UNM program manager Arturo Archuleta told an interim legislative committee that the Land Grant Merced Institute and the Land Grant Council provided technical, financial and legal support to dozens of New Mexico land grants over the past year. The update, delivered during the committee’s afternoon session, summarized capital-outlay assistance, audit and financial support, legal representation and archival work the office has provided to communities that hold and manage common lands.

The land grant support program matters because it combines on-the-ground technical help (surveys, project planning and procurement), financial-management assistance (budgeting, QuickBooks, audits) and legal backing for property disputes and tax challenges — all of which affect small rural governments’ ability to manage common lands and pursue infrastructure projects.

Archuleta said the institute assisted 18 land grants with capital-outlay planning and the capital project monitoring system reporting used by the Department of Finance and Administration, helped 15 land grants with tiered certification and agreed‑upon‑procedures work under the state audit act, and supported 20 land grants with quarterly budget reporting and other financial management tasks. He told the committee the institute had helped 17 land grants adopt QuickBooks Online to improve recordkeeping and audit readiness.

“We provide assistance to land grants with completion of infrastructure capital improvement plans,” Archuleta said, and the institute also supported procurements, notices of obligation and pay requests tied to legislative appropriations.

Archuleta described additional services: governance assistance to 21 land grants (including elections, bylaw drafting and Open Meetings and public‑records guidance); help with insurance and tort‑liability coverage for about 10 land grants; property‑acquisition work for seven land grants; surveying contracts for three land grants; and legal-services coordination (the institute partners with New Mexico Legal Aid, UNM School of Law clinics and the Department of Justice when litigation requires counsel).

He said the office had digitized 83 reels of Spanish and Mexican archival microfilm and was acquiring another collection of about 76 reels from the late historian Malcolm Ebright; those materials will be organized and made accessible for research and for land‑grant legal work.

Archuleta reviewed several active legal and administrative matters. He said the institute and counsel will support the San Antonio de Lehi Huertas land grant on appeal after a county challenged a valuation protest board’s decision reversing a tax assessment, and that the office had assisted two Vegas‑area land grants with FEMA settlement matters. The program continues to work on a loan for the Manzano Land Grant through the New Mexico Finance Authority and described a legislative snag this year when language allowing capital‑outlay dollars to be used to repay loans was vetoed, which delayed the planned financing timetable.

Archuleta also described policy priorities the council pursued at the state and federal level, including attempts to reintroduce a land‑grant and acequia infrastructure fund, proposals to exempt land‑grant affordable‑housing projects from parts of the New Mexico Subdivision Act, a federal traditional‑use bill that would assert land‑grant participation in federal land planning, and a federal Small Tracts Act provision to return Forest Service‑held cemeteries to communities without requiring market purchase.

Committee members praised the institute’s output and urged support for its budget request. “I think it’s time for us to support wholeheartedly the request,” Sen. Stefanik told the committee in response to Archuleta’s remarks.

Archuleta closed by urging the interim committee to send a letter asking the Legislative Finance Committee to hear the institute’s budget request and recommended additional, permanent staff for planners, a natural‑resources manager, an in‑house surveyor and additional legal capacity.

Looking ahead, the institute plans to continue digitization and archival access, expand student and clinic partnerships at UNM, and pursue legislative and federal policy changes aimed at easing infrastructure and governance barriers for land grants.

Sources and provenance: The account above is drawn from Arturo Archuleta’s status update to an interim legislative committee; the presentation began when the committee introduced an afternoon Land Grant status update and concluded when Archuleta invited questions.