Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

SB0088CTS

SENATE TAX, BUSINESS AND TRANSPORTATION

COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

SENATE BILL 88

56th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2024

AN ACT

RELATING TO CREDENTIALS; ENACTING THE ELECTRONIC CREDENTIALS ACT TO ALLOW THE TAXATION AND REVENUE DEPARTMENT TO ISSUE ELECTRONIC CREDENTIALS FOR DRIVER'S LICENSES AND IDENTIFICATION CARDS.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

SECTION 1. Section 66-1-4.3 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1990, Chapter 120, Section 4, as amended) is amended to read:

"66-1-4.3. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Motor Vehicle Code:

A. "camping body" means a vehicle body primarily designed or converted for use as temporary living quarters for recreational, camping or travel activities excluding recreational vehicles unless used in commerce;

B. "camping trailer" means a camping body, mounted on a chassis, or frame with wheels, designed to be drawn by another vehicle and that has collapsible partial side walls that fold for towing and unfold at the campsite;

C. "cancellation" means that a driver's license is annulled and terminated because of some error or defect or because the licensee is no longer entitled to the license, but cancellation of a license is without prejudice, and application for a new license may be made at any time after cancellation;

D. "casual sale" means the sale of a motor vehicle by the registered owner of the vehicle if the owner has not sold more than four vehicles in that calendar year;

E. "chassis" means the complete motor vehicle, including standard factory equipment, exclusive of the body and cab;

F. "collector" means a person who is the owner of one or more vehicles of historic or special interest who collects, purchases, acquires, trades or disposes of these vehicles or parts thereof for the person's own use in order to preserve, restore and maintain a similar vehicle for hobby purposes;

G. "combination" means any connected assemblage of a motor vehicle and one or more semitrailers, trailers or semitrailers converted to trailers by means of a converter gear;

H. "combination gross vehicle weight" means the sum total of the gross vehicle weights of all units of a combination;

I. "commerce" means the transportation of persons, property or merchandise for hire, compensation, profit or in the furtherance of a commercial enterprise in this state or between New Mexico and a place outside New Mexico, including a place outside the United States;

J. "commercial motor vehicle" means a self-propelled or towed vehicle, other than special mobile equipment, used on public highways in commerce to transport passengers or property when the vehicle:

(1) is operated interstate and has a gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating, or gross vehicle weight or gross combination weight, of four thousand five hundred thirty-six kilograms, or ten thousand one pounds or more; or is operated only in intrastate commerce and has a gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating, or gross vehicle weight or gross combination weight, of twenty-six thousand one or more pounds;

(2) is designed or used to transport more than eight passengers, including the driver, and is used to transport passengers for compensation;

(3) is designed or used to transport sixteen or more passengers, including the driver, and is not used to transport passengers for compensation; or

(4) is used to transport hazardous materials of the type or quantity requiring placarding under rules prescribed by applicable federal or state law;

K. "controlled-access highway" means every highway, street or roadway in respect to which owners or occupants of abutting lands and other persons have no legal right of access to or from the highway, street or roadway except at those points only and in the manner as may be determined by the public authority having jurisdiction over the highway, street or roadway;

L. "controlled substance" means any substance defined in Section 30-31-2 NMSA 1978 as a controlled substance;

M. "converter gear" means any assemblage of one or more axles with a fifth wheel mounted thereon, designed for use in a combination to support the front end of a semitrailer but not permanently attached thereto. A converter gear shall not be considered a vehicle, as that term is defined in Section 66-1-4.19 NMSA 1978, but weight attributable thereto shall be included in declared gross weight;

N. "conviction":

(1) means:

(a) a finding of guilt in the trial court in regard to which the violator has waived or exhausted all rights to appeal;

(b) a plea of guilty or nolo contendere accepted by the court;

(d) the promise to mail a payment on a penalty assessment; and

(2) does not include a conditional discharge as provided in Section 31-20-13 NMSA 1978 or a deferred sentence when the terms of the deferred sentence are met;

O. "credential holder" means a person who has been issued a physical or an electronic credential;

[O.] P. "crosswalk" means:

(1) that part of a roadway at an intersection included within the connections of the lateral lines of the sidewalks on opposite sides of the highway measured from the curbs or, in the absence of curbs, from the edges of the traversable roadway; and

(2) any portion of a roadway at an intersection or elsewhere distinctly indicated for pedestrian crossing by lines or other markings on the surface; and

[P.] Q. "curb cut" means a short ramp through a curb or built up to the curb."

