Sindy Bolaños-Sacoman, director and co-founder of the New Mexico Tribal Behavioral Health Providers Association, rolls up a poster promoting how the association helps community members as Behavioral Health Day at the Legislature came to a close Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. Photo by Gabriela Campos/The New Mexican

The Santa Fe New Mexican Staff:

GOP take another run at trans sports ban: Two Republican senators have introduced another bill aiming to require school and college athletes to compete on teams matching their sex assigned at birth, banning transgender girls and women from female sports teams.

Senate Bill 459 is similar to House Bill 185, which was tabled in a party-line vote of the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee earlier this month. The bill has been referred to the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee.

“Americans broadly support the protection of women’s sports and based on conversations I have had with constituents and several young women in athletics, New Mexicans do as well,” Sen. Nicole Tobiassen, R-Albuquerque, who is sponsoring the bill with Sen. Jay Block, R-Rio Rancho, said in a statement Wednesday.

Sheriffs’ term limits stand: Lawmakers shot down a bid to eliminate term limits for county sheriffs in New Mexico’s constitution on Wednesday.

House Joint Resolution 7, sponsored by Rep. Alan Martinez, R-Bernalillo, failed to pass the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee on a 4-5 vote. Republicans largely voted in favor of the measure.

In advocating for the bill, Martinez said term limits often cut short long-term projects county sheriffs set in motion and which take years to come to fruition.

“By the time a sheriff [is] really able to get his programs going — specialized training, new divisions — their term is up,” he said.

Lea County Sheriff Corey Helton said the resolution, which would have had to go to voters for approval, could have provided more continuity.

“As long as we’re voted in, I don’t see why we can’t continue to serve,” he said.

After voting down the resolution, Rep. Charlotte Little, D-Albuquerque thanked Martinez for bringing forward the option for voters, but suggested instead a change to allow sheriffs to serve for 12 years instead of just eight.

Polling centers possible in prisons: Inmates in New Mexico’s correctional facilities could be on their way to being able to vote after lawmakers of the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee passed House Joint Resolution 10 Wednesday morning.

Sponsors and supporters of the proposed constitutional amendment, which will be submitted to voters if the Legislature approves it, argued the measure would restore a right to have a say in state governance by some of the people who are most affected by it.

“Stripping voting rights remains a form of criminal punishment that neither deters crime nor supports rehabilitation,” said Molly Swank, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico.

The measure was approved on a 5-3 party-line vote. Rep. John Block, R-Alamogordo, argued stripping people with felony convictions of their ability to vote is primarily about the people they had hurt.

“I think about the victims and the reason that those people were incarcerated in the first place,” he said. “And I don’t see it as an equity situation, I do not see it as disenfranchisement — I would see it the opposite [way].”

Brackish water bill headed to full House: A bill to treat naturally occurring brackish water for industrial use cleared another committee Wednesday afternoon.

House Bill 137 advanced out of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee on a 10-4 vote after having cleared two other committees and now heads to the House floor. The “no” votes included three Democrats and one Republican.

The measure initially also called for treatment and reuse of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing, but the provision was stripped from the bill last week.

Flurry of bills pass the House: The House of Representatives breezed through several pieces of legislation during its Wednesday morning floor session, passing five bills on subjects from state employment policies to red and green chiles.

The bills included:

• House Bill 129, which would decrease the state employee probationary period from a year to six months.
• House Bill 69, which would qualify adjunct professors and contingent faculty at higher education institutions as full-time employees when calculating eligibility for public service loan forgiveness.
• House Bill 297, which would expand the pathways and teacher licensure types eligible to pursue a computer science endorsement.
• House Bill 82, which would allow physical therapists from other states to practice in New Mexico, after meeting certain requirements.
• House Bill 172, which would officially declare August “New Mexico Red and Green Chile Month.” (Notably, the state has not officially weighed in on the matter of red versus green chile, nor has it taken up the matter of flat versus rolled enchiladas.)

The only proposal to generate discussion was HB 172. Lawmakers voiced their support for New Mexico’s chile growers and roasters, with the state’s chile crop valued at more than $40 million annually, said Rep. Rebecca Dow, R-Truth or Consequences. The industry currently faces some challenges, with decreased acreage producing chiles and an aging population of farmers.

“We’ve just got it right,” Dow said of the quality of New Mexico chile crops.

All five bills now head to the Senate.

Quote of the day: “I think the Senate Republicans will take a nap while you guys are working.” —Sen. Pat Woods, R-Broadview, in response to a planned caucus meeting for Senate Democrats. 

Trevor Davidson, center, and Eloy Carrillo, with Overhead Door Co. of Santa Fe install new concealed vertical rod exit devices in the entry doors while working at the state Capitol building on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. Photo by Gabriela Campos/The New Mexican

Trevor Davidson, right, and Eloy Carrillo, with Overhead Door Co. of Santa Fe lift one of the entry doors to the state Capitol to put back on its hinges while working at the state Capitol building on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. Photo by Gabriela Campos/The New Mexican