November 23, 2018
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The State Land Office has set a record for its monthly oil and gas lease sale, generating more than $43 million for public schools and other trust land beneficiaries as the oil boom continues in New Mexico.
The November sale represents the highest single-month yield in the agency’s history. The previous record of just over $30 million was set in July 2017.
Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn said in a statement issued Tuesday that he was expecting a good month but was surprised by the outcome. He said it will help with the goal of generating $1 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year.
The State Land Office, one of the most powerful agencies in New Mexico, oversees oil and gas drilling, renewable energy projects and other development on millions of acres of state trust land. Revenues from the monthly oil and gas lease sales and other activities help to fund public schools, higher education, hospitals, the state penitentiary and infrastructure projects.
In all, 35 tracts covering more than 12 square miles (32 square kilometers) were up for bid this month in Lea, Chaves and McKinley counties. All but one tract was leased and another ended up being withdrawn....
Allocation by New Mexico for educational materials - $10,385,518.00 (click here)
How does a state have a $40.3 million as a budget gap with an income of $43 million in sales of oil leases?
March 14, 2018
By Sylvia Ulloa
New Mexico school districts (click here) that had hoped to put a little more cushion in their budgets managed to persuade a sympathetic Legislature, but couldn’t get it past the governor’s veto pen.
When she signed the 2018-2019 budget on March 7, Gov. Susana Martinez struck a line through $5 million state lawmakers had set aside to repay some school districts whose cash accounts had been swept by $40. 3 million to help fill a large budget gap in 2017.
Martinez had called the cash accounts of school districts “slush funds.” State superintendents — who drove to the capital en masse during the session to lobby lawmakers for repayment — call them reserve accounts that are used to make large payments like annual insurance, as well as extras like giving teachers stipends to take students to science camp.
School leaders said during testimony in Santa Fe that taking the cash out of their accounts had hurt their ability to deal with unexpected expenses....
