AI-assisted research summary: This section creates the early childhood education and care fund and sets rules for investing, reporting on, and distributing money from it.
9-29A-1. Early childhood education and care fund. A. The "early childhood education and care fund" is created within the state treasury. The fund shall consist of distributions, appropriations, gifts, grants and donations. Income from investment of the fund shall be credited to the fund. Money in the fund shall be expended only as provided in this section. B. The state investment officer, subject to the approval of the state investment council, shall invest money in the early childhood education and care fund: (1) in accordance with the prudent investor rule set forth in the Uniform Prudent Investor Act [45-7-601 to 45-7-612 NMSA 1978]; and (2) in consultation with the state treasurer. C. The state investment officer shall report quarterly to the legislative finance committee and the state investment council on the investments made pursuant to this section. Annually, a report shall be submitted no later than October 1 each year to the legislative finance committee, the revenue stabilization and tax policy committee and any other appropriate interim committees. D. On July 1 of each year, a distribution shall be made from the early childhood education and care fund to the early childhood education and care program fund in an amount equal to the greater of five percent of the average of the year-end market values of the fund for the immediately preceding three calendar years or five hundred million dollars ($500,000,000). E. In fiscal years 2026 through 2031, the legislature may appropriate up to a total of seven hundred million dollars ($700,000,000) from the early childhood education and care fund to the early childhood education and care program fund, which shall be in addition to any other appropriations or distributions made pursuant to this section; provided that an appropriation made pursuant to this subsection shall not exceed an amount that would decrease the total balance in the early childhood education and care fund to below ten billion dollars ($10,000,000,000). F. In addition to the distribution pursuant to Subsection D of this section, money in the early childhood education and care fund may be expended in the event that general fund balances, including all authorized revenues and transfers to the general fund and balances in the general fund operating reserve, the appropriation contingency fund, the tobacco settlement permanent fund, the state-support reserve fund and the tax stabilization reserve, will not meet the level of appropriations authorized from the general fund for a fiscal year. In that event, to avoid an unconstitutional deficit, the legislature may appropriate from the early childhood education and care fund to the general fund only in the amount necessary to meet general fund appropriations for that fiscal year and only if the legislature has authorized transfers from the appropriation contingency fund, the general fund operating reserve, the tax stabilization reserve and the tobacco settlement permanent fund that exhaust those fund balances. History: Laws 2020, ch. 3, § 1; 2023, ch. 146, § 1; 2024, ch. 4, § 1; 2025, ch. 26, § 2; 2026, ch. 63, § 1.