The county treasurer of the county in which is located the office of any irrigation district, shall be and is hereby constituted ex-officio district treasurer of said district, and said county treasurer shall be liable upon his official bond, and to indictment and criminal prosecution for malfeasance, misfeasance or failure to perform any duty herein prescribed as county treasurer or district treasurer, as is provided by law in other cases as county treasurer. Said treasurer shall receive and receipt for all monies belonging to said district. It shall be the duty of the county treasurer in each county in which any irrigation district is located, in whole or in part, to collect and receipt for all taxes levied as herein provided, in the same manner and at the same time as is required in the receipt for, and collection of, taxes upon real estate for county purposes; provided, that such county treasurer shall receive in payment of the district bond fund taxes above mentioned for the year in which said taxes were levied, interest coupons or bonds issued by said irrigation districts maturing within said year, the same as so much lawful money of the United States, if such interest coupons do not exceed the amount of taxes for district bond funds which the person tendering the same owes. The county treasurer of each county comprising a portion only of any irrigation district, excepting the county treasurer of the county in which the office of said district is located, on the first Monday of every month, shall remit to the district treasurer aforesaid, all monies and coupons theretofore collected or received by him on account of said district. Every county treasurer shall keep a district bond fund account, a district contract fund account, a district operation and maintenance fund account and a district general fund account, and the proceeds of the taxes collected shall be covered into the respective funds. The bond fund shall consist of all monies collected for principal and interest of the bonds issued by the said district; the district contract fund shall consist of all monies received from taxes levied to provide for payments to the United States; the operation and maintenance fund shall consist of all monies received on account of the operation and maintenance of irrigation and drainage system, except monies to be paid to the United States pursuant to any contract; and the general fund shall consist of all monies received on account of current and miscellaneous expenses, not to be covered into any of the foregoing funds.

The district treasurer aforesaid shall pay out of said bond fund when due, the interest and principal of said bonds of said district, at the time and place specified in said bonds. The district treasurer shall pay out of said contract fund, all payments as they become due to the United States under contract at the time and in the manner provided in said contract. The district treasurer shall pay out of said operation and maintenance fund, only upon warrants signed by the president and countersigned by the secretary of the district, directed to such party or parties as are due payments for operating and maintaining said irrigation and drainage system. The district treasurer shall pay out of said general fund only upon order signed by the president and countersigned by the secretary of said district.

The district treasurer, on the fifteenth day of each month, shall report to the board of directors of said district the amount of money in his hands to the credit of the respective funds above provided. All such district taxes collected and paid to the county treasurers as aforesaid shall be received by said treasurers in their official capacity and they shall respectively be responsible for the safekeeping, disbursement and payment thereof the same as for other monies collected by them as such treasurers. Provided, that said county treasurers shall not receive any commission for the collection of said district taxes but shall receive for clerical assistance the sum of ten ($10.00) dollars monthly for each 25,000 acres of land or major fraction thereof situate in his county, subject to taxation herein for district purposes.

History: Laws 1919, ch. 20, § 24; C.S. 1929, § 73-125; 1941 Comp., § 77-2333; 1953 Comp., § 75-24-33.

Bracketed material. — The bracketed material was inserted by the compiler and is not part of the law.

Cross references. — For districts which collect their own taxes, see 73-13-24 to 73-13-37 NMSA 1978.