Bill Introduced in New Mexico Legislature to Provide Funding Source for Land Grant Infrastructure Projects

Legislation has been introduced in the New Mexico State Legislature that would provide increased funding for infrastructure projects on lands in the state with titles originating from Spanish or Mexican land grants.

The Land Grant-Merced Infrastructure Act, as proposed by Democrat Representative Miguel Garcia, would create a trust fund that could ultimately be used in the planning, design, building, and updating of water and wastewater facilities.

The fund would also, according to Garcia’s proposal, be used to support “electric power lines, communications infrastructure, roads, health infrastructure, emergency response facilities, and infrastructure needed to encourage economic development.”

Land Grant-Merced lands were originally granted by the Spanish or Mexican governments to settlers, but have often been challenged by any number of complex land ownership and historical land use issues.

A 2018 document produced by the New Mexico Department of Justice stated that confusion over who owned what in such areas of the state have been due to “erroneous surveys, mistranslation of boundaries from original documents written in Spanish, and misinterpretations of Spanish and Mexican laws and customs for granting lands for community settlement.”

The fund as envisioned in the legislation would also be used to pay for infrastructure project engineering reports, special engineering services, and the completion of environmental assessments and archaeological clearances.

Garcia’s legislation is currently being reviewed by the House Rural Development, Land Grants, and Cultural Affairs Committee.

The 2025 winter session of the New Mexico State Legislature is scheduled to conclude its work on March 22.

February 4, 2025

By Garry Boulard

Photo courtesy of NM.gov

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