preserve in a manner that interferes with the application of this section. 2003 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 03-06.

Application of "hunt code" to rule regulating the hunt of bighorn sheep. — Where the current population levels of rocky mountain and desert bighorn sheep made it impossible for the New Mexico state game commission [state wildlife commission] (commission) and the department of game and fish [department of wildlife] to assign a single hunt code to each hunt area during each hunt window for the bighorn sheep hunting season without running afoul of the statutory allocation requirements for resident and nonresident hunters dictated by NMSA 1978, § 17-3-16(B), the commission’s application of the term "hunt code" that combines the rocky mountain bighorn sheep by sex and weapon type in several hunt areas and over several hunt windows under one hunt code, and, similarly, that groups the hunting season for desert bighorn rams in several hunt areas and over several hunt windows under one hunt code does not violate this section. The commission’s application of the term "hunt code" to its rules regulating the bighorn sheep hunting season is lawful, in that it incorporates the elements [species, weapon type, time frame, specific hunt] that make up the definition of "hunt code," while also giving effect to the requirements of § 17-3-16(B). New Mexico State Game Comm’n’s Application of the term "Hunt Code" (4/5/22), Att’y Gen. Adv. Ltr. 2022-01.