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History
History of the New Mexico Municipal League and Self-Insurers' Fund
The first iteration of the New Mexico Municipal League was formed in 1900. Initially composed of Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Santa Fe, Silver City, and Raton, the New Mexico Territorial Municipal League began to lobby for the rights and needs of municipalities and push back against encroachment by the mines and railroad companies. Raton’s mayor, Dr. James Jackson “J.J.” Shuler, who served as the first president of the Territorial Municipal League (1900-1901), organized several legislative meetings before the legislative session and stood up an active legislative committee in Santa Fe for the duration of the session.
Following the legislative session, the Territorial Municipal League was largely inactive until New Mexico achieved statehood in 1912. New Mexico’s constitution strictly limited the Legislature’s authority to enact local or special laws, but also did not grant either home rule or any specific significant power to local governments. To address the resulting power vacuum, Mayor Shuler began to organize the municipalities, and on October 11, 1912, the first meeting of the New Mexico League of Municipalities was held in Albuquerque.
After several legislative sessions were coopted and undermined by special interests, the League began to organize more aggressively and effectively and in 1917 achieved its first big win with the passage of the Municipal Charter Act, establishing the first version of the Municipal Code. After several years of intensive advocacy for more self-governing power, this initial grant of independence gave the League some much-needed legislative momentum.
Over the next two decades, the League’s focused primarily on seeking additional revenue sources for under-financed municipalities across the state and expanding local control in matters such as the appointments of city treasurers and clerks and the sale and leasing of municipal property. These efforts, however, were met with minimal gains from the legislature, and by 1937 the League’s legislative activities had dwindled. Efforts to reorganize were briefly interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. Wartime activity led to a population boom in the state and reshaped a number of communities with the construction of military facilities statewide. With bigger communities and a focus on the future, the League was officially recognized as a non-profit organization in 1947 and soon after hired its first employee.
The search for municipal revenues continued to be the League’s focus, with limited success. In 1958, League President Leo Murphy announced that the League needed a new approach to lobbying. Previously, the League had sent a committee to meet every two years for the 60-day legislative sessions. Under President Murphy’s leadership, the League would now operate year-round and hire at least three full-time employees, in order to have year-round legislative advocacy. The new approach proved to be a huge success, with 53 out of 56 League supported bills passing both chambers in the 1959 session, including League bills that revised fire fund distribution and a bill introducing a municipal sales tax option.
In a short time, the League had greatly expanded. By October 1964, there were 54 dues-paying member municipalities. By 1967, League staff had driven well over 16,000 miles consulting with municipal officials, and in 1968, the League answered 242 individual inquiries for municipal officials. With this increase in interest and usage, in 1968 the League board approved a statewide insurance program – consisting of life, accidental death and dismemberment, and health insurance – that was available to all elected officials and full-time municipal employees and their families.
Beyond the administrative expansion of the League in 1968, major headway was made in several legislative areas. A League committee headed by Albuquerque City Attorney Frank Horan presented a proposal to Governor Dave Cargo to support granting municipalities home rule authority. Governor Cargo went on to support home rule authority through a constitutional convention. The call for a constitutional convention was supported by the voters, and ultimately the amendment was approved on November 3, 1970. Additionally, the League was instrumental in New Mexico’s first general absentee voting law and was included in a statewide taxation taskforce and study (the Professional Tax Study Committee) created by the Legislature.
In 1977, the League decided to hold a nationwide search for a new director. On August 22, 1977, the board announced the selection of Bill Fulginiti, then the assistant director of the Pennsylvania Municipal League. Quickly, Fulginiti began to reorganize both the League’s mission and the programs it offered, focusing more on training and educational opportunities for municipal officials, and broadening the legislative strategy beyond solely tax issues.
In 1983, 40 league-member municipalities banded together to form the New Mexico Self Insurers’ Fund, organized and administered by the League. The New Mexico Self-Insurers Fund became a founding member of the National League of Cities Risk Information Sharing Consortium and continues to serve on its Board of Directors. The Fund also partnered with five other state municipal league-sponsored risk pools to create the NLC Mutual Insurance Company in 1986.
The 1980s saw several key League legislative accomplishments, including an additional quarter-percent municipal gross receipts tax increment, several increases to the Small Cities Assistance Fund, a new municipal election code, a lodger’s tax increase, tort claim caps, funding for safe drinking water testing, Open Meetings Act amendments, the creation of the New Mexico Finance Authority, expansion of the Law Enforcement Academy, and increased funding for fire districts and library services.
Moving into the 21st century, the League continued to develop and expand its programing, introducing several new initiatives, including the Municipal Officials Leadership Institute (MOLI), a certification program for municipal officials, as well as an accreditation program for law enforcement.
In 2020, amidst the challenges of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the League experienced an additional crisis with the sudden passing of Bill Fulginiti after over 40 years of service to the League. A.J. Forte was selected as the League’s next executive director. The League has continued to strengthen its legislative advocacy, with recent successes including increased funding for EMS, fire, and police; increased survivor benefits for both firefighters and law enforcement officers; significant updates to the Inspection of Public Records Act; modernization law enforcement training and performance standards; and increased funding for airport and road infrastructure statewide. The League and Fund have also expanded the services provided to municipalities with the creation of several internal programs and policies, including reimbursement for body-worn cameras, risk-related training opportunities for members, free mental health services for first responders, and grant-related support.
As of 2024, the New Mexico Municipal League and New Mexico Self-Insurers’ Fund has almost 30 employees, more than 60 scheduled events and trainings for members, 13 professional subsections, and active year-round legislative advocacy and risk management activities. While the combined organization has grown significantly since its beginnings in 1900, the same core goal continues to drive the organization – protecting and promoting municipal interests with a unified voice.