SB0000

SENATE BILL

56th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2024

INTRODUCED BY

Roberto "Bobby" J. Gonzales

AN ACT

RELATING TO CREDENTIALS; ALLOWING THE TAXATION AND REVENUE DEPARTMENT TO ISSUE ELECTRONIC CREDENTIALS FOR DRIVER'S LICENSES AND IDENTIFICATION CARDS AND TO CREATE A VERIFICATION SYSTEM.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

SECTION 1. Section 66-1-4.3 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1990, Chapter 120, Section 4, as amended) is amended to read:

"66-1-4.3. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Motor Vehicle Code:

A. "camping body" means a vehicle body primarily designed or converted for use as temporary living quarters for recreational, camping or travel activities excluding recreational vehicles unless used in commerce;

B. "camping trailer" means a camping body, mounted on a chassis, or frame with wheels, designed to be drawn by another vehicle and that has collapsible partial side walls that fold for towing and unfold at the campsite;

C. "cancellation" means that a driver's license is annulled and terminated because of some error or defect or because the licensee is no longer entitled to the license, but cancellation of a license is without prejudice, and application for a new license may be made at any time after cancellation;

D. "casual sale" means the sale of a motor vehicle by the registered owner of the vehicle if the owner has not sold more than four vehicles in that calendar year;

E. "chassis" means the complete motor vehicle, including standard factory equipment, exclusive of the body and cab;

F. "collector" means a person who is the owner of one or more vehicles of historic or special interest who collects, purchases, acquires, trades or disposes of these vehicles or parts thereof for the person's own use in order to preserve, restore and maintain a similar vehicle for hobby purposes;

G. "combination" means any connected assemblage of a motor vehicle and one or more semitrailers, trailers or semitrailers converted to trailers by means of a converter gear;

H. "combination gross vehicle weight" means the sum total of the gross vehicle weights of all units of a combination;

I. "commerce" means the transportation of persons, property or merchandise for hire, compensation, profit or in the furtherance of a commercial enterprise in this state or between New Mexico and a place outside New Mexico, including a place outside the United States;

J. "commercial motor vehicle" means a self-propelled or towed vehicle, other than special mobile equipment, used on public highways in commerce to transport passengers or property when the vehicle:

(1) is operated interstate and has a gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating, or gross vehicle weight or gross combination weight, of four thousand five hundred thirty-six kilograms, or ten thousand one pounds or more; or is operated only in intrastate commerce and has a gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating, or gross vehicle weight or gross combination weight, of twenty-six thousand one or more pounds;

(2) is designed or used to transport more than eight passengers, including the driver, and is used to transport passengers for compensation;

(3) is designed or used to transport sixteen or more passengers, including the driver, and is not used to transport passengers for compensation; or

(4) is used to transport hazardous materials of the type or quantity requiring placarding under rules prescribed by applicable federal or state law;

K. "controlled-access highway" means every highway, street or roadway in respect to which owners or occupants of abutting lands and other persons have no legal right of access to or from the highway, street or roadway except at those points only and in the manner as may be determined by the public authority having jurisdiction over the highway, street or roadway;

L. "controlled substance" means any substance defined in Section 30-31-2 NMSA 1978 as a controlled substance;

M. "converter gear" means any assemblage of one or more axles with a fifth wheel mounted thereon, designed for use in a combination to support the front end of a semitrailer but not permanently attached thereto. A converter gear shall not be considered a vehicle, as that term is defined in Section 66-1-4.19 NMSA 1978, but weight attributable thereto shall be included in declared gross weight;

N. "conviction":

(1) means:

(a) a finding of guilt in the trial court in regard to which the violator has waived or exhausted all rights to appeal;

(b) a plea of guilty or nolo contendere accepted by the court;

(d) the promise to mail a payment on a penalty assessment; and

(2) does not include a conditional discharge as provided in Section 31-20-13 NMSA 1978 or a deferred sentence when the terms of the deferred sentence are met;

O. "credential holder" means the individual to whom an electronic credential is issued;

[O.] P. "crosswalk" means:

(1) that part of a roadway at an intersection included within the connections of the lateral lines of the sidewalks on opposite sides of the highway measured from the curbs or, in the absence of curbs, from the edges of the traversable roadway; and

(2) any portion of a roadway at an intersection or elsewhere distinctly indicated for pedestrian crossing by lines or other markings on the surface; and

[P.] Q. "curb cut" means a short ramp through a curb or built up to the curb."

