SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

SENATE BILL 535

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AN ACT

RELATING TO THE PUBLIC PEACE, HEALTH, SAFETY AND WELFARE; INCREASING FEES TO FUND THE WORKERS' COMPENSATION ADMINISTRATION; INCREASING THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS RELAY SERVICE SURCHARGE AND TRANSFERRING THE MONEY FROM THE INCREASE TO A NEW 988 LIFELINE FUND; ALLOWING THE STATE BUDGET DIVISION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION TO APPROVE THE EXPENDITURE OF UP TO ONE HUNDRED PERCENT OF THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACCESS FUND FOR EXPENSES INCURRED BY THE COMMISSION FOR DEAF AND HARD-OF-HEARING PERSONS IN ADMINISTERING THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACCESS ACT; MAKING AN APPROPRIATION.

 

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

     SECTION 1. Section 52-5-19 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1987, Chapter 235, Section 52, as amended) is amended to read:

     "52-5-19. FEE FOR FUNDING ADMINISTRATION--WORKERS' COMPENSATION ADMINISTRATION FUND CREATED.--

          A. Beginning with the calendar quarter ending September 30, 2004 and for each calendar quarter thereafter, there is assessed against each employer who is required or elects to be covered by the Workers' Compensation Act a fee equal to [two dollars thirty cents ($2.30)] the following amounts, multiplied by the number of employees covered by the Workers' Compensation Act that the employer has on the last working day of each quarter:

                (1) prior to July 1, 2025, two dollars thirty cents ($2.30);

                (2) beginning July 1, 2025 and prior to July 1, 2028, two dollars fifty-five cents ($2.55);

                (3) beginning July 1, 2028 and prior to July 1, 2033, two dollars sixty-eight cents ($2.68); and

                (4) beginning July 1, 2033, two dollars eighty cents ($2.80).

          B. At the same time the fee pursuant to Subsection A of this section is assessed, there is assessed against each employee covered by the Workers' Compensation Act on the last working day of each quarter a fee [of two dollars ($2.00)] in the following amounts, which shall be deducted from the wages of the employee by the employer and remitted along with the fee assessed on the employer:

                (1) prior to July 1, 2025, two dollars ($2.00);

                (2) beginning July 1, 2025 and prior to July 1, 2028, two dollars twenty-five cents ($2.25);

                (3) beginning July 1, 2028 and prior to July 1, 2033, two dollars thirty-eight cents ($2.38); and

                (4) beginning July 1, 2033, two dollars fifty cents ($2.50).

          C. The fees shall be remitted by the last day of the month following the end of the quarter for which they are due.

          [B.] D. The taxation and revenue department may deduct from the gross fees collected an amount not to exceed five percent of the gross fees collected to reimburse the department for costs of administration.

          [C.] E. The taxation and revenue department shall pay over the net fees collected to the state treasurer to be deposited by [him] the treasurer in a fund hereby created and to be known as the "workers' compensation administration fund". Expenditures shall be made from this fund on vouchers signed by the director for the necessary expenses of the workers' compensation administration; provided that an amount equal to thirty cents ($.30) per employee of the fee assessed against an employer shall be distributed from the workers' compensation administration fund to the uninsured employers' fund.

          [D.] F. The workers' compensation fee authorized in this section shall be administered and enforced by the taxation and revenue department under the provisions of the Tax Administration Act."

     SECTION 2. Section 63-9F-11 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1993, Chapter 54, Section 11, as amended) is amended to read:

     "63-9F-11. IMPOSITION OF SURCHARGE.--

          A. A telecommunications relay service surcharge of [thirty-three] one and sixty-six hundredths percent is imposed on the gross amount paid:

                (1) by customers, except customers whose telephone service rates are reduced as authorized by the Low Income Telephone Service Assistance Act, for intrastate telecommunications services provided in this state;

                (2) by customers for the intrastate portion of interconnected voice over internet protocol service;

                (3) by customers for intrastate mobile telecommunications services that originate and terminate in the same state, regardless of where the mobile telecommunications services originate, terminate or pass through, provided by home service providers to customers whose place of primary use is in New Mexico; and

                (4) by a prepaid consumer in a retail transaction.