SECTION 2. Section 66-1-4.4 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1990, Chapter 120, Section 5, as amended) is amended to read:

"66-1-4.4. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Motor Vehicle Code:

A. "data element" means a distinct component of a customer's information that is found on the department's customer record;

[A.] B. "day" means calendar day, unless otherwise provided in the Motor Vehicle Code;

[B.] C. "dealer", except as specifically excluded, means any person who sells or solicits or advertises the sale of new or used motor vehicles, manufactured homes or trailers subject to registration in this state; "dealer" does not include:

(1) receivers, trustees, administrators, executors, guardians or other persons appointed by or acting under judgment, decree or order of any court;

(2) public officers while performing their duties as such officers;

(3) persons making casual sales of their own vehicles;

(4) finance companies, banks and other lending institutions making sales of repossessed vehicles; or

(5) licensed brokers under the Manufactured Housing Act who, for a fee, commission or other valuable consideration, engage in brokerage activities related to the sale, exchange or lease purchase of pre-owned manufactured homes on a site installed for a consumer;

[C.] D. "declared gross weight" means the maximum gross vehicle weight or gross combination vehicle weight at which a vehicle or combination will be operated during the registration period, as declared by the registrant for registration and fee purposes; the vehicle or combination shall have only one declared gross weight for all operating considerations;

[D.] E. "department" means the taxation and revenue department, the secretary of taxation and revenue or any employee of the department exercising authority lawfully delegated to that employee by the secretary;

[E.] F. "designated accessible parking space for persons with significant mobility limitation" means any space, including an access aisle, that is marked and reserved for the parking of a passenger vehicle that carries registration plates or a parking placard with the international symbol of access issued in accordance with Section 66-3-16 NMSA 1978 and that is designated by a conspicuously posted sign bearing the international symbol of access and, if the parking space is paved, by a clearly visible depiction of this symbol painted in blue on the pavement of the space;

[F.] G. "director" means the secretary;

[G.] H. "disqualification" means a prohibition against driving a commercial motor vehicle;

[H.] I. "distinguishing number" means the number assigned by the department to a vehicle whose identifying number has been destroyed or obliterated or the number assigned by the department to a vehicle that has never had an identifying number;

[I.] J. "distributor" means a person who distributes or sells new or used motor vehicles to dealers and who is not a manufacturer;

[J.] K. "division", without further specification, "division of motor vehicles" or "motor vehicle division" means the department;

[K.] L. "driveaway-towaway operation" means an operation in which any motor vehicle, new or used, is the item being transported when one set or more of wheels of any such motor vehicle is on the roadway during the course of transportation, whether or not the motor vehicle furnishes the motive power;

[L.] M. "driver" means every person who drives or is in actual physical control of a motor vehicle, including a motorcycle, upon a highway, who is exercising control over or steering a vehicle being towed by a motor vehicle or who operates or is in actual physical control of an off-highway motor vehicle;

[M.] N. "driver-assisted platoon" means a series of motor vehicles platooning with a driver in each vehicle;

[N.] O. "driver's license" means any license, permit or driving authorization card issued by a state or other jurisdiction recognized under the laws of New Mexico pertaining to the authorizing of persons to operate motor vehicles and includes a REAL ID-compliant driver's license and a standard driver's license; and

[O.] P. "dynamic driving task" means all of the real-time operational and tactical functions required to operate a vehicle in on-road traffic, excluding the strategic functions such as trip scheduling and selection of destinations and waypoints."

SECTION 3. Section 66-1-4.5 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1990, Chapter 120, Section 6, as amended) is amended to read:

"66-1-4.5. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Motor Vehicle Code:

A. "electric-assisted bicycle" means a vehicle having two or three wheels, fully operable pedals and an electric motor. Electric-assisted bicycles are classified as follows:

(1) "class 1 electric-assisted bicycle" means an electric-assisted bicycle equipped with a motor not exceeding seven hundred fifty watts of power that provides assistance only when the rider is pedaling and that ceases to provide assistance when the bicycle reaches a speed of twenty miles per hour;

(2) "class 2 electric-assisted bicycle" means an electric-assisted bicycle equipped with a motor not exceeding seven hundred fifty watts of power that provides assistance regardless of whether the rider is pedaling but ceases to provide assistance when the bicycle reaches a speed of twenty miles per hour; and

(3) "class 3 electric-assisted bicycle" means an electric-assisted bicycle equipped with a motor not exceeding seven hundred fifty watts of power that provides assistance only when the rider is pedaling and that ceases to provide assistance when the bicycle reaches a speed of twenty-eight miles per hour;

B. "electric mobility device" means a two- or three-wheel vehicle with an electric motor for propulsion that does not meet the definition of an electric-assisted bicycle and is capable of exceeding a speed of twenty miles per hour on motor power alone;

C. "electric personal assistive mobility device" means a self-balancing device having two nontandem wheels designed to transport a single person by means of an electric propulsion system with an average power of one horsepower and with a maximu