HOUSE BILL 138

51st legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2013

INTRODUCED BY

Miguel P. Garcia and Sander Rue

AN ACT

RELATING TO GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY; AMENDING AND ENHANCING SECTIONS OF THE SUNSHINE PORTAL TRANSPARENCY ACT TO INCLUDE INFORMATION FROM THE MIDDLE RIO GRANDE CONSERVANCY DISTRICT.

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

     SECTION 1. Section 10-16D-2 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2010, Chapter 34, Section 2, as amended) is amended to read:

     "10-16D-2. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Sunshine Portal Transparency Act:

          A. "contract" means an agreement with a state agency for:

                (1) the rendition of services, including professional services;

                (2) the furnishing of any material, supplies or equipment;

                (3) the construction, alteration or repair of any public building or public work;

                (4) the acquisition, sale or lease of any land or building;

                (5) a licensing arrangement;

                (6) a loan or loan guarantee; or

                (7) the purchase of financial securities or instruments;

          B. "department" means the department of information technology, or its successor agency;

          C. "exempt employee" means an employee of the state or a state agency who is in a policymaking or supervisory position and who serves at the discretion of the agency head or at the discretion of an appointee of the agency head;

          D. "expenditure" means:

                (1) for a state agency, a disbursement of state or federal funds by the state agency, whether or not the funds have been appropriated by the legislature; [or]

                (2) for a local education provider, a disbursement of federal, state or other funds by the local education provider; or

                (3) for the middle Rio Grande conservancy district, any disbursement of money, no matter what the source, by the district for any purpose;

          E. "federal funds" means money received by a state agency from the federal government or one of its branches, departments, agencies, offices, officers or instrumentalities;

          F. "local education provider" means:

                (1) a school district, including the local school board for that school district; or

                (2) a locally chartered or state-chartered charter school, including the governing body of that charter school;

          G. "revenue" means:

                (1) for a state agency, money received by the state agency and deposited into the general fund or another state fund. "Revenue" includes money from taxes, fines, fees, royalties, federal funds and other sources but does not include money deposited into a state suspense fund; [or]

                (2) for a local education provider, all money received by the local education provider, including federal and state grants, state distributions, property tax revenues and donations; or

                (3) for the middle Rio Grande conservancy district, all money received by the district, no matter what the source; and

          H. "state agency" means the New Mexico state government or any department, division, institution, board, bureau, commission or committee of state government and includes any office or officer [of any of the above] thereof."

     SECTION 2. Section 10-16D-3 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2010, Chapter 34, Section 3, as amended) is amended to read:

     "10-16D-3. SUNSHINE PORTAL--DEPARTMENT DUTIES.--

          A. The department, with the department of finance and administration, shall develop, operate and maintain a single internet web site that is free, user-friendly, searchable and accessible to the public, known as the "sunshine portal", to host the state's financial information for the purpose of governmental transparency and accountability to taxpayers.

          B. No later than October 1, 2010, the department shall create the architecture and the information exchange process for the collection and electronic publication of the state's financial information.

          C. No later than July 1, 2011, the sunshine portal shall be available for public access and include updated information as required by Subsection D of this section.

          D. The sunshine portal shall provide, at a minimum, access to the following information:

                (1) the state's cash balances by account or fund;

                (2) a monthly summary of the state's investment accounts;

                (3) annual operating budgets for each state agency with monthly expenditures by category;

                (4) contracts that a state agency enters into for the lease, sale or development of state land and state contracts that have a total contract price of more than twenty thousand dollars ($20,000), naming the recipient of the contract, the purpose of the contract and the amounts expended;

                (5) the revenue that the state received in the preceding month by source, such as type of tax, fee, fine, administrative fee or other collection category;

                (6) special appropriations received outside the general appropriation act by each state agency and the purpose of those appropriations;

                (7) approved budget adjustment requests by state agency and affected budget category;

                (8) quarterly consensus revenue estimates;

                (9) reversions and cash balances by state agency and fund;

                (10) appropriations for capital projects, identified by project location, type of project and funding source;

                (11) a directory of all employee positions, other than exempt employee positions, identified only by state agency, position title and salary;

                (12) a directory of all exempt employee positions, identified by state agency, position title, salary and the name of the individual that holds the position;

                (13) information relating to the middle Rio Grande conservancy district compiled and published by the district pursuant to Section 3 of this 2013 act;

                [(13)] (14) information relating to local education providers compiled and published by the public education department pursuant to Section 10-16D-6 NMSA 1978;

                [(14)] (15) a link to an open meeting tracker web site upon which each state agency shall post open meetings scheduled for the current month and the next month, including the time and place of the meeting, the subject of the meeting and an agenda;

                [(15)] (16) a link to the web site maintained by the regulation and licensing department for the purpose of accessing information relating to occupational licenses;

                [(16)] (17) a link to the state auditor's web site for the purpose of accessing financial audits;

                [(17)] (18) a link to New Mexico's statutes;

                [(18)] (19) a link to the New Mexico Administrative Code;

                [(19)] (20) a link to the secretary of state's web sites for lobbyist regulation;

                [(20)] (21) an annual summary within three months after the end of the fiscal year, or as soon thereafter as the information becomes available, of the state's fiscal health, including the state budget, revenues and expenditures for the previous fiscal year and projected revenues and operating budgets for the current fiscal year; and

                [(21)] (22) additional information, as required by rule of the department of finance and administration, that will assist the public in understanding state government operations and the use of taxpayer dollars.

          E. State agencies shall provide updated financial information as frequently as possible but at least monthly.

          F. The department shall update the web site as new information is received but at least monthly, include information from the previous month or year, where relevant, for comparison purposes and maintain the web site as the primary source of public information about the activity of the state government."

     SECTION 3. A new section of the Sunshine Portal Transparency Act is enacted to read:

     "[NEW MATERIAL] MIDDLE RIO GRANDE CONSERVANCY DISTRICT--REQUIRED INFORMATION--PUBLICATION ON THE SUNSHINE PORTAL.--

          A. Commencing no later than January 1, 2014, and on a continuing basis thereafter, the middle Rio Grande conservancy district shall cause the following information to be published on the sunshine portal, in a downloadable format, for free public access:

                (1) the annual operating budget, commencing with the budget for fiscal year 2014;

                (2) salary schedules and policies;

                (3) a directory of the district employees by name, title and salary;

                (4) monthly expenditures by category;

                (5) monthly revenue by source;

                (6) a list of all outstanding contracts with a total maximum expenditure of more than twenty thousand dollars ($20,000), showing the date of the contract, the purpose of the contract, the name and address of the contractor and the expenditures to date; and

                (7) an inventory of all real property owned by the district, including the location of the property, the size of the property, a description of the improvements on the property and a description of the use of the property.

          B. As soon as practicable after July 1, 2013, the middle Rio Grande conservancy district shall begin working with the department to create a monthly data extract from applicable computer database systems. As information is received pursuant to Subsection A of this section, the district, working with the department, shall publish the information on the sunshine portal.

          C. The middle Rio Grande conservancy district shall have a link to the sunshine portal on its web site."

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