The authority may exercise the following duties, privileges, immunities, rights, liabilities and disabilities appertaining to a public body politic and corporate and constituting a quasi-municipal corporation and political subdivision of the state established as an instrumentality exercising public and essential governmental and proprietary functions to provide for the public health, safety and general welfare:

A. perpetual existence and succession;

B. adopt, have and use a corporate seal and alter the same at pleasure;

C. sue and be sued and be a party to suits, actions and proceedings;

D. commence, maintain, intervene in, defend, compromise, terminate by settlement or otherwise and otherwise participate in and assume the cost and expense of any and all actions and proceedings now or hereafter begun and appertaining to the authority, its board, its officers, agents or employees, or any of the authority's duties, privileges, immunities, rights, liabilities and disabilities, or the authority's solid waste system, other property of the authority or any project;

E. enter into contracts and agreements, including but not limited to contracts with the federal government, the state and any other public body;

F. borrow money and issue securities evidencing any loan to or amount due by the authority, provide for and secure the payment of any securities and the rights of the holders of those securities and purchase, hold and dispose of securities, as provided in the Solid Waste Authority Act;

G. refund any loan or obligation of the authority and issue refunding securities to evidence such loan or obligation without any election;

H. purchase, trade, exchange, encumber and otherwise acquire, maintain and dispose of property and interests in that property;

I. subject to an election as provided in the Solid Waste Authority Act, levy and cause to be collected general ad valorem taxes on all property subject to property taxation within the authority; provided that the total tax levy, excluding any levy for the payment of any debt of the authority authorized pursuant to the Solid Waste Authority Act, for any fiscal year shall not exceed an aggregate total of three mills, or any lower amount required by operation of the rate limitation provisions of Section 7-37-7.1 NMSA 1978 upon this tax levy, for each one thousand dollars ($1,000) of net taxable value, as that term is defined in the Property Tax Code [Chapter 7, Articles 35 to 38 NMSA 1978], by certifying, on or before the fifteenth day of July in each year in which the board determines, after approval by the qualified electors pursuant to the Solid Waste Authority Act, to levy a tax, to the board of county commissioners within each county wherein the authority has any territory, the rate so fixed, with directions that, at the time and in the manner required by law for levying taxes for other purposes, such body having authority to levy taxes shall levy the tax upon the net taxable value of all property subject to property taxation within the authority;

J. hire and retain officers, agents, employees, engineers, attorneys and any other persons, permanent or temporary, necessary or desirable to effect the purposes of the Solid Waste Authority Act, defray any expenses incurred thereby in connection with the authority and acquire office space, equipment, services, supplies, fire and extended coverage insurance, use and occupancy insurance, workers' compensation insurance, property damage insurance, public liability insurance for the authority and its officers, agents and employees and other types of insurance, as the board may determine; provided, however, that no provision in that act authorizing the acquisition of insurance shall be construed as waiving any immunity of the authority or any director, officer or agent thereof and otherwise existing under the laws of the state;

K. condemn property for public use;

L. acquire, improve, equip, hold, operate, maintain and dispose of a solid waste system, wholly within the authority, or partially within and partially without the authority, and wholly within, wholly without or partially within and partially without any public body all or any part of the area of which is situated within the authority;

M. pay or otherwise defray the cost of any project;

N. pay or otherwise defray and contract so to pay or defray, for any term not exceeding fifty years, without an election, except as otherwise provided in the Solid Waste Authority Act, the principal of, any interest on and any other charges appertaining to, any securities or other obligations of the federal government, any public body or person incurred in connection with any such property so acquired by the authority;

O. establish and maintain facilities within or without the authority, across or along any public street, highway, bridge, viaduct or other public right-of-way or in, upon, under or over any vacant public lands, which public lands are now or may become the property of the state, or across any stream of water or water course, without first obtaining a franchise from the municipality, county or other public body having jurisdiction over the same; provided that the authority shall cooperate with any public body having such jurisdiction, shall promptly restore any such street, highway, bridge, viaduct or other public right-of-way to its former state of usefulness as nearly as may be and shall not use the same in such manner as to impair completely or unnecessarily the usefulness thereof;

P. deposit any money of the authority, subject to the limitations in Article 8, Section 4 of the constitution of New Mexico, in any banking institution within or without the state and secured in such manner and subject to such terms and conditions as the board may determine, with or without the payment of any interest on any such deposit;

Q. invest any surplus money in the authority treasury, including such money in any sinking or reserve fund established for the purpose of retiring any securities of the authority, not required for the immediate necessities of the authority, in its own securities or in federal securities, by direct purchase of any issue of such securities, or part thereof, at the original sale of the same, or by the subsequent purchase of such securities;

R. sell any such securities thus purchased and held, from time to time;

S. reinvest the proceeds of any such sale in other securities of the authority or in federal securities, as provided in Subsection Q of this section;

T. sell in season from time to time such securities thus purchased and held, so that the proceeds may be applied to the purposes for which the money with which such securities were originally purchased was placed in the treasury of the authority;

U. accept contributions or loans from the federal government for the purpose of financing the planning, acquisition, improvement, equipment, maintenance and operation of any enterprise in which the authority is authorized to engage and enter into contracts and cooperate with and accept cooperation and participation from the federal government for these purposes;

