46th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2003

RELATING TO ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES; PROHIBITING THE DIRECTOR OF THE ALCOHOL AND GAMING DIVISION OF THE REGULATION AND LICENSING DEPARTMENT FROM ISSUING LICENSES NEAR CERTAIN TRIBAL LAND; ENACTING A SECTION OF THE NMSA 1978.

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

Section 1. A new section of the Liquor Control Act is enacted to read:

"[NEW MATERIAL] LOCATION NEAR CERTAIN TRIBAL LAND-- RESTRICTIONS ON LICENSING.--

A. The director shall not issue, renew or transfer to a new owner or lessee a license for the sale of alcoholic beverages at a location that is within twenty miles of tribal land of a tribe that has not adopted an ordinance permitting the sale of alcoholic beverages within its exterior boundaries.

B. A license may be granted for a proposed licensed premises if the owner or lessee has obtained a waiver from each tribal government within twenty miles of the proposed location of the licensed premises to allow the sale of alcoholic beverages within twenty miles of its tribal land.

C. For purposes of this section, all measurements taken in order to determine the location of licensed premises in relation to tribal land shall be the straight-line distance to the point of the tribal land closest to the proposed location of the licensed premises from the property line of the proposed licensed premises.

D. For purposes of this section:

(1) "tribal land" means:

(a) all land within a tribal reservation or pueblo grant; and

(b) all land, title to which is either held in trust by the United States for the benefit of a tribe or a member of a tribe, or held by a tribe or a member of a tribe subject to restriction by the United States against alienation and over which the tribe exercises governmental authority; and

(2) "tribe" means an Indian nation, tribe or pueblo located wholly or partially in New Mexico."