The House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee approved four potential constitutional amendments aimed at modernizing the legislature at its meeting Friday.

The house joint resolutions were aimed at modernizing the legislature. If they pass the Legislature, voters would decide on whether to approve them.

These measures included creating a citizen’s commission on legislative salaries, extending the legislative session to 60 days each year, a different one changing the legislative session to two 45-day sessions, and eliminating pocket vetoes.

HJR 7 would establish a commission to study the idea of paying salaries to legislators. Legislators in New Mexico currently do not receive a salary, though they receive a per diem and are eligible for a pension. The commission would be made up of nine members of the public with no more than five members of the same political party at the time of appointment.

According to the legislation and its fiscal impact report, the commissioners would possibly be appointed by the commission itself.

“It is unclear if the commission would be administratively attached to (the Legislative Council Service). If so, the council will need to establish policies and procedures to select and appoint citizen commission members, establish terms for the commission members, and establish a process to fill vacancies,” the FIR states. 

Which means that the joint resolution establishes the Commission that will determine  and how the commissioners will be compensated. 

The legislation does not mention legislator pay amounts, as those would be determined by the commission. Commissioners would receive a per diem, per the legislation.

The commission would meet every four years after inception.

The resolution passed on a 5-to-3 vote along party lines.

Legislative Session Changes: two 60-day sessions or two 45-day sessions

HGEIA Committee Vice-Chairwoman Natalie Figueroa presented HJR 5 which seeks to make annual legislative sessions 60 days each with special sessions lasting up to 30 days. The resolution also removes restrictions currently placed on the 30-day session and adds veto override considerations of bills vetoed in the previous session.

Possible issues related to the potential legislative extension to 60 days in even years include it potentially being in conflict with election actions, according to the resolution’s fiscal impact report.

These conflicts include municipal officer elections on the first Tuesday in March for those municipalities that opted to keep their elections in even-numbered years rather than in odd-numbered years; special elections taking place in February and March, and candidate filing day which is the second Tuesday in March in even-numbered years.

Candidates can only file for candidacy on the designated days.

Rep. Bill Rehm, R-Albuquerque, brought up the election issues and stated that he would oppose this iteration of a legislative expansion in favor of HJR 1 which would make both sessions 45 days.

The committee passed HJR 5 on a 5-to-3 vote.

Rep. Matthew McQueen, D-Galisteo, presented HJR 1. McQueen said he would love for annual 60-day sessions, but said two 45-day sessions were better than the current system of a 60-day session in odd-numbered years and 30-day sessions in even-numbered years.

In addition to changing the length of legislative sessions to 45 days, HJR 1 removes the restrictions on bills that may be considered in even-numbered years; and provides for consideration of veto overrides for bills of certain special or extraordinary legislative sessions.

HJR 1 passed on a bipartisan 6-to-2 vote with Figueroa and House Majority Leader Gail Chasey, D-Albuquerque, as the two votes against.

Eliminate pocket vetoes

HJR 2 seeks to eliminate the governor’s pocket veto power and also would require the governor to provide an explanation for every veto regardless of whether the legislative session is in or not.

A piece of legislation is pocket vetoed when it passes both the House and Senate in the final days of the legislative session, but the governor does not act on it within a certain time frame and it therefore does not become law. The governor is not required to issue a veto message on bills vetoed in such a fashion.

The resolution would hold the provision to require any bills presented to the governor in the last three days of the session to be approved or pocket vetoed within 20 days after the legislative session adjourns. Unless the bill is vetoed within the 20 days, it becomes law.

The resolution passed on a unanimous 6-to-0 vote.

These house joint resolutions, if passed by both House and Senate, do not go to the governor for her signature and instead, if approved, go to the voters in the November 2024 election.

All four house joint resolutions now move on to the House Judiciary Committee.