2018 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 62 - Electric, Gas and Water Utilities
Article 15 - Rural Electric Cooperatives
Section 62-15-28 - Taxation.

Cooperative and foreign corporations transacting business in this state pursuant to the provisions of the Rural Electric Cooperative Act shall pay annually, on or before July 1, to the state corporation commission [public regulation commission] a tax of ten dollars ($10.00) for each one hundred persons or fraction thereof to whom electricity is supplied within this state, which tax shall be in lieu of all other taxes except those provided in the Gross Receipts and Compensating Tax Act [Chapter 7, Article 9 NMSA 1978]; provided, however, that in the event a contract has been entered into by a rural electric cooperative and a power consumer prior to February 1, 1961 and such contract does not contain an escalator clause providing for an increase for added tax liability on the cooperative, then the sale to such power consumer shall be exempt until the expiration, extension or renewal of the contract.

History: Laws 1939, ch. 47, § 28; 1941, ch. 195, § 1; 1941 Comp., § 48-428; 1953 Comp., § 45-4-28; Laws 1961, ch. 236, § 1; 1966, ch. 58, § 1; 1975, ch. 263, § 7; 1982, ch. 18, § 24.

Bracketed material. — The bracketed material was inserted by the compiler. It was not enacted by the legislature and is not part of the law.

Laws 1998, ch. 108, § 80 provided that references to the state corporation commission be construed as references to the public regulation commission.

Nonseverability clauses. — Laws 1975, ch. 263, § 10, provided that the act is not intended to be severable, and that if any part thereof should be declared unconstitutional, the entire act should be declared void.

Laws 1975, ch. 263, § 9, was declared invalid under the supremacy clause of the United States constitution in Arizona Pub. Serv. Co. v. Snead, 441 U.S. 141, 99 S. Ct. 1629, 60 L. Ed. 2d 106 (1979).

Sales by rural electric cooperative exempt from school tax. — This statutory provision must be considered to exempt from the school tax the sale of electricity by a rural electric cooperative to its customers. Since the legal incidence of the emergency school tax is upon the vendor of the goods or services as a tax with respect to his privilege of doing business, it is clearly immaterial to the consideration of the first inquiry that the cooperative, the purchaser of the goods or services, may not itself be subject directly to the tax because of this statute. 1957-58 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 57-302.

Liability from compensating tax for out-of-state purchases. — Rural electric administration cooperatives are not liable for the payment of compensating tax on their out-of-state purchases of materials for use or consumption within the state. 1961-62 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 62-131.

Law reviews. — For article, "Taxation of Electricity Generation: The Economic Efficiency and Equity Bases for Regionalism Within the Federal System," see 20 Nat. Res. J. 877 (1980).

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 71 Am. Jur. 2d State and Local Taxation § 514.

16C C.J.S. Constitutional Law § 881; 43 C.J.S. Industrial Cooperative Societies § 5; 84 C.J.S. Taxation § 251.