Quick Reads

House committee debates bill eliminating tax break for apartments

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The elimination of a property tax break for apartment owners would lead to higher rents and force some owners out of business, representatives of the rental industry told a committee of state lawmakers Tuesday. But supporters of legislation to wipe out the tax break countered that the potential effect on rents is unclear, that property taxes would decline for some apartment owners and homeowners, and that the bill would encourage development of new rental housing. “There will be some winners and losers here, but overall it will be a fairer system and more rational system” for levying property taxes, said Mike Loftin, CEO of Homewise, a Santa Fe nonprofit that works to get families in affordable homes. The House Local Government, Land Grants and Cultural Affairs Committee didn’t act on the legislation, House Bill 647. The committee is scheduled to resume consideration of the bill Thursday morning.

2017 legislative session

A less automatic voter registration bill clears committee

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An automatic voter registration bill lost a bit of what made it automatic, but moved on from the House committee that previously blocked it. State Rep. Daymon Ely, D-Albuquerque, was one of two Democrats to previously vote against the legislation in the House Local Government, Elections and Land Grant Committee. He explained after that vote that he voted against the bill initially so he could bring it off the table, citing a parliamentary rule, and reconsider the matter. The bill was previously tabled in the same committee. Ely brought the bill back Tuesday.

2017 legislative session

Measure creating independent ethics commission advances

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Several lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle had pointed questions Thursday about a proposed constitutional amendment that would establish an independent ethics commission in New Mexico. But at the end of the hearing, the House Local Government, Elections, Land Grants and Cultural Affairs Committee voted unanimously to give a do-pass recommendation to House Joint Resolution 8, sponsored by Rep. Jim Dines, R-Albuquerque, and send it to the House Judiciary Committee. “We all know there is an obvious gap in trust between us in office and the public,” Dines told the committee. “The more we do to restore trust, the better it will be, not only in New Mexico, but in the U.S.” Under Dines’ proposal, if the seven-member commission is approved by voters in 2018, members would be appointed by the governor and the Legislature to investigate possible ethical violations by legislators, state officers and officials in the executive branch.

2017 legislative session

Early childhood education bill faces uphill climb

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Backers of a proposed constitutional amendment that would take about $112 million a year from the state’s land grant endowment to pay for early childhood education say a new study shows that the need for such programs actually exceeds $400 million annually. “This is an alarm,” Allen Sánchez, president of CHI St. Joseph’s Children, said Tuesday of the report commissioned by his organization. Sánchez is among the most vocal supporters of House Joint Resolution 1, sponsored by Democratic state Reps. Antonio “Moe” Maestes and Javier Martinez, both of Albuquerque.

open primaries

Bill allowing open primaries gets warmer reception in House committee

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Voters unaffiliated with either of the two major political parties — currently barred from participating in primary elections — would be allowed to choose either a Democratic or Republican primary ballot under a bill that unanimously cleared a House committee Tuesday. But judging by the reaction a similar bill received in a Senate committee earlier this week, the House bill could run into trouble if it makes it to the other side of the Roundhouse. The House Local Government, Elections, Land Grant and Cultural Affairs Committee gave a do-pass recommendation to House Bill 206, sponsored by Reps. Stephanie Garcia Richard, D-Los Alamos, and Jim Dines, R-Albuquerque. Garcia Richard says her bill is aimed at increasing voter turnout.