SECTION 2. Section 66-1-4.4 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1990, Chapter 120, Section 5, as amended) is amended to read:

"66-1-4.4. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Motor Vehicle Code:

A. "data field" means a discrete piece of information printed or otherwise appearing on a driver's license or identification card;

[A.] B. "day" means calendar day, unless otherwise provided in the Motor Vehicle Code;

[B.] C. "dealer", except as specifically excluded, means any person who sells or solicits or advertises the sale of new or used motor vehicles, manufactured homes or trailers subject to registration in this state; "dealer" does not include:

(1) receivers, trustees, administrators, executors, guardians or other persons appointed by or acting under judgment, decree or order of any court;

(2) public officers while performing their duties as such officers;

(3) persons making casual sales of their own vehicles;

(4) finance companies, banks and other lending institutions making sales of repossessed vehicles; or

(5) licensed brokers under the Manufactured Housing Act who, for a fee, commission or other valuable consideration, engage in brokerage activities related to the sale, exchange or lease purchase of pre-owned manufactured homes on a site installed for a consumer;

[C.] D. "declared gross weight" means the maximum gross vehicle weight or gross combination vehicle weight at which a vehicle or combination will be operated during the registration period, as declared by the registrant for registration and fee purposes; the vehicle or combination shall have only one declared gross weight for all operating considerations;

[D.] E. "department" means the taxation and revenue department, the secretary of taxation and revenue or any employee of the department exercising authority lawfully delegated to that employee by the secretary;

[E.] F. "designated accessible parking space for persons with significant mobility limitation" means any space, including an access aisle, that is marked and reserved for the parking of a passenger vehicle that carries registration plates or a parking placard with the international symbol of access issued in accordance with Section 66-3-16 NMSA 1978 and that is designated by a conspicuously posted sign bearing the international symbol of access and, if the parking space is paved, by a clearly visible depiction of this symbol painted in blue on the pavement of the space;

[F.] G. "director" means the secretary;

[G.] H. "disqualification" means a prohibition against driving a commercial motor vehicle;

[H.] I. "distinguishing number" means the number assigned by the department to a vehicle whose identifying number has been destroyed or obliterated or the number assigned by the department to a vehicle that has never had an identifying number;

[I.] J. "distributor" means a person who distributes or sells new or used motor vehicles to dealers and who is not a manufacturer;

[J.] K. "division", without further specification, "division of motor vehicles" or "motor vehicle division" means the department;

[K.] L. "driveaway-towaway operation" means an operation in which any motor vehicle, new or used, is the item being transported when one set or more of wheels of any such motor vehicle is on the roadway during the course of transportation, whether or not the motor vehicle furnishes the motive power;

[L.] M. "driver" means every person who drives or is in actual physical control of a motor vehicle, including a motorcycle, upon a highway, who is exercising control over or steering a vehicle being towed by a motor vehicle or who operates or is in actual physical control of an off-highway motor vehicle;

[M.] N. "driver-assisted platoon" means a series of motor vehicles platooning with a driver in each vehicle;

[N.] O. "driver's license" means any license, permit or driving authorization card issued by a state or other jurisdiction recognized under the laws of New Mexico pertaining to the authorizing of persons to operate motor vehicles and includes a REAL ID-compliant driver's license and a standard driver's license; and

[O.] P. "dynamic driving task" means all of the real-time operational and tactical functions required to operate a vehicle in on-road traffic, excluding the strategic functions such as trip scheduling and selection of destinations and waypoints."

