SB 26 EXISTING LIVESTOCK COMPENSATION

Sen Crystal Diamond Brantley

Actions: [1] SCC/SCONC/SFC-SCC-germane-SCONC [3] DP-SFC

Scheduled: Not Scheduled

 Senate Bill 26 makes an appropriation to the Board of Regents of New Mexico State University for the New Mexico Department of Agriculture to fund the existing livestock Mexican wolf compensation program.
 

 Senate Bill 26 (SB 26) appropriates $9,000,000 from the General Fund to the Board of Regents of New Mexico State University (NMSU) for expenditure in Fiscal Years 2025 through 2027 for the New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA) to implement its existing livestock Mexican wolf compensation program contract with the county livestock loss authority established by Catron county, Sierra county and Socorro county.

SB 26 in Section 1, Subsection A provides the following directions: 
(1) the board of regents shall first use any federal funds that are available to implement the contract prior to expending money from this appropriation; 
(2) a compensation payment pursuant to the contract shall be based on a determination by specified federal or state investigators. 
(3) compensation for a livestock loss pursuant to the contract shall be based on the fair market value of the livestock as determined quarterly by NMSU; 
(4) the quarterly determination of fair market value shall be published on the NMDA website prior to distribution of a compensation payment during the quarter that fair market value is in effect; and 
(5) the county livestock loss authority or the NMDA maintains a publicly accessible case file for each compensation payment made pursuant to the contract that includes the information specified. 

Subsection B directs any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of Fiscal Year 2027 shall revert to the General Fund. 
 

 Senate Bill 26 duplicates House Bill 164.