School districts and charter schools may enter into lease purchase arrangements for the purpose of refunding or refinancing any lease purchase arrangements then outstanding, including the payment of any prepayment premiums thereon and any interest accrued or to accrue to the date of prepayment maturity of the outstanding lease purchase arrangements. Until the proceeds of the lease purchase arrangements issued for the purpose of refunding or refinancing outstanding lease purchase arrangements are applied to the prepayment or retirement of the outstanding lease purchase arrangements, the proceeds may be placed in escrow and invested and reinvested. The interest, income and profits, if any, earned or realized on any such investment may, in the discretion of the governing body, also be applied to the payment of the outstanding lease purchase arrangements to be refunded or refinanced by prepayment or retirement, as the case may be. After the terms of the escrow have been fully satisfied and carried out, any balance of such proceeds and interest, if any, earned or realized on the investments thereof may be returned to the governing body to be used for payment of the refunding or refinancing lease purchase arrangement. If the proceeds from a tax imposed pursuant to Sections 22-26A-8 through 22-26A-12 NMSA 1978 were used as a source of payments for the refunded lease purchase arrangement, the proceeds may continue to be used for the refunding or refinancing lease purchase arrangements without the requirement of an additional election on the issue.

History: Laws 2007, ch. 173, § 14; 2015, ch. 106, § 7.

The 2015 amendment, effective July 1, 2015, amended the Public School Lease Purchase Act to authorize charter schools to enter into lease purchase arrangements for the purpose of refunding or refinancing any outstanding lease purchase arrangements; after "School districts", added "and charter schools", after "in the discretion of the", deleted "school board" and added "governing body", after "investments thereof may be returned to the", deleted "local school board" and added "governing body", after "tax imposed pursuant to Section", deleted "8 through 12 of the Public School Lease Purchase Act" and added "22-26A-8 through 22-26A-12 NMSA 1978".