Legislative Roundup
SFNM

Don’t fence me in, Part II: The chain-link fence around the state Capitol continues to divide Republicans and Democrats inside the building. The latest dust-up happened near the end of Friday’s Senate floor session. It started when Sen. Bill Sharer, R-Farmington — who has continued to question the need for the fence — joked it was “too bad we’re not chickens because then we would be free-range”. In an orchestrated move, Sen. Craig Brandt, R-Rio Rancho, then sang the first verse of “Don’t Fence Me In”, with Sharer. But Sen. Harold Pope Jr., D-Albuquerque, didn’t find the hijinks funny.

“As a retired Air Force officer, I’ve dealt with this living on a compound in the Middle East for a year, and I don’t like the fact that we’re driving in and we have that fence,” he said. “But it’s a reality. Threats have been made to state capitols. … This is serious. This isn’t joking around.” 

Protecting students: A bill updating New Mexico school policies to teach about and prevent sexual assault moved through its first Senate committee Friday after members of the Senate Education Committee voted to support House Bill 142. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Liz Thomson, D-Albuquerque, would create a task force on sexual misconduct issues. It also would require public schools and colleges to adopt policies to address the concept of affirmative consent when it comes to sex to prevent sexual and dating violence and harassment. Though some members of the committee asked why such a measure is needed if schools are already doing this, they ended up voting 6-0 to move the bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Joint resolution pulled: Members of the Senate Rules Committee acted swiftly to table Senate Joint Resolution 1. The measure, introduced by Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, would have given voters the chance to decide if they want to pull funds from the state’s permanent school fund, which is within the state Land Grant Permanent Fund, to provide at least $170 million for teacher salaries and instructional materials.

Wirth asked the committee members to pull the resolution from Friday’s hearing, leading Sen. Mark Moores, R-Albuquerque, to motion to table it permanently. The other members agreed. Wirth then explained that he felt it was not “the way to go” to have that resolution up against House Joint Resolution 1 in the same committee hearing. HJR 1 would give voters the right to decide whether the state can pull money from the Land Grant Permanent Fund to finance early childhood education programs. The committee voted 7-4 to move the latter proposal forward to the Senate Finance Committee. 

Dismiss request to dismiss, please: The former judge who filed a complaint against House Speaker Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, has asked the State Ethics Commission to disregard Egolf’s request to have the issue dismissed. Last month, former judge Sandra Price, a Democrat, filed a complaint against Egolf with the commission, alleging he stands to gain as a private-practice attorney if a bill he sponsored — which would allow citizens to sue government agencies if they feel their civil rights have been violated — becomes law.

Egolf subsequently responded by asking the commission to dismiss the complaint, saying it was “unsubstantiated”, among other reasons. 

In an eight-page letter sent to the ethics commission Friday, Price, who served 12 years on the bench in the 11th Judicial District, asked the commission to decide whether the governmental standards of ethical conduct apply to Egolf as a volunteer legislator. One of those standards says government officials should not act “to obtain personal benefit”. Price, in her original complaint last month and again Friday, said Egolf’s Santa Fe law firm does stand to gain if House Bill 4 is enacted. That’s because a provision in that bill ensures attorneys’ fees will be covered if the plaintiff wins the lawsuit. That “guarantees to him [Egolf] financial benefits,” she wrote in her letter. She wrote that even if her claim is not upheld, it’s still the commission’s job to investigate it.  

Liquor license fees: In the closest vote on the Senate floor during this legislative session, lawmakers on Friday voted 19-18 to concur with amendments made by the House of Representatives to a bill that would waive liquor license fees for the coming year. Senate Bill 2 is a pandemic-relief measure and not tied to larger efforts to reform and update the state’s liquor license laws. It would give New Mexicans who own a liquor license a one-year break from paying renewal license fees. If those license owners have already paid fees for 2021, next year’s fee would be waived. The bill’s fiscal impact report says the state Regulation and Licensing Department estimates New Mexico would lose between $3.4 million and $3.8 million during a 12-month period, but depending on when the bill would take effect, most of that fiscal impact would be in fiscal year 2022, not 2021. The bill now goes to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. 

Bills, bills, bills: The state Senate passed seven bills on third reading during a fast-paced three-hour floor session Friday. Among the measures that made it out of the chamber is Senate Bill 7, which would end the current practice of suspending driver’s licenses in New Mexico over a missed court hearing or overdue fines and fees. The practice affects tens of thousands of New Mexico drivers annually.

“This is part of a national bipartisan effort,” the sponsor, Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, said, adding he thought it was the first bill he’s ever carried that is supported by Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. Wirth quoted Norquist, who has said that “denying a person a driver’s license because they owe money creates a modern version of the debtors’ prison — you cannot leave your house until you pay your debts, but you cannot pay your debt if you cannot go to work. This is wrong.”

Quote of the day: “I hate to pass it because then you won’t introduce it again every year, and I’ll lose out on some of those colorful emails I get all year long. I love the issues that get brought up. I particularly like the one about the cows not being able to produce as much milk because they’ll be in the dark too much.” — Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, struggling over whether to support a bill by Sen. Cliff Pirtle, R-Roswell, that seeks to keep New Mexico on daylight saving time year-round.