A. The legislature finds that a need exists for economic diversification in the state in order to protect against dramatic changes in the state's economy and to increase revenues to help state government finance the various services it provides to the state's communities and citizens.

B. The legislature further finds that the goal of economic development and diversification can best be accomplished by creating a cabinet-level department which will be concerned solely with the areas of economic development and diversification, business recruitment, expansion and retention.

C. The purpose of the Economic Development Department Act is to create a cabinet-level department in order to:

(1) provide a coordinated statewide perspective with regard to economic development activities;

(2) provide a data base for local and regional economic development groups and serve as a comprehensive source of information and assistance to businesses wishing to locate or expand in New Mexico;

(3) actively encourage new economic enterprises to locate in New Mexico and assist existing businesses to expand;

(4) monitor the progress of state-supported economic development activities and prepare annual reports of such activities, their status and their impact;

(5) create and encourage methods designed to provide rapid economic diversification development that will create new employment opportunities for the citizens of the state, including the issuance of grants and loans to municipalities and counties for economic enhancement projects;

(6) provide for technology commercialization projects as an incentive to industry locating or expanding in the state;

(7) support technology transfer programs;

(8) promote New Mexico as a technology conference center;

(9) promote and market federal and state technology commercialization programs;

(10) develop and implement enhanced statewide procurement programs; and

(11) provide support and assistance in the creation and operation of development finance mechanisms such as business development corporations and the industrial and agricultural finance authorities in order to insure capital availability for business expansion and economic diversification.

History: Laws 1983, ch. 297, § 2; 1991, ch. 21, § 10.

The 1991 amendment, effective March 27, 1991, in Subsection B, inserted "business recruitment, expansion" and substituted "retention" for "tourism promotion"; and, in Subsection C, deleted "and tourism" following "development" in four places, inserted "and loans" in Paragraph (5), substituted "technology commercialization" for "research and development" in Paragraph (6), rewrote Paragraph (7), which read "perform those functions previously exercised by the economic development division and board, the New Mexico magazine division and the tourism and travel division of the commerce and industry department", inserted present Paragraphs (8) to (10), redesignated former Paragraph (8) as present Paragraph (11) and substituted "and agricultural finance authorities" for "finance authority" in Paragraph (11).