SENATE BILL 175

57th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2025

INTRODUCED BY

Heather Berghmans

 

 

 

 

 

AN ACT

RELATING TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; AMENDING THE CHILD CARE FACILITY REVOLVING LOAN FUND; ALLOWING THE EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE DEPARTMENT AND THE NEW MEXICO FINANCE AUTHORITY TO CONTRACT FOR SERVICES WITH PROVIDERS OR EMPLOYERS SEEKING TO CREATE OR EXPAND CHILD CARE PROGRAMS FOR AN EMPLOYER'S EMPLOYEES; PROVIDING CONDITIONS; EXPANDING USES OF THE LOANS.

 

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

     SECTION 1. Section 24-24-4 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2003, Chapter 316, Section 4, as amended) is amended to read:

     "24-24-4. FUND CREATED--ADMINISTRATION.--

          A. The "child care facility revolving loan fund" is created in the New Mexico finance authority to provide low-interest, long-term loans to providers to make health and safety improvements in their facilities and for operating capital. The fund shall consist of appropriations, gifts, grants and donations to the fund, which shall be invested as provided in the New Mexico Finance Authority Act. Money in the fund shall not revert and is appropriated to the department, which shall utilize the fund for the purposes of the Child Care Facility Loan Act. Administrative costs of the authority may be paid from the fund.

          B. Money in the fund shall be used to make loans to providers that demonstrate the need to make health and safety improvements, including space expansion, in order to maintain an adequate and appropriate environment for their clients; to providers seeking to expand child care programs; to employers to create or expand high-quality child care programs for the employer's employees; and for the department and the New Mexico finance authority to contract for services with providers and employers seeking to create or expand child care programs for the employer's employees as reasonably adequate legal consideration from money from the fund. Loans from the fund are to be made at an interest rate greater than zero percent for a term that does not exceed the useful life of the project being financed.

          C. No more than twenty percent of the fund may be loaned for a single provider in a single project. The department shall give priority for loans to [facilities of] providers that serve proportionately high numbers of state-subsidized clients and low-income families that are located in communities with high poverty rates and that provide nontraditional-hour child care.

          D. The department and the New Mexico finance authority shall enter into a contract for services with a provider or an employer seeking to create or expand child care programs for the employer's employees; provided that within five years of disbursement of the loan, the provider or employer:

                (1) is located in a designated child care desert;

                (2) demonstrates that at least fifty percent

of the children that the provider or employer serves are recipients of a child care assistance program expanded or created by the provider or employer;

                (3) demonstrates that the number of children

served by the provider or employer increased by ten percent; and

                (4) satisfies other qualifications as determined by the department and the New Mexico finance authority.

          [D.] E. The department, in conjunction with the New Mexico finance authority, shall adopt rules to administer and implement the Child Care Facility Loan Act. The rules shall become effective when filed in accordance with the State Rules Act."

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