2021 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 12 - Miscellaneous Public Affairs Matters
Article 10 - All Hazard Emergency Management
Section 12-10-11.1 - Business and employee status during disaster response period.

A. An out-of-state business that conducts operations within the state for purposes of performing disaster- or emergency-related work in response to a declared state disaster or emergency during the disaster response period shall not be considered to have established a level of presence that would require that business to be subject to any state licensing or registration requirements, including any state or local business licensing or registration requirements or public regulation commission or secretary of state licensing and regulatory requirements.

B. An out-of-state employee performing disaster- or emergency-related work during the disaster response period shall not be subject to any state licensing or registration requirements.

C. As used in this section:

(1) "critical infrastructure" means property, equipment and related support facilities that service multiple customers or residents, including real and personal property such as buildings, offices, lines, poles, pipes, structures and equipment that is owned or used by:

(a) communications networks;

(b) electric generation, transmission and distribution systems;

(c) natural gas and natural gas liquids gathering, processing, storage, transmission and distribution systems;

(d) crude oil and refined product pipelines; and

(e) water pipelines;

(2) "declared state disaster or emergency" means a disaster or emergency event for which:

(a) a governor's state-of-emergency proclamation has been issued;

(b) a presidential declaration of a federal major disaster or emergency has been issued; or

(c) another authorized official of the state receives notification from a registered business of a disaster or emergency and that official designates the event as a declared state disaster or emergency, thereby invoking the provisions of this section;

(3) "disaster- or emergency-related work" means repairing, renovating, installing, building, rendering services or conducting other business activities that relate to critical infrastructure that has been damaged, impaired or destroyed by a declared state disaster or emergency;

(4) "disaster response period" means a period that begins ten days prior to the first day of the governor's proclamation, the president's declaration or the designation by another authorized official of the state of a declared state disaster or emergency and that extends sixty calendar days after the declared state disaster or emergency;

(5) "out-of-state business" means a business entity that, except for disaster- or emergency-related work, has no presence in the state and that conducts no business in the state and whose services are requested by a registered business or by a state or local government for purposes of performing disaster- or emergency-related work in the state. "Out-of-state business" includes a business entity that is affiliated with a registered business in the state solely through common ownership and that has no registrations or tax filings or nexus in the state other than disaster- or emergency-related work during the tax year immediately preceding the declared state disaster or emergency;

(6) "out-of-state employee" means an employee who does not work in the state, except for disaster- or emergency-related work during the disaster response period; and

(7) "registered business in the state" means a business entity that is currently registered to do business in the state prior to the declared state disaster or emergency.

History: Laws 2016, ch. 59, § 3.

Effective dates. — Laws 2016, ch. 59 contained no effective date provision, but, pursuant to N.M. Const., art. IV, § 23, was effective May 18, 2016, 90 days after the adjournment of the legislature.