News

Legislative report: Homelessness on the rise in New Mexico

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Preliminary estimates for 2023 show a “significant uptick” of about 48 percent in homelessness in New Mexico, suggesting an increased need for affordable housing around the state, according to a report. The interim Legislative Finance Committee met on Tuesday and heard housing experts Kathleen Gygi, program evaluator for the Legislative Finance Committee, Amy Whitfield, housing and homeless advisor for the Office of the Governor and Isidoro “Izzy” Hernandez, executive director and chief executive officer of New Mexico Mortgage Finance Committee, on a presentation about homelessness and affordable housing issues. The presenters provided a report for the committee that showed an overview of affordable housing and homelessness in the state. One problem Gygi highlighted is that incomes have not kept up with the cost of rent. Since 2017, rents and home values have grown by 70 percent while income in the state has grown by just 15 percent, Gygi said. Another problem is a lack of bed space for homeless individuals.

Abortion Access

Guv signs capital outlay bill, which includes $10 million pledge for reproductive clinic in Las Cruces

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The day before the deadline to sign bills, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the capital outlay bill, which includes a $10 million pledge to build a full-spectrum reproductive health clinic in Las Cruces. HB 505 contains $1.2 billion worth of projects to be built across the state. Among those is Lujan Grisham’s $10 million pledge to build a full-spectrum reproductive health care clinic in Las Cruces. Lujan Grisham announced the pledge last summer, a few months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade when it ruled against a Mississippi abortion clinic that provided abortions up to 16 weeks. Several organizations have partnered to begin discussions on the future clinic.

Abortion Access

How the Legislature addressed child well being

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New Mexico continues to rank at the bottom on child well being indexes, but the 2023 Legislature passed some bills that advocates say can make an impact on that low ranking. A child tax credit was included in the final omnibus tax package and it will help improve racial and gender equity, Amber Wallin, executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, told NM Political Report. HB 547, the omnibus tax bill, underwent multiple conference committees but the New Mexico Child Tax Credit survived the negotiations. It will, among other things, provide up to $600 per child annually as a child tax credit for families earning $25,000 or less a year. For households earning $25,000 to $50,000, the annual child tax credit will be $400 per child and for households earning $50,000 to $75,000, the annual child tax credit will be $200 per child if Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signs the bill into law.

News

House passes omnibus tax bill

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By Robert Nott, The Santa Fe New Mexican

The House of Representatives voted 50-18 Sunday evening to approve an omnibus tax policy plan that would provide $500 and $1,000 rebate checks to taxpayers later this year. 

The amended House Bill 547 upped the amount of those rebate checks from an earlier draft that would have offered $300 to single taxpayers and $600 to married couples filing jointly. 

“We heard the public, we heard members of this body and the Senate — we should give [more] money back to the people of New Mexico,” said Rep. Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo, who introduced HB 547 on the House floor Sunday. 

That amount still falls short of the proposed rebates of $750 for single taxpayers and $1,500 for married couples filing jointly that taxpayers received last year, and which Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called for again in her state of the state address in January. 

Members of the Senate Finance Committee have also recommended $500 and $1,000 rebate checks in the operating budget, House Bill 2. 

The change in rebate check amounts speaks to the ever-changing tax and finance policies lawmakers — with input from the governor’s office — deal with in the final days of the legislative session. When it comes to tax bills, most members of the public not affiliated with a business are most likely to care about the rebates, which, lawmakers have said, can make at least a one-time difference when it comes to shooing away whatever wolves might be at the door. Otherwise, much of the original content of the bill, first introduced to the House Taxation and Revenue Committee about a week ago, remains. HB 547 includes an increase in corporate tax deductions, a small increase to the alcohol excise tax to benefit programs addressing alcohol and drug use and a child income tax credit for up to $600 for eligible taxpayers. It also includes a rural health care practitioner credit of up to $5,000 for some health care professionals, including doctors, and a refundable electric vehicle income tax credit of $2,500 for every electric vehicle purchased. 

In addition, HB 547, a roughly $1.2 billion package, will drop the state’s gross receipts tax by one-half of 1%.