          B. The telecommunications relay service surcharge shall be included on the monthly bill of each customer of a local exchange company or other telecommunications company providing intrastate telecommunications services, interconnected voice over internet protocol services or intrastate mobile telecommunications services and paid at the time of payment of the monthly bill. Receipts from selling those services to any other telecommunications company or provider for resale are not subject to the surcharge. The customer is liable for the payment of the surcharge to the provider of intrastate mobile telecommunications services, the provider of interconnected voice over internet protocol services or the local exchange company or other telecommunications company providing intrastate telecommunications services to the customer.

          C. For the purposes of the surcharge imposed on a retail transaction pursuant to Paragraph (4) of Subsection A of this section:

                (1) the surcharge shall be collected by the seller from the prepaid consumer with respect to each retail transaction occurring in this state. The amount of the surcharge shall be either separately stated on an invoice, receipt or other similar document that is provided to the prepaid consumer by the seller or otherwise disclosed to the prepaid consumer;

                (2) for the purposes of Paragraph (1) of this subsection, a retail transaction that is effected in person by a prepaid consumer at a business location of the seller shall be treated as occurring in this state if that business location is in this state, and any other retail transaction is treated as occurring in this state if the retail transaction is treated as occurring in this state for purposes of the Gross Receipts and Compensating Tax Act;

                (3) the surcharge is the liability of the prepaid consumer and not of the seller or any provider, except that the seller shall be liable to remit all surcharges collected from the prepaid consumer as provided in this subsection, including all such surcharges that the seller is deemed to collect where the amount of the surcharge has not been separately stated on an invoice, receipt or other similar document provided to the prepaid consumer by the seller;

                (4) the amount of the surcharge that is collected by a seller from a prepaid consumer, if such amount is separately stated on an invoice, receipt or other similar document provided to the prepaid consumer by the seller, shall not be included in the base for measuring any tax, fee, surcharge or other charge that is imposed by this state, any political subdivision of this state or any intergovernmental agency;

                (5) when prepaid wireless communications service is sold with one or more other products or services for a single, non-itemized price, the percentage specified in Subsection A of this section shall apply to the entire non-itemized price unless the seller elects to apply such percentage to:

                     (a) if the amount of the prepaid wireless communications service is disclosed to the prepaid consumer as a dollar amount, such dollar amount; or

                     (b) if the seller can identify the portion of the price that is attributable to the prepaid wireless communications service by reasonable and verifiable standards from its books and records that are kept in the regular course of business for other purposes, including non-tax purposes, such portion;

                (6) if a minimal amount of prepaid wireless communications service is sold with a prepaid wireless device for a single, non-itemized price, the seller may elect not to apply the percentage specified in Subsection A of this section to such transaction. For the purposes of this paragraph, an amount of service denominated as ten minutes or less, or five dollars ($5.00) or less, is minimal;

                (7) surcharges collected by sellers shall be remitted to the taxation and revenue department at the times and in the manner provided with respect to the Gross Receipts and Compensating Tax Act. The department shall establish registration and payment procedures that substantially coincide with the registration and payment procedures that apply to the Gross Receipts and Compensating Tax Act. A seller shall be permitted to deduct and retain three percent of surcharges that are collected by the seller from the prepaid consumer;

                (8) the audit and appeal procedures applicable to the Gross Receipts and Compensating Tax Act shall apply to the surcharge;

                (9) the taxation and revenue department shall establish procedures by which a seller of prepaid wireless communications services may document that a sale is not a retail transaction, which procedures shall substantially coincide with the procedures for documenting sale for resale transactions for the Gross Receipts and Compensating Tax Act; and

                (10) notwithstanding Paragraph (1) of this subsection, if a 911 surcharge is imposed on prepaid wireless communications service pursuant to the Enhanced 911 Act, the taxation and revenue department shall promulgate rules to permit sellers to combine the surcharge imposed pursuant to this section and the surcharge imposed pursuant to the Enhanced 911 Act into a single surcharge on the invoice, receipt or other similar document that is provided to the prepaid consumer. The department shall ensure that appropriate surcharge revenues are directed proportionately to the respective 911 and telecommunications relay service funds.

