State legislation prevents the city’s donation to Santa Fe’s Midtown Campus Equipment for Non -Profit – Los Alamos Daily Post

By Karina Julig
The new Mexican Santa Fe

Katie Olivan, Managing Director of the New Mexico Actors Lab, was encouraged when the city of Santa Fe began seeking requests from local non -profit organizations for music and film equipment that had been sitting unused for years in Campus buildings in Midtown.

The theater company asked for a microphone and subwoofer stand.

City authorities reached at one point to inform her that the group could take the equipment, she said – but then silent radio when she tried to arrange time for a pickup.

“I sent an email asking for more information and they said they would have to contact me,” Olivan said.

The officials had opened their plan for the distribution of property left in the former college city campus, confronted with a provision in the New Mexico Constitution, which for a long time worried local authorities and non -profit organizations: the direction of the direction.

More than centuries -old provision prohibits state and local organizations from making direct donations to any individual, business or organizations, with a few exceptions.

Some assets of assets left at Midtown, when the University of Art for Arts and Design, Santa Fe, closed in 2018, paused while the city department of arts and culture examines its capabilities for a legitimate equipment, such as long -term loans.

Meanwhile, two legislative acts introduced last week in the legislative session held in Santa Fe would allow voters to decide to amend the Constitution, which would completely cancel the anti -profit clause.

Proponents of the proposal, including its sponsor, respectively. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, say the legislation is necessary to introduce New Mexico in the 21st century.

“We need to remove this obstacle and replace it with something that works,” Romero said in an interview on Thursday.

Others, including State Auditor Joseph Mastas, claim that the direction of the direction is a “critical precaution” against fraud and that legislation would lead to some functions of government.

“The intention was to stop unverified railway lines, but I believe its purpose remains just as appropriate today,” Maestas said of the provision. “The last thing we want is to lose the border between public benefit and private profit.”

Long -standing legislation

The payment of old art school equipment is a long process, but the Arts and Culture Department has only recently realized that its plan to give the last of the assets of private non -profit organizations violates the law.

The Director of Arts and Culture, Chelsea Johnson, said her agency created a three-tier donation system to distribute the fair musical and film equipment-first in city agencies, then in local public schools and finally to a handful of rough groups. It was in accordance with a new urban omition policy that included non -profit organizations.

A New Mexican investigation into the process has caused a legal examination that found a heating when it came to contributing to private non -profit organizations.

Johnson described the discovery as a “crushing stroke”.

The direction of the direction is “all the time” in the local authorities of New Mexico, said city lawyer Erin McSher.

Her office regularly advises the heads of the department on the effect of the law on their work. She said that part of determining whether the donation was incorrect depending on whether this move was part of the agency’s main purpose.

For example, she said, “We do not donate streets – we provide public streets because it is part of our mission.”

In December, a presentation to State legislators, prepared by Jeremy Faris, CEO of the New Mexico Ethics Committee, said the anti -operating clause was part of the 1912 original constitution of the State, but was also present in projects dated to 1850 .

The clause prohibits governmental organizations from making gifts or using a loan to assist private entities and are introduced during the era, when many Western countries compete to pay off bonds for the creation of railways. Over time, New Mexico’s legislation added exceptions, including the Local Economic Development Act, which provides a gratuitous funds to the business; residential care; assistance for indigenous medical care; College Scholarships; and capital expenditures or financing for infrastructure.

McSeri noted the release of patients and Indigens allowed the city to provide direct help during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Whether the fight against Dona makes sense in 2025 is the subject of some debate. Faris’s presentation outlined a few risk of canceling:

• The Government “Choosing Winners” by providing subsidies to business without commensurate public benefit.
• More delicious pressure on ethics laws and disclosure: “Note that many of these laws do not exist locally and many chosen state and local employees have a business and non -profit purpose,” the presentation said.
• Weakening of government capacity by subsidizing non -profit organizations on a scale to perform government functions.

Relic or Guardrail?

Johnson has identified the anti -giving clause as the “ban of the existence of any non -profit purpose”.

