NM Political Report (https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2023/03/16/ouse-sends-budget-bill-to-governor/)
By Robert Nott, The Santa Fe New Mexican
The state House of Representatives voted Wednesday to send a $9.57 billion budget bill to the governor for her approval.
On a voice vote, the chamber concurred with the Senate’s amendments to House Bill 2, the last procedural step to send the bill to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s desk. The Senate amendments include, among other changes, an additional $130 million in recurring spending for initiatives to address hunger and new investments in the New Mexico Opportunity Scholarship college tuition fund.
But concerns were raised on the House floor about the way the Senate Finance Committee made some extra budget adjustments just a day after the committee had already approved the bill. That action, which took place Sunday morning, annoyed Republican senators on the committee and raised questions about behind-the-scenes deals and political pressure for changes that may have come from the Governor’s Office.
The weekend move prompted Rep. Patty Lundstrom, D-Gallup — long the chair of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee before House Speaker Javier Martínez removed her at the beginning of the session — to ask whether it was all on the up and up.
“We talk about transparency and we talk about how everybody has to see everything … that is not my impression of what happened in the other chamber,” she said Wednesday afternoon as lawmakers discussed the concurrence motion on the House floor.
“I think it was not handled properly,” she said. “I talked to different members on the Senate Finance Committee who said that [when] the [budget] bill rolled out, they didn’t know what was in it because of closet negotiations happening without their input.”
While she said “we may not be sure” there were backroom shenanigans, she added, “I’m concerned when a group tries to pull the wool over the eyes of its own committee.”
Meanwhile, some House Republicans expressed concern about the roughly 14% increase in spending from this year’s budget, saying it’s troublesome in a state where so much revenue comes from the boom-or-bust oil and gas industry.
“I don’t think we can sustain it,” Rep. Jim Townsend, R-Artesia, said.
House Appropriations Chairman Rep. Nathan Small, D-Las Cruces, told the House the budget leaves room for a reserve fund of roughly 30% — about $2.873 billion. He said he is keeping a “cautious” eye on oil and gas revenue news.
Though Lundstrom said in January she was initially shocked to learn she had been removed as head of the appropriations committee, she told the assembly Wednesday the committee did “a very good job” sticking to the framework for building the budget that she had helped create before the session began.
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Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a voting rights expansion into law on Thursday. HB 4 updates the state Election Code by expanding voting rights across New Mexico including the addition of the Native American Voting Rights Act and restores rights to formerly incarcerated felons. “For me, in particular, you know, New Mexico already is a state with expansive and productive voting rights access and protections, and that’s meaningful and I really want to say thank you to the state and all of the coalition members who have been clear about that,” Lujan Grisham said during the bill’s signing ceremony.
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The New Mexico Supreme Court halted anti-abortion ordinances pending a review on if they comply with a new state law. The court issued a stay to the counties of Roosevelt and Lea and the municipalities of Hobbs and Clovis on abortion-regulating ordinances on Friday. The court’s action comes in response to New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s filing a stay request with the court and the court is requesting all parties to file briefs regarding what effect the Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Health Care Freedom Act has on the local anti-abortion regulations they passed in the last five months.
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By Daniel J. Chacón, The Santa Fe New Mexican The Senate Finance Committee endorsed a revised $9.57 billion spending plan Saturday that would increase the state’s spending in the upcoming fiscal year by nearly 14%. The full Senate is expected to consider the proposed budget on the floor Sunday afternoon.
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Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a voting rights expansion into law on Thursday. HB 4 updates the state Election Code by expanding voting rights across New Mexico including the addition of the Native American Voting Rights Act and restores rights to formerly incarcerated felons. “For me, in particular, you know, New Mexico already is a state with expansive and productive voting rights access and protections, and that’s meaningful and I really want to say thank you to the state and all of the coalition members who have been clear about that,” Lujan Grisham said during the bill’s signing ceremony.
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By Daniel J. Chacón, The Santa Fe New Mexicandchacon@sfnewmexican.com The state Senate passed a nearly $9.6 billion spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year Sunday amid accusations the proposed budget was hijacked at the eleventh hour. Discussion on the proposed budget, which would increase spending by almost 14%, or more than $1 billion, also came with a warning from the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee: The level of spending is unsustainable. “New Mexico had better be prepared in our future for the plateauing of oil and gas, and that’s not too many years away,” said Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup.
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Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a voting rights expansion into law on Thursday. HB 4 updates the state Election Code by expanding voting rights across New Mexico including the addition of the Native American Voting Rights Act and restores rights to formerly incarcerated felons. “For me, in particular, you know, New Mexico already is a state with expansive and productive voting rights access and protections, and that’s meaningful and I really want to say thank you to the state and all of the coalition members who have been clear about that,” Lujan Grisham said during the bill’s signing ceremony.
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Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a voting rights expansion into law on Thursday. HB 4 updates the state Election Code by expanding voting rights across New Mexico including the addition of the Native American Voting Rights Act and restores rights to formerly incarcerated felons.
by Ziva Branstetter, ProPublica ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom.
New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver testified Tuesday in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration about elections.
The New Mexico Supreme Court halted anti-abortion ordinances pending a review on if they comply with a new state law. The court issued a stay to the counties of Roosevelt and Lea and the municipalities of Hobbs and Clovis on abortion-regulating ordinances on Friday.
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed two bills on Thursday that impact student health: one bill codifies School-Based Health Centers into state statute and the other will make free menstrual products available in every public school.
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