          D. A telecommunications company providing intrastate telecommunications services, a home service provider providing intrastate mobile telecommunications services and a seller of interconnected voice over internet protocol services shall, on sales subject to the telecommunications relay service surcharge, assess and collect the surcharge and remit the surcharge collected monthly to the taxation and revenue department on or before the twenty-fifth day of the month following collection. The department shall administer and enforce the collection of the surcharge in accordance with the Tax Administration Act.

          E. The taxation and revenue department shall transfer [to the telecommunications access fund the amount] the following amounts of the net receipts of the telecommunications relay service surcharge collected, less any amount deducted in accordance with Subsection F of this section, [Transfer of the net receipts from the surcharge to the telecommunications access fund shall be made] within the month following the month in which the surcharge is collected:

                (1) twenty percent to the telecommunications access fund; and

                (2) eighty percent to the 988 lifeline fund.

          F. The taxation and revenue department may deduct an amount not to exceed three percent of the telecommunications relay service surcharge collected as a charge for the administrative costs of collection and shall remit that amount to the state treasurer for deposit in the general fund each month.

          G. The commission and the health care authority shall report to the revenue stabilization and tax policy committee annually by September 30 the following information with respect to the prior fiscal year:

                (1) the amount and source of revenue received by the telecommunications access fund and the 988 lifeline fund;

                (2) the amount and category of expenditures from the [fund] funds; and

                (3) the balance of the [fund] funds on that June 30."

     SECTION 3. Section 63-9F-12 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1993, Chapter 54, Section 12, as amended) is amended to read:

     "63-9F-12. TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACCESS FUND--ESTABLISHED.--There is created in the state treasury the "telecommunications access fund". Money appropriated to the fund or accruing to it through gifts, grants, fees, surcharges, penalties or bequests shall be delivered to the state treasurer for deposit in the fund. The fund shall be invested as other state funds are invested. Disbursements from the fund shall be made upon warrants drawn by the secretary of finance and administration pursuant to vouchers signed by the executive director of the commission. The commission shall administer the fund. Money in the fund is appropriated to the commission for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of the Telecommunications Access Act. The commission may request the state budget division of the department of finance and administration to approve the expenditure of funds deposited in the telecommunications access fund for the purpose of defraying salary and other necessary expenses incurred by the commission in the administration of the provisions of the Telecommunications Access Act. The state budget division may approve the expenditure of [not more than ten] up to one hundred percent of the amount deposited in the telecommunications access fund during any fiscal year for expenses incurred by the commission in administering that act. In addition, money in the fund is subject to appropriation by the legislature to the commission for the performance of its duties pursuant to Chapter 28, Article 11B NMSA 1978 and to the signed language interpreting practices fund for the purpose of defraying salary and other necessary expenses incurred by the signed language interpreting practices board. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining in the fund at the end of any fiscal year shall not revert."

     SECTION 4. [NEW MATERIAL] 988 LIFELINE FUND.--The "988 lifeline fund" is created as a nonreverting fund in the state treasury. The fund consists of distributions, appropriations, gifts, grants, donations and income from investment of the fund. The health care authority shall administer the fund, and money in the fund is appropriated to the authority to administer a confidential telecommunication service for emotional, mental or alcohol and drug use support made available to the public by the authority. Expenditures from the fund shall be by warrant of the secretary of finance and administration pursuant to vouchers signed by the secretary of health care authority or the secretary's authorized representative.

     SECTION 5. EFFECTIVE DATE.--The effective date of the provisions of this act is July 1, 2025.

- 12 -