46th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2003
RELATING TO MOTOR VEHICLES; REDUCING REGISTRATION TIME FOR NONRESIDENT OWNERS.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:
Section 1. Section 66-3-301 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1978, Chapter 35, Section 77, as amended) is amended to read:
"66-3-301. REGISTRATION BY NONRESIDENTS.--
A. [Any] A nonresident owner of a vehicle of a type
otherwise subject to registration may use or permit the use of
the vehicle within the state for a period of [one hundred
eighty] sixty days without registering [his] the vehicle, but
any vehicle so used must display current registration plates
issued for the vehicle in the state where the owner resides.
B. Any person gainfully employed within the boundaries of this state for a period of thirty days or more within a sixty-day period shall be presumed to be a resident of this state.
C. Notwithstanding the fact of their employment, the following are not required to register their vehicles if they display current registration plates issued for the vehicle in the state where the owner resides:
(1) nonresident students engaged in a full-time course of study at an institution of higher learning
located within this state, and the vehicle displays a valid
nonresident student sticker issued by the institution [which]
that they attend; or
(2) a nonresident owner gainfully employed within the boundaries of this state who uses his vehicle to commute daily from his home in another state to and from his place of employment within this state. The provisions of this paragraph apply only if the state in which the owner resides extends like privileges to New Mexico residents gainfully employed within the boundaries of that state.
D. A nonresident owner of a foreign vehicle
operated within this state for the transportation of persons or
property for compensation or for the transportation of
merchandise either regularly according to a schedule or for a
consecutive period exceeding thirty days shall register the
vehicle and pay the same fees as required with reference to
like vehicles owned by residents of this state. This
subsection shall not be construed as limiting the effect of
validly entered reciprocal agreements between New Mexico and
other states [or of proportional registration provided for in
Section 66-3-4 NMSA 1978].
E. Every nonresident, including any foreign corporation carrying on business within this state and owning and regularly operating in that business any vehicle, trailer, semitrailer, house trailer or pole trailer within the state, shall register each vehicle and pay the same fees as required with reference to like vehicles owned by residents of this state."