IAL 01212010.

• Court: New Mexico

New Mexico Attorney General Opinions 2010. IAL 01212010. IAL 01212010The HonorableThomas Anderson New Mexico House of Representatives 10013 Plunkett Drive, NW Albuquerque, NM 87114 Re: Opinion Request-Film Industry use of Opera rehearsal hall Dear Representative Anderson: You have requested our advice whether the use of the proposed Santa Fe Opera rehearsal hall by the film industry would violate the anti-donation clause of the New Mexico Constitution. According to your letter, Speaker Ben Lujan introduced House Joint Resolution 8 ("Santa Fe County Land Lease-Purchase") during the 2009 legislative session that called on the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs to construct a rehearsal hall and then enter into a lease-purchase agreement with the Santa Fe Opera. Your letter adds: "the lease-purchase agreement provides that the open-air rehearsal hall will only be used by the Opera during three months of the year--in the summer." The letter asks: "I am aware of a provision that allows the film industry to use inactive state properties free of charge...[does this mean the film industry could use it for the] other nine months of the year." Based on our examination of the relevant New Mexico constitutional, statutory and case law authorities, and on the information available to us at this time, we conclude the film industry may use the proposed rehearsal hall in accordance with NMSA 1978, Section 15-3B-7.1. House Joint Resolution 8 discusses "real property owned by the cultural affairs department." It provides that the Department shall construct "an open-air rehearsal facility" on this property. Then, "on receipt of consideration from the opera in cash or cash-equivalent ...equaling the fair market value of the real property, the cultural affairs department will transfer the real property with improvements to the opera." Until the transaction is complete, however, the State will own the property and rehearsal hall. See N.M. Att'y Gen. Op. 64-92 (1964) (the State Fair owns its property even when it is a lessor of the property). The anti-donation clause provides that "[n]either the state...shall directly...make any donation to ... any person, association or ...private corporation...." N.M. Const. art. IX, § 14. The legislature has authorized the State Property Control Division, as custodian of state buildings...