Record-low $97 paid into fund that helps public schools

[TexasTowelie]

SANTA FE – The amount of money flowing into a New Mexico endowment fund that helps pay for state public school costs slowed to a record-low trickle in the most recent budget year – just $97.18, to be exact.

Also during the 2015 budget year, the Severance Tax Permanent Fund paid out $182.7 million to the state general fund, as part of an annual distribution that’s stipulated by the state Constitution.

The difference between the amount going in and the amount paid out means the State Investment Office had to post solid investment gains just to keep the fund value from decreasing.

“I put that much a month into my kids’ college fund,” Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, said Wednesday, referring to the $97 figure, the smallest amount since the fund’s creation in 1973. “At some point, that number is going to have to go up.”

Read more: http://www.abqjournal.com/620389/news/recordlow-97-paid-into-severance-tax-fund.html