Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard
NMSLO News:
SANTA FE — The New Mexico State Land Office (NMSLO) brought in a record-shattering $2.4 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2022, Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard announced Wednesday.
Prior to 2019, the State Land Office had never raised $1 billion for a fiscal year. But under Commissioner Garcia Richard’s leadership, the agency raised $1.11B, $1.05B and $1.25B in fiscal years 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively.
The State Land Office has raised more than $5.3B in Commissioner Garcia Richard’s first term.
“I made a promise that the State Land Office would be open for business as long as I’m here, and four straight years of billion-plus dollar revenues show how serious I was about that promise,” Commissioner Garcia Richard said. “The dedicated and hardworking staff at this agency have proven that you can rake in huge amounts of money for New Mexico’s school kids while also protecting our trust lands and holding industries accountable. This record revenue has a chance to be a real game-changer for our schools, hospitals, colleges and other important institutions.”
Commissioner Garcia Richard has prioritized diversifying revenue streams at the State Land Office. Upon taking office, she established the first Office of Renewable Energy with the goal of tripling renewable energy production on state trust lands – a feat that was accomplished earlier this year with the execution of leases to Pattern Energy to construct the largest wind farm in the western hemisphere. Overall, from January 2019 to September 2022, annual revenue from renewable leases increased 1,400 percent and the number of active leases increased 208 percent.
Commissioner Garcia Richard also launched the first Office of Outdoor Recreation, cutting red tape to the permitting process and allowing applicants to make payments online by credit card – two decisions that have contributed to a 425 percent increase in the number of outdoor recreation permits processed since 2019. She also pursued job-creating business deals, including an expansion of Netflix’s sublease of state trust lands.
“We all know that oil is a finite resource, and we can’t rely on it forever, so I’m doing everything I can to build a solid foundation so our schools and intuitions can thrive long into the future,” Commissioner Garcia Richard added.