V. enter into joint operating or service contracts and agreements, acquisition, improvement, equipment or disposal contracts or other arrangements, for any term not exceeding fifty years, with the federal government, any public body or any person concerning solid waste facilities, or any project, whether acquired by the authority or by the federal government, any public body or any person, and accept grants and contributions from the federal government, any public body or any person in connection therewith;

W. enter into and perform when determined by the board to be in the public interest and necessary for the protection of the public health, contracts and agreements, for any term not exceeding fifty years, with the federal government, any public body or any person for the provision and operation by the authority of solid waste facilities;

X. enter into and perform, without any election, contracts and agreements with the federal government, any public body or any person for or concerning the planning, construction, lease or other acquisition, improvement, equipment, operation, maintenance, disposal, and the financing of any project, including but not necessarily limited to any contract or agreement for any term not exceeding fifty years;

Y. enter upon any land, make surveys, borings, soundings and examinations for the purposes of the authority, locate the necessary works of any project and roadways and other rights-of-way appertaining to any project authorized in the Solid Waste Authority Act; and acquire all property necessary or convenient for the acquisition, improvement or equipment of such works;

Z. cooperate with and act in conjunction with the state, or any of its engineers, officers, boards, commissions or departments, or with the federal government or any of its engineers, officers, boards, commissions or departments, or with any other public body or any person in the acquisition, improvement or equipment of any project or for any works, acts or purposes provided for in the Solid Waste Authority Act, and adopt and carry out any definite plan or system of work for any such purpose;

AA. cooperate with the federal government or any public body by an agreement therewith by which the authority may:

(1) acquire and provide, without cost to the cooperating entity, the land, easements and rights-of-way necessary for the acquisition, improvement or equipment of the solid waste system or any project;

(2) hold and save harmless the cooperating entity free from any claim for damages arising from the acquisition, improvement, equipment, maintenance and operation of the solid waste system or any project; and

(3) maintain and operate any project in accordance with regulations prescribed by the cooperating entity;

BB. carry on technical and other investigations of all kinds, make measurements, collect data and make analyses, studies and inspections pertaining to solid waste facilities, and any project, both within and without the authority, and for this purpose the authority has the right of access through its authorized representative to all lands and premises within the state;

CC. have the right to provide from revenues or other available funds an adequate fund for the improvement and equipment of the authority's solid waste system or of any parts of the works and properties of the authority;

DD. make and keep records in connection with any project or otherwise concerning the authority;

EE. arbitrate any differences arising in connection with any project or otherwise concerning the authority;

FF. have the management, control and supervision of all the business and affairs appertaining to any project herein authorized, or otherwise concerning the authority, and of the acquisition, improvement, equipment, operation and maintenance of any such project;

GG. prescribe the duties of officers, agents, employees and other persons and fix their compensation;

HH. enter into contracts of indemnity and guaranty, in such form as may be approved by the board, relating to or connected with the performance of any contract or agreement which the authority is empowered to enter into under the provisions of the Solid Waste Authority Act or of any other law of the state;

II. provide, by any contract for any term not exceeding fifty years, or otherwise, without an election:

(1) for the joint use of personnel, equipment and facilities of the authority and any public body, including without limitation public buildings constructed by or under the supervision of the board of the authority or the governing body of the public body concerned, upon such terms and agreements and within such areas within the authority as may be determined, for the promotion and protection of health, comfort, safety, life, welfare and property of the inhabitants of the authority and any such public body; and

(2) for the joint employment of clerks, stenographers and other employees appertaining to any project, now existing or hereafter established in the authority, upon such terms and conditions as may be determined for the equitable apportionment of the expenses therefrom resulting;

JJ. obtain financial statements, appraisals, economic feasibility reports and valuations of any type appertaining to any project or any property pertaining thereto;

KK. adopt any resolution authorizing a project or the issuance of securities, or both, or otherwise appertaining thereto, or otherwise concerning the authority;

LL. make and execute a mortgage, deed of trust, indenture or other trust instrument appertaining to a project or to any securities authorized in the Solid Waste Authority Act, or to both, except as provided in Subsection MM of this section and in Section 48 [74-10-48 NMSA 1978] of the Solid Waste Authority Act;

MM. make all contracts, execute all instruments and do all things necessary or convenient in the exercise of the powers granted in the Solid Waste Authority Act, or in the performance of the authority's covenants or duties or in order to secure the payment of its securities; provided, no encumbrance, mortgage or other pledge of property, excluding any money, of the authority is created thereby and provided no property, excluding money, of the authority is liable to be forfeited or taken in payment of such securities;

NN. have and exercise all rights and powers necessary or incidental to or implied from the specific powers granted in the Solid Waste Authority Act, which specific powers shall not be considered as a limitation upon any power necessary or appropriate to carry out the purposes and intent of that act;

OO. exercise all or any part or combination of the powers granted in the Solid Waste Authority Act; and

PP. to fix and from time to time increase or decrease rates, tolls or charges for services or facilities furnished or made available by the authority, and to pledge that revenue for the payment of any indebtedness of the district. Until paid, all rates, tolls or charges constitute a perpetual lien on and against the property served, and any such lien may be foreclosed in the same manner as provided by the laws of New Mexico for the foreclosure of real estate mortgages.

History: Laws 1993, ch. 319, § 27.