Together with the theater group, the non -profit organizations in the community, who hoped to receive donations from the campus in Midtown, include the Playhouse Santa Fe, the vital spaces and the root center of Santa Fe.

Karen Buller, chairman of the Board of the Rodical Center, said she was disappointed that she would not receive donations, but was more district than the wider restrictions that the provision imposes on non -profit organizations.

The Center cannot receive money directly from the legislature, but instead must make requests through other organizations, such as the Indian Affairs Department.

“We don’t always get that money,” Buller said.

The root center supports two legislative acts that would repeal the direction of the direction, she added, noting that she believes that this move was particularly critical, since the future of federal aid programs remains uncertain about Trump’s administration.

“So much money and services are taken away from poor and needy people,” Buller said. “We hope this will be able to return it.”

The two legislative proposals will work in tandem.

A joint resolution 11-constitutional amendment calling for the clause-sponsored by Romero and repetitions. Kathleen Cates, D-Gie Rancho; Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos; and Patricia Roibal Cabalero, D-Albuquerque. House Bill 290 – Replacement of provision – is sponsored by Romero, Cates and Chandler.

Romero defined the anti -giving clause as a relic of the era of Baron in New Mexico.

“We are far from these days and we must be able to invest in various projects, programs, non -profit organizations and work that is done throughout the country,” she said.

She said the clause imposes a considerable burden on local authorities, requiring them to serve as fiscal agents for non -profit organizations and noted the administrative fees for fiscal agencies to eat in money that could be directly for projects serving people.

HB 290, Law on Life Communities, will create a new program in the Ministry of Finance and Administration, which can allocate legislative distributions to non -profit organizations working for public purpose, and will introduce what Romero called Guardrails to guarantee the “robbery barons The 21st Century ”do not take advantage of the cancellation of the clause.

Both legislative acts have been sent to the Chamber’s Government Committee, the elections and the Indians, where Romero said they expected to be heard soon.

At a time when federal funding is uncertain, Romero said that the state should take advantage of the opportunity to cancel the anti -operating clause instead of continuing to eliminate exceptions.

“The state is in a strategic place to make really important investments in our future, and while we do it, we really need to think how these systems work,” she said.

Romero suggested that the legislation has received wide support, adding that the leader of the Senate majority Peter Wirt, D-Santa Fe, will sign as a sponsor.

Wirta said through a spokesman, however, that he continues to monitor the legislation and has not yet made a decision.

Fiscal impact reports have not yet been submitted.

But Maestas said, as it is written, the measures will go beyond the capacity of his office, as any money that receives money will have to be audited.

The State Auditor Office will not be able to keep up with the volume it will create, he said.

“There is no way my office can accommodate this unequal workload, and if so, then it could seriously endanger the accountability of public funds,” he said.

Maestas said non -profit organizations already have the opportunity to access public money through government organizations, a process that prevents reporting risks.

“The direction of the direction is a very effective safety gallery that prevents fraud, waste and abuse of public funds,” he said.

Seeking a solution

Johnson said the direction of the direction was a source of frustration-for its department and for non-profit organizations.

“It seems to me that the result means you can throw things away easier than you can give them,” she said.

A handful of music and movie items are left on the Midtown campus, including half a dozen piano and six to eight pieces of stereo equipment. With the exception of a baby piano, Johnson said, none of it costs more than a few hundred dollars.

The department is trying to find a legal solution, such as giving goods to non -profit organizations through a long -term loan agreement, a public auction, or just leaving the assets with the company that buys the property in the campus where they are left. The buildings that are emptied of the city will become part of the Aspect Media Village, a massive development of a movie studio that includes housing.

Johnson said the public auction would probably be too expensive because the city will have to move the equipment and hire a merchant.

Everything left on the six property plots sold for the Film Studio project, including Benildus Hall and Garson Hall, will automatically belong to the aspect after the city sale is closed.

Johnson said she did not talk to Aspect developer Philip Gesue about what he plans to do with everything else, but said that the studio was able to donate the items to non -profit organizations instead of making the city.

“It will be up to him,” she said. “But for sure, if it is, we will give him a list of interested parties contact information.”