Abortion Access

Guv’s funding for reproductive healthcare clinic survives challenge in House

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An effort to strike the $10 million pledged by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for a full-spectrum reproductive healthcare clinic in Doña Ana County failed on Saturday. State Rep. John Block, R-Alamogordo, introduced an amendment to the capital outlay bill to strike the pledge to help enable a reproductive healthcare clinic, which would include abortion, in Doña Ana County. Several Republicans said they couldn’t support the capital outlay bill due to the governor’s pledge. Bill sponsor Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo, said it was an unfriendly amendment. He also said the pledge of $10 million amounted to .8 percent of the $1.2 billion project list.

News

Bills to address Yazzie/Martinez court ruling advance

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The House Education Committee approved a trio of bills to fund programs to help Native American students succeed in school. The three bills, sponsored by Rep. Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo, are in response to the historic 2018 Yazzie/Martinez court ruling that said New Mexico has denied several groups of students, including Native Americans, their constitutional right to an education. House bills 87, 88 and 90 would provide more than $70 million to tribal entities to help offer culturally relevant lesson plans and access to virtual and after-school programs for those students. 

“This is not about throwing money at a problem in hopes that it goes away,” Lente told committee members. “That’s a practice we’ve engaged in for decades and we’ve seen the results. “Where we’re trying to get to is shift the priorities … to make sure Native American students are educated within their communities … and have the capacity to access equitable learning programs,” he added.

2021 redistricting

Debate, testimony over maps fills second day of session

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The New Mexico House of Representatives spent much of the second day of the second 2021 special legislative session discussing the merits of proposed maps. The special session is largely focused on redrawing the state’s political boundaries for U.S congressional districts and state House and Senate districts and is expected to last 12 days. 

During a more-than three-hour presentation to the House, both Republicans and Democrats debated the merits of one congressional map concept in particular and whether a newly formed citizen led redistricting committee had presented the best map concepts for the Legislature to choose from. Later in the day, a House committee heard public testimony on a House map that is an amalgamation of three concepts from the citizen committee. 

During a House committee of the whole on Tuesday morning, a representative of the citizen committee along with members of the prominent New Mexico polling company Research and Polling fielded questions and sometimes criticism from members. 

Rep. Rebecca Dow, R-Truth or Consequences, who is also vying for the Republican nomination for governor, questioned a congressional map concept put forward by advocacy group Center for Civic Policy and adopted by the redistricting committee. Known as el mapa de la gente, or the people’s map, the concept would drastically change the three congressional districts and group rural areas like Roswell and Carrizozo with the urban Albuquerque area. According to the Center for Civic Policy, the goal of the map is to create a strong Latino or Hispanic district.

cannabis

House passes cannabis legalization effort, sends it to the Senate

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A House proposal to legalize and regulate cannabis passed the chamber on a 39-31 vote, with six Democrats breaking rank to vote against the measure. 

HB 12, sponsored by Democratic Reps. Javier Martínez of Albuquerque and Andrea Romero of Santa Fe, would fully legalize the sale and production of cannabis for adults, allow home cultivation and would expunge previous minor drug convictions. The bill would also implement an eight percent excise tax on the sale of cannabis and a local government tax up to four percent. Recreational-use cannabis would also be subject to gross receipts taxes, while medical-use cannabis would not. 

Martínez said the three major tenets of the bill are to protect New Mexico’s current medical-use cannabis program, ensure an equitable and just industry and to create a regulated industry that will thrive. 

Romero told her colleagues she shared the sentiments of her cosponsor and said cannabis has been used for various purposes for centuries, including in her own family.    

Rep. Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo explained why he opposed the bill. He raised concerns about how a fully-legalized cannabis program might impact tribal governments in the state.

Quick Reads

Zia Pueblo sees COVID-19 outbreak

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“As of today April 5th, the Pueblo of Zia has confirmed 11 Zia Tribal Members, potentially 20, infected by COVID-19(Coronavirus),” Acting Governor Floyd Toribio wrote Sunday in a memo to tribal members.

2020 Legislative Session

Lower profile cannabis bills headed for floor debates

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With eight days left in the legislative session, passing a cannabis legalization bill is looking more and more like a long-shot. But there are three other bills related to cannabis and hemp that have been moving through committee assignments, some with little to no debate or opposition. 

The two cannabis legalization bills have stalled so far in both legislative chambers. The Senate version passed its first committee and is scheduled to be heard Wednesday afternoon in its second. The House version of legalization has yet to be heard in its first committee. Both bills are politically divisive and will likely be subjected to hours of public testimony and legislative debate.