SECTION 3. Section 66-1-4.5 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1990, Chapter 120, Section 6, as amended) is amended to read:

"66-1-4.5. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Motor Vehicle Code:

A. "electric-assisted bicycle" means a vehicle having two or three wheels, fully operable pedals and an electric motor. Electric-assisted bicycles are classified as follows:

(1) "class 1 electric-assisted bicycle" means an electric-assisted bicycle equipped with a motor not exceeding seven hundred fifty watts of power that provides assistance only when the rider is pedaling and that ceases to provide assistance when the bicycle reaches a speed of twenty miles per hour;

(2) "class 2 electric-assisted bicycle" means an electric-assisted bicycle equipped with a motor not exceeding seven hundred fifty watts of power that provides assistance regardless of whether the rider is pedaling but ceases to provide assistance when the bicycle reaches a speed of twenty miles per hour; and

(3) "class 3 electric-assisted bicycle" means an electric-assisted bicycle equipped with a motor not exceeding seven hundred fifty watts of power that provides assistance only when the rider is pedaling and that ceases to provide assistance when the bicycle reaches a speed of twenty-eight miles per hour;

B. "electric mobility device" means a two- or three-wheel vehicle with an electric motor for propulsion that does not meet the definition of an electric-assisted bicycle and is capable of exceeding a speed of twenty miles per hour on motor power alone;

C. "electric personal assistive mobility device" means a self-balancing device having two nontandem wheels designed to transport a single person by means of an electric propulsion system with an average power of one horsepower and with a maximum speed on a paved level surface of less than twenty miles per hour when powered solely by its propulsion system and while being ridden by an operator who weighs one hundred seventy pounds;

D. "electronic credential" means an electronic representation of a driver's license, identification card or data field that is capable of being electronically accessed and maintained by the department;

[D.] E. "essential parts" means all integral and body parts of a vehicle of a type required to be registered by the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Code, the removal, alteration or substitution of which would tend to conceal the identity of the vehicle or substantially alter its appearance, model, type or mode of operation;

[E.] F. "established place of business", for a dealer or auto recycler, means a place:

(1) devoted exclusively to the business for which the dealer or auto recycler is licensed and related business;

(2) identified by a prominently displayed sign giving the dealer's or auto recycler's trade name used by the business;

(3) of sufficient size or space to permit the display of one or more vehicles or to permit the parking or storing of vehicles to be dismantled or wrecked for recycling;

(4) on which there is located an enclosed building on a permanent foundation, which building meets the building requirements of the community and is large enough to accommodate the office or offices of the dealer or auto recycler and large enough to provide a safe place to keep the books and records of the dealer or auto recycler;

(5) where the principal portion of the business of the dealer or auto recycler is conducted and where the books and records of the business are kept and maintained; and

(6) where vehicle sales are of new vehicles only, such as a department store or a franchisee of a department store, as long as the department store or franchisee keeps the books and records of its vehicle business in a general office location at its place of business; as used in this paragraph, "department store" means a business that offers a variety of merchandise other than vehicles, and sales of the merchandise other than vehicles constitute at least eighty percent of the gross sales of the business; and

[F.] G. "explosives" means any chemical compound or mechanical mixture that is commonly used or intended for the purpose of producing an explosion and that contains any oxidizing and combustive units or other ingredients in such proportions, quantities or packing that an ignition by fire, friction, concussion, percussion or detonator of any part of the compound or mixture may cause such a sudden generation of highly heated gases that the resultant gaseous pressures are capable of producing destructive effects on contiguous objects or of destroying life or limb."

SECTION 4. Section 66-1-4.6 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1990, Chapter 120, Section 7, as amended) is amended to read:

"66-1-4.6. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Motor Vehicle Code:

A. "farm tractor" means every motor vehicle designed and used primarily as a farm implement for drawing plows, mowing machines and other implements of husbandry;

B. "financial responsibility" means the ability to respond in damages for liability resulting from traffic accidents arising out of the ownership, maintenance or use of a motor vehicle of a type subject to registration under the laws of New Mexico, in amounts not less than specified in the Mandatory Financial Responsibility Act or having in effect a motor vehicle insurance policy. "Financial responsibility" includes a motor vehicle insurance policy, a surety bond or evidence of a sufficient cash deposit with the state treasurer;

C. "first offender" means a person who for the first time under state or federal law or a municipal ordinance or a tribal law has been adjudicated guilty of the charge of driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or any other drug that renders the person incapable of safely driving a motor vehicle, regardless of whether the person's sentence was suspended or deferred;

D. "flammable liquid" means any liquid that has a flash point of seventy degrees Fahrenheit or less, as determined by a tagliabue or equivalent closed-cup test device;

