The special session began with Democrats criticizing Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s agenda and Republicans applauding it, while Senators introduced 16 pieces of legislation.
The Senate began the special session on Thursday with Senators Katy Duhigg, Antonio “Moe” Maestas, Jerry Ortiz y Pino, all Democrats from Albuquerque, and Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, critiquing the bills and the process while Republican Senators Crystal Diamond Brantley, of Elephant Butte, Craig Brandt of Rio Rancho and Mark Moores of Albuquerque, praising Lujan Grisham for the special session and the bills on the agenda.
The Senate introduced 15 bills, almost all crime and border bills. One, SB 16, sponsored by Diamond Brandley, would improve radio towers and communication in certain counties, including Doña Ana and Hidalgo.
Only bills that are on the call of the special session can be discussed.
SB 11, sponsored by Moores, is the bill regulating public medians that has caused controversy in recent weeks. Duhigg criticized the bill on the Senate floor, saying that some urban areas such as Albuquerque, already have similar ordinances in place. She said that SB 11 could impinge on First Amendment rights and, as it currently reads, the bill would inadvertently prohibit such New Mexico traditions as the annual pilgrimage to Chimayo.
Duhigg also said the need for the bill is based on a report that says that New Mexico ranks high in pedestrian fatalities. But, she said, Lujan Grisham’s proclamation is not an accurate read of that report.
Duhigg said the report says pedestrian fatalities in New Mexico are caused by speeding, lighting problems, heavier and larger cars on the road and driving under the influence of alcohol.
“I don’t think it’s comfortable for any of us to see folks struggling on medians or elsewhere but the state is limiting free speech, criminalizing our traditions and taking an approach toward unhoused people so they’re less visible but it doesn’t do anything to fix the underlying problems, especially if it’s pedestrian fatalities,” Duhigg said.
Maestas said he doesn’t support bills that would increase criminal penalties. Cervantes said he embraced the special session initially and that he and others have worked exhaustively for the past two months on the proposed legislation. He said the agenda and bills have “changed from month to month, week to week and hour to hour.”
“In the last 24 hours we’re seeing new proposals never contemplated for this special session,” he said. The governor added new pieces of legislation to the agenda on Wednesday.
Ortiz y Pino said the legislature has already passed bills to expand services but “the executive branch has not felt the urgency to expand services.” He said the result, if the bill that would expand who could send individuals to mental health treatment is enacted, it would lead to overburdening county jails because the state lacks adequate facilities to house the numbers of people who could be committed.
Diamond Brantley said Lujan Grisham “deserves credit for calling this special session to acknowledge we have a crime problem in New Mexico.”
Moores, who did not run for reelection this year, said he is leaving Albuquerque in part because of the city’s crime problem. He criticized a few of the bills, saying, in part, that the bill that expands involuntary treatment makes him “nervous” and that a bill to require data sharing between law enforcement is an “unfunded mandate.” But, he said that when similar bills have been introduced in a 60-day session, they don’t make it through the process.
“I’ve stepped across party lines,” Moores said.
Moores is sponsoring SB 9, which redefines terms such as “harm to self” and “harm to others” and SB 10, which relates to competency proceedings.
Cervantes said some of the proposed bills, such as the data sharing bill, are already on the books but are being “repackaged.”
“There’s not an absence of laws. It’s an absence of courage to speak truth to power,” he said.