A. The New Mexico finance authority may issue and sell revenue bonds in compliance with the New Mexico Finance Authority Act [Chapter 6, Article 21 NMSA 1978] in installments or at one time in an amount not exceeding forty-six million five hundred thousand dollars ($46,500,000), and an additional three million nine hundred thousand dollars ($3,900,000) after January 1, 2003, for the purpose of financing the acquisition of real property for and the design, construction, furnishing and equipping of a new court building for the Bernalillo county metropolitan court in Albuquerque.

B. The New Mexico finance authority may issue and sell revenue bonds authorized by this section when the chief judge of the Bernalillo county metropolitan court and the court administrator of the Bernalillo county metropolitan court certify the need for issuance of the bonds. The net proceeds from the sale of the bonds are appropriated to the Bernalillo county metropolitan court for the purpose described in Subsection A of this section.

C. The money distributed from the court facilities fund to the New Mexico finance authority shall be pledged irrevocably for the payment of the principal, interest and other expenses or obligations related to the bonds.

D. Until all bonds authorized by this section and Laws 2000, Chapter 5, Section 2 are issued, any money remaining in the special bond fund or account, after all principal, interest and other expenses or obligations related to the bonds in that fiscal year are fully met, shall be transferred to the magistrate and metropolitan court capital fund. After all bonds authorized by this section and Laws 2000, Chapter 5, Section 2 are issued, up to one million five hundred thousand dollars ($1,500,000) of any money on deposit in the special bond fund or account in excess of the combined total of the principal, interest and other expenses or obligations related to the bonds coming due in that fiscal year shall be transferred annually to the magistrate and metropolitan court capital fund. After all bonds authorized by this section and Laws 2000, Chapter 5, Section 2 are issued, any amount in the special bond fund or account at the end of each fiscal year not transferred to the magistrate and metropolitan court capital fund shall be used during the succeeding fiscal year for early redemption, defeasance or retirement of bonds selected at the discretion of the New Mexico finance authority. Upon payment of all principal, interest and other expenses or obligations related to the bonds, the authority shall certify to the administrative office of the courts that all obligations for the bonds issued pursuant to this section have been fully discharged and direct the administrative office of the courts and the state treasurer to cease distributing money from the court facilities fund to the authority and to transfer the money from the court facilities fund to the magistrate and metropolitan court capital fund.

E. Any law imposing court facilities fees, authorizing the collection of court facilities fees or directing deposits into the court facilities fund or distribution of the money in the court facilities fund to the New Mexico finance authority shall not be amended, repealed or otherwise directly or indirectly modified so as to impair outstanding revenue bonds that may be secured by a pledge of the distributions from the court facilities fund to the New Mexico finance authority, unless the revenue bonds have been discharged in full or provisions have been made for a full discharge.

F. The New Mexico finance authority may additionally secure the revenue bonds issued pursuant to this section by a pledge of money in the public project revolving fund with a lien priority on the money in the public project revolving fund as determined by the authority.

History: Laws 1998 (1st S.S.), ch. 6, § 9; 2001, ch. 95, § 2; 2003, ch. 45, § 1.

The 2003 amendment, effective March 19, 2003, in Subsection A, deleted "If the fourteen dollar ($14.00) metropolitan court facilities fees and the ten-dollar ($10.00) magistrate court facilities fees provided in Sections 35-6-1 and 66-8-116.3 NMSA 1978 are imposed by law" at the beginning and inserted "and an additional three million nine hundred thousand dollars ($3,900,000) after January 1, 2003".

The 2001 amendment, effective June 15, 2001, updated internal references and deleted "and all distributions to the court facilities fund provided in this act become law" following "are imposed by law" in Subsection A; and rewrote Subsection D, which formerly provided that the remainder of funds in the special bond fund or account, after principal, interest and expenses were fully paid, would be transferred to the magistrate and metropolitan court capital fund.