Money distributed from the fire protection fund to a municipality or to a county fire district:

A. may be expended only for the:

(1) maintenance of its fire department;

(2) purchase or refinance of land for its fire stations and substations;

(3) purchase, refinance, construction, maintenance, repair and operation of its fire stations and substations;

(4) purchase or refinance of fire apparatus and equipment;

(5) payment of insurance premiums on fire stations, substations, fire apparatus and equipment and insurance premiums for injuries or deaths of firefighters as otherwise provided by law;

(6) payment of fire department emergency medical services, except salaries; and

(7) payment of firefighters' attendance at fire schools and conventions approved by the marshal;

B. shall not, without approval by the marshal, be expended for any purpose related to:

(1) its water supply systems or the improvement or construction of those systems;

(2) the purchase, rental, installation or maintenance of fire hydrants; or

(3) any other appurtenance related to the distribution or use of water from its water supply system; and

C. shall not be expended for any public, private or other water system used for potable water supply.

History: Laws 1984, ch. 127, § 979; 1989, ch. 312, § 8; 1994, ch. 53, § 3; 2011, ch. 162, § 1; 2012, ch. 20, § 9; 2019, ch. 55, § 1.

The 2019 amendment, effective June 14, 2019, authorized municipalities or county fire districts to use money distributed from the fire protection fund to purchase land for fire stations and substations, and to refinance costs of construction, maintenance, repair and operation of its fire stations and substations; in the introductory clause, after "county fire district", deleted "shall"; in Subsection A, added "may", added paragraph designation "(1)", Paragraph A(2), and paragraph designations "(3)" through "(7)", in Paragraph A(3), after "purchase", added "refinance", in Paragraph A(4), added "purchase or refinance of", and after "equipment", deleted "and the financing or refinancing thereof the", in Paragraph A(6), added "payment of", and after "salaries", deleted the remainder of the paragraph, which prohibited money from being expended for water supply systems, and in Paragraph A(7), added "payment of firefighters' attendance at"; and added Subsections B and C.

The 2012 amendment, effective May 16, 2012, prohibited the expenditure of funds for water supply systems of county fire districts; in the first sentence, after "fire protection fund to", deleted "an incorporated" and added "a"; in the second sentence, after "water supply systems of", deleted "any incorporated" and added "a"; and after "water supply systems of a municipality or", added "county fire".

The 2011 amendment, effective July 1, 2011, authorized the use of the fire protection fund for emergency medical services.

The 1994 amendment, effective May 18, 1994, in the first sentence, inserted "and the financing or refinancing thereof", and substituted "stations, substations" for "station, substation" and substituted "deaths" for "death".

Fire protection funds cannot be used for salaries for "firemen" as such. 1964 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 64-30.

Payment of employees. — Where a person is employed to maintain, repair or operate fire department or its equipment, his payment from moneys distributed from the fire protection fund is within the purview of this section. 1964 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 64-30.

Repair of leased property. — Under former Section 59-15-9 NMSA 1978 it was permissible to "repair" leased property, but to "reconstruct" it would do violence to the authority given by the statute. 1964 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 64-30.

Rental payments. — In view of the strict language used by the legislature, recipients of fire protection fund money cannot legally expend such money for rental payments on leased property. 1964 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 64-30.

Fire protection funds may not be expended for drilling water well to supplement the village water supply if the well is connected to such system only for the purpose of assuring sufficient water for fighting fires. 1962 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 62-95.

Funds available for drilling water wells. — Under the provisions of former Section 59-15-9 NMSA 1978 a village was not precluded from drilling water wells or in otherwise obtaining water essential for fire protection purposes where the funds utilized for such expenditures were obtained from other sources; limitation contained in former Section 59-15-9 NMSA 1978 had application only insofar as it restricted the use of fire protection funds for such purposes. 1962 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 62-95.