HOUSE BILL 412

47th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2005

INTRODUCED BY

Ben Lujan

FOR THE REVENUE STABILIZATION AND TAX POLICY COMMITTEE

AN ACT

RELATING TO MOTOR VEHICLES; REQUIRING PERSONS GAINFULLY EMPLOYED IN NEW MEXICO TO REGISTER VEHICLES THAT THEY OWN WITHIN A CERTAIN TIME PERIOD; PROVIDING A PENALTY.

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 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 days per calendar year 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 and shall register with this state each vehicle that person owns within thirty days of the first day of that employment.

          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] the vehicle to commute daily from [his] the owner's home in another state to and from [his] the owner's 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.

          F. A person who does not register a vehicle that the person owns in accordance with this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars ($300) or by imprisonment for not more than ninety days or both."

     Section 2. EFFECTIVE DATE.--The effective date of the provisions of this act is July 1, 2005.

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