E. "foreign jurisdiction" means any jurisdiction other than a state of the United States or the District of Columbia;

F. "foreign vehicle" means every vehicle of a type required to be registered under the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Code brought into this state from another state, territory or country; [and]

G. "freight trailer" means any trailer, semitrailer or pole trailer drawn by a truck tractor or road tractor, and any trailer, semitrailer or pole trailer drawn by a truck that has a gross vehicle weight of more than twenty-six thousand pounds, but "freight trailer" does not include manufactured homes, trailers of less than one-ton carrying capacity used to transport animals or fertilizer trailers of less than three thousand five hundred pounds empty weight; and

H. "full profile" means all of the information provided on a driver's license or identification card."

SECTION 5. Section 66-1-4.10 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1990, Chapter 120, Section 11, as amended) is amended to read:

"66-1-4.10. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Motor Vehicle Code:

A. "laned roadway" means a roadway that is divided into two or more clearly marked lanes for vehicular traffic;

B. "law enforcement agency designated by the division" means the law enforcement agency indicated on the dismantler's notification form as the appropriate agency for the receipt of the appropriate copy of that form;

C. "lawful status" means the legal right to be present in the United States, as that phrase is used in the federal REAL ID Act of 2005;

D. "license", without modification, means any license, permit or driving authorization card issued by a state or other jurisdiction recognized under the laws of New Mexico pertaining to the authorizing of persons to operate motor vehicles and includes a REAL ID-compliant driver's license and a standard driver's license;

E. "lien" or "encumbrance" means every chattel mortgage, conditional sales contract, lease, purchase lease, sales lease, contract, security interest under the Uniform Commercial Code or other instrument in writing having the effect of a mortgage or lien or encumbrance upon, or intended to hold, the title to any vehicle in the former owner, possessor or grantor; [and]

F. "limited profile" means a portion of the information provided on a driver's license or identification card; and

[F.] G. "local authorities" means every county, municipality and any local board or body having authority to enact laws relating to traffic under the constitution and laws of this state."

SECTION 6. Section 66-5-16 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1978, Chapter 35, Section 238, as amended) is amended to read:

"66-5-16. PHYSICAL LICENSE TO BE CARRIED AND EXHIBITED ON DEMAND.--Every licensee shall have the licensee's driver's license in its physical form in the licensee's immediate possession at all times when operating a motor vehicle and shall display the license in its physical form upon demand of a magistrate, a peace officer or a field deputy or inspector of the division. A person who violates the provisions of this section is guilty of a penalty assessment misdemeanor; however, a person charged with violating this section shall not be convicted if the person produces in court a driver's license in its physical form issued to the person and valid at the time of the person's citation."

SECTION 7. A new section of Chapter 66, Article 5 NMSA 1978 is enacted to read:

"[NEW MATERIAL] ELECTRONIC CREDENTIALS--DESIGN AND ISSUANCE--VALIDITY--VERIFICATION.--

A. The department may issue an electronic credential to an individual in addition to a physical driver's license card or a physical identification card if the department has issued to the individual a physical driver's license card or a physical identification card. An electronic credential shall:

(1) be issued via download from a state-approved application;

(2) be capable of producing a full profile and limited profile;

(3) be designed in a way to allow the credential holder to maintain physical possession of the device on which the electronic credential is accessed during verification; and

(4) satisfy the purpose for which the profile is being presented.

B. A digital copy, photograph or image of an electronic credential that is not downloaded through a state-approved application shall not be considered a valid electronic credential or data field.

C. The department may create and operate a verification system for electronic credentials.

D. The department may charge a fee for issuance of an electronic credential or for use of a verification system.

E. Access to the verification system or a data field of an electronic credential by a person presented with an electronic credential shall require the credential holder's consent. If this consent is granted, the department may release through the verification system:

(1) for a full profile, all data fields that appear on the physical credential that correspond with the electronic credential that is being verified; and

(2) for a limited profile, only the data fields represented in the limited profile for the physical credential that corresponds with the electronic credential that is being verified.

F. A third party may administer on behalf of the department any system developed to facilitate the issuance, verification or use of electronic credentials.

G. The department may enter into agreements with an agency of the state, another state or the United States to facilitate the issuance, use and verification of electronic credentials issued by the department or another state.

H. The department shall adopt rules it deems necessary or appropriate to implement the provisions of this section."

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