Committee advances tweaks to Land Grant Assistance Fund to keep leftover dollars in program

The Appropriations & Finance committee advanced legislation to modify how the Land Grant Assistance Fund distributes money to statutory community land grants and to prevent leftover funds from reverting to the general fund.

Representative McQueen, the bill sponsor, told the committee the fund was created to provide operating support to land grants — political subdivisions that lack taxing authority — so they can hire accountants, attorneys and make small capital repairs. He described two primary changes: adjusting payout tiers when a land grant earns other revenue, and making the fund nonreverting so unallocated dollars remain in the fund for the following year. "If a land grant only gets a 75% payout, that means there's several thousand dollars that don't get paid out, and the undercurrent statute would revert to the general fund. This bill would make the fund nonreverting," he said.

Arturo Archuleta, director of the Land Grant Studies Program, told the committee an earlier fiscal analysis overstated reversions and clarified recent reversion amounts: about $61,000 this year and $27,000 last year. "So we're not talking about huge numbers," Archuleta said, adding that the changes would produce small additional disbursements to eligible land grants in subsequent years.

Several land grant representatives testified in support. Andrea Padilla, president of El Consejo de las Mercedes and of the Domingo Land Grant, said the measure would let land grants pursue grants and other revenues without facing disproportionate reductions in their Assistance Fund distribution. Don Bustos and Joaquin Arguello offered similar testimony about infrastructure and cultural needs.

Committee members asked whether land grants could instead be given taxing authority; Archuleta and Representative McQueen said that would raise constitutional and implementation questions and had not been proposed. Members also asked about the number and types of land grants covered; the sponsor and staff said 27 community land grants are named in statute as political subdivisions for the fund and that the governance of land grants predates statehood.

A committee motion for a due pass on the bill was moved and seconded and the committee called for opposition. Representative Duncan registered opposition on the record during the vote call; the motion otherwise advanced the bill out of committee for further consideration.

The transcript records several clarifying points for the committee: the fund is a portion of gross receipts tax receipts; land grants that earn some other revenue receive a smaller share under current tiers; making the fund nonreverting would capture leftover amounts and redistribute them the next year; and the expected additional amounts per land grant were described as modest (a few thousand dollars each).