A. The "state museums improvements and exhibits fund" is created in the state treasury. The fund consists of:

(1) money appropriated and transferred to the fund;

(2) gifts, grants, donations and bequests; and

(3) fifteen percent of the state museums' admission fees, facilities rentals and revenues earned from licensure or sale of intellectual property.

B. Earnings from investment of the state museums improvements and exhibits fund shall be credited to the fund. Money in the fund is appropriated to the department to be distributed to state museums pursuant to the provisions of this section. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of a fiscal year shall not revert. Disbursements from the fund shall be made upon warrants drawn by the secretary of finance and administration pursuant to vouchers signed by the secretary of cultural affairs.

C. Money in the state museums improvements and exhibits fund shall be expended by the department for development, implementation and maintenance of exhibitions at state museums and for maintenance and repairs of state museum facilities. Revenues in the fund earned by a specific division shall be expended by that division.

D. As used in this section, "state museum" means a museum, historic site, monument, cultural center or laboratory administered by the department.

History: Laws 2005, ch. 277, § 1; 1978 Comp., § 18-3-9, recompiled as § 9-4A-22 by Laws 2015, ch. 19, § 1.

Recompilations. — Laws 2015, ch. 19, § 1 recompiled and amended 18-3-9 NMSA 1978 as 9-4A-22 NMSA 1978, effective July 1, 2015.

The 2015 amendment, effective July 1, 2015, provided for revenues earned from licensure or sale of intellectual property from the states' museums to be placed in the state museums improvements and exhibits fund; in Subsection A, in the introductory sentence, after the second occurrence of "fund", deleted "shall consist" and added "consists", in Paragraph (3) of Subsection A, after "fees", deleted "and", and after "rentals" added "and revenues earned from licensure or sale of intellectual property; in Subsection B, after "appropriated to the", deleted "cultural affairs"; in Subsection C, after "expended by the", deleted "cultural affairs"; in Subsection D, after the second occurrence of "museum", deleted "state" and added "historic site", and after "administered by the", deleted "cultural affairs".