New Mexico Gains TBED Tools

Increased funding for equity investments and a new university-industry R&D partnership program are among the pieces of legislation New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson signed this week, greatly expanding New Mexico's portfolio of programs to grow a tech-based economy. Most of the initiatives were included in the economic development agenda Gov. Richardson outlined during his first State of the State address in January. They are:

• As much as $300 million from the state Severance Tax Permanent Fund may be invested as equity in New Mexico venture capital funds and New Mexico business. HB 918 raises the maximum cap to 6 percent of the Fund's market value that is available for equity financing.
• A Technology Enhancement Fund is created in House Bill 391 to provide matching funds to state research universities to support collaborative applied research done in partnership with corporations or non-profit organizations. Supported research must lead toward the creation of new products and production processes in the fields of agriculture, biotechnology, biomedicine energy, materials science, microelectronics, water resources, aerospace, telecommunications, manufacturing science and similar research areas. The program will be administered by the New Mexico Commission on Higher Education.
• HB 394 establishes a Work Force Skills Development Fund in the Commission on Higher Education to provide matching funds to community colleges for the development, expansion and support of broad-based entry-level high-skills training programs. An appropriation of $300,000 was made for FY04.
• Nine million dollars is appropriated for a new Faculty Endowment Fund to support the creation of endowed chairs, professorships and faculty development programs at the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University, and the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Each school will receive $3 million for the first of three chairs after it has secured matching commitments from nonstate sources of $2 million. Each chair must be in a field that is directly related to encouraging economic development in the state.
• HB 172 appropriated $80,000 for a fuel cell demonstration project for a grid-interconnected, real-time, net-metered, solar photovoltaic system and an ultra-high-efficiency co-generation fuel cell system powered by natural gas, propane, methanol or hydrogen to generate on-site electricity for government or public use.

In addition, Senate Bill 932 authorizes a variety of economic development financing tools such as bonds, loans and loan guarantees that can be used statewide by the New Mexico Finance Authority.

More information on each bill is available at: http://legis.state.nm.us/