Stephanie Garcia Richard is the newly elected State House Representative for District 43, which includes Los Alamos and parts of Rio Arriba, Sandoval and Santa Fe counties. She is a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University and teaches 3^rd grade at Pablo Roybal Elementary School in Pojoaque. Courtesy photo

In her 2013 Legislative Session Review, Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard issued the following information to her constituents:

It has been an honor to serve as your State Representative for District 43 and I am excited to continue to work together as we build a better New Mexico.

This year, I was appointed to two very important committees to our community; House Appropriations Committee and the House Education Committee.

Both committees afforded me the opportunity to play a vital role in some of the most important legislation this session.

Along with securing numerous capital outlay funds for various projects throughout House District 43, I am very proud to have cosponsored the JTIP job incentives bill which invests in local workers by offering financial support for hiring and training new employees.

My three cosponsors and I were able to secure three million dollars for this program that brings jobs into New Mexico and District 43.

This session, I also sponsored legislation to support our youth and science programs, increase DWI prevention, expand Health Insurance coverage, protect our vital water supply as well as invest in renewable energy storage incentives to address needs at LANL. In total, I was able to get four memorials and two bills pass this session!

They included:

• HB 107 – would allow small municipalities to transfer revenue from traffic fines to their general fund. Communities like Jemez Springs currently cannot access these funds even though they belong to the community. This bill fixes the problem.
• HB 562 would create the Technology Research Collaborative, which would establish advanced technology centers and develop new intellectual property for the state. The institutions participating in the collaborative would include all national laboratories, other major research institutes and all of the post-secondary educational institutions in New Mexico. The New Mexico Institute for Mining and Technology would act as fiscal agent for the collaborative.
• HJM 10 – Requests the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department to encourage development of renewable energy storage by identifying and prioritizing legislative and regulatory incentives; convening a working group of stakeholders to compile an inventory of major existing renewable energy storage policies and regulations; developing legislative recommendations and alternatives to incentivize renewable energy storage technologies; and integrating this effort into that of other existing task forces, working groups, or agency activities already underway.
• HJM 33 – Calls upon the City of Santa Fe to give priority to the release of sufficient reclaimed water during the growing season to downstream users of La Cieneguilla, La Cienega and La Bajada and the Pueblo of Cochiti to sustain historic agricultural traditions.
• HM 29 – Proclaims February 20, 2013 as “Support the New Mexico Alliance of YMCAs Day” in the House of Representatives.
• HM 71 – Urges members of New Mexico’s Congressional Delegation to support continued or increased federal funding for New Mexico’s national laboratories and DOE facilities so that they can continue their national missions and remain critical partners in the economic welfare of New Mexico.

As a body we were also able to close the tax loophole known as “combined reporting”. Until now, out-of-state corporations were able to avoid paying part or all of their New Mexico income taxes.

We closed that loophole thereby leveling the playing field for our in-state corporations. This was part of a larger corporate tax overhaul and is an issue I campaigned on. I am glad we were able to accomplish it in my first session.