New Mexico

New Mexico law provides lease payments for charter schools at $700 per student for 2012-13. The law pegs this amount to an inflation index to determine future year allotments.
The law allows charter schools to access public capital outlay grants through the Public School Capital Outlay Council in somewhat similar ways to other public schools in the state.
The law requires school districts to share local facilities funds with public charter schools in a proportionate share to a charter’s enrollment. It allows these funds to be used as payments for approved lease-to-purchase agreements.
The law requires tax levy resolutions submitted by a district to the voters for approval to contain capital improvement funding for public charter schools that have an approved facility plan and that have been renewed one time. In practice, making this provision a reality has been a battle, especially for state-chartered schools.
The law requires the school district in which a charter school is geographically located to provide a charter school with available facilities for the school’s operations unless the facilities are currently used for other educational purposes. It allows an agreement for the use of school district facilities by a charter school to provide for reasonable lease payments. Full implementation of the law has been problematic.
The law requires public charter schools to move to public buildings by 2015 or meet other conditions provided by law. For charter schools that are purchasing existing buildings or constructing new buildings, the law provides that such facilities must meet the average facility condition index of all public school buildings in the state.
The law allows the New Mexico Finance Authority to use public bond funds to construct charter facilities in a pilot program for up to seven charter schools. It allows funds loaned by the Finance Authority to be used for the acquisition of buildings, land, and facilities.
The law allows charter schools to access tax-exempt debt from counties.