Contact: Erika Martinez
(505)986-4263
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 20, 2014
Legislation Passes Both Chambers to Help State Permanent Funds
Santa Fe, NM — House Joint Resolution 16, which seeks to let voters decide whether to amend the state constitution to remove the current 15 percent cap on what can be invested on international securities, has passed the House. The bill, co-sponsored by Representative Moe Maestas (D-16-Bernalillo) and Senator Tim Keller (D-17, Bernalillo), is a twin bill of Senate Joint Resolution 4.
Since the cap on foreign investment was put into place in 1992, the global economy has grown tremendously and New Mexican investments did not perform as well as they would have if not limited by the cap.
“The current investment provision is costing New Mexico hundreds of millions of dollars a year,” said Sen. Tim Keller. “This amendment is critical to supporting our state educational endowment.”
According to an analysis by the Legislative Education Study Committee, lifting the international-investment cap would increase in the state’s returns, based on global-investment performance during the last decade. In 1995, the Legislature adopted the Uniform Prudent Investor Act, but the pertinent sections of the state constitution has not yet been amended. The bill proposes to make both provisions in the law consistent.
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