I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The Senate Rules Committee is scheduled to hear a series of ethics bills, including the list below, at 8 a.m. Friday. The New Mexico Independent plans to webcast this meeting and live-blog during it. Our goal is to provide increased public access to the meeting and encourage a lively discussion on the subject of ethics reform. Please plan to join us, watch the proceedings and share your thoughts as a guest panelist. Click Here to join us.
As NMI’s Heath Haussamen has noted, advocates for ethics reform fear that many of these bills are doomed because they must be passed through three committees (instead of the usual two).
There have been many ethics bills introduced so far this session, and there has also been an effort to combine some of the ethics bills. Combining the bills could help include some elements of reform — but it could also make it easier to kill the bills with one swift stroke.
Scheduled to be heard by the Senate Rules Committee on Friday are the following bills (compiled by Heath Haussamen):
• Senate Bill 94, sponsored by Mark Boitano, R-Albuquerque, and Senate Bill 163, sponsored by Eric Griego, D-Albuquerque, which would both prohibit lawmakers from becoming lobbyists for one year after they leave office.
• Senate Bill 116, sponsored by Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque; Senate Bill 262, sponsored by Sue Wilson Beffort, R-Sandia Park, and Senate Bill 346, sponsored by Bernadette Sanchez, D-Albuquerque, all of which would enact campaign contribution limits.
• Senate Bill 128, sponsored by Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, which would require that candidates file reports of expenditures and contributions twice a year in off-election years. Currently, the law requires that annually.
• Senate Bill 258, sponsored by Tim Keller, D-Albuquerque, which would ban all campaign contributions to statewide elected officials from state contractors or prospective contractors.
• Senate Bill 263, sponsored by Beffort, and Senate Bill 296, sponsored by Feldman, which would both require that prospective and current state and local government contractors disclose their campaign contributions.
UPDATE: The Rules Committee had to push some unfinished business onto the calendar for Friday, so here is the revised slate of bills. Most of the ethics bills are toward the end of the list.
SB 172 INTERIM HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE (LOPEZ)
SB 242 INTERIM HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE (FELDMAN)
SB 286 NM TELEHEALTH COMMISSION NAME & PURPOSE (FELDMAN)
SB 72 POST-ELECTION VOTING ACCURACY EVALUATION (McSORLEY)
SB 165 PUBLIC CAMPAIGN ACT (GRIEGO E.)
SB 261 RETIREMENT BENEFIT FORFEITURE FOR SOME CRIMES (BEFFORT)
SJM 12 STUDY TELECOMM SERVICE PROVIDER EQUITY (HARDEN)
SM 3 HEALTH CARE PROCEDURE COST TASK FORCE (BOITANO)
SB 94 PROHIBIT FORMER LEGISLATORS AS LOBBYISTS (BOITANO)
SB 116 LIMIT CONTRIBUTIONS TO CANDIDATES & PACS (FELDMAN)
SB 128 REQUIRE BIANNUAL CAMPAIGN REPORTS (WIRTH)
SB 163 PROHIBIT FORMER LEGISLATORS AS LOBBYISTS (GRIEGO E.)
SB 258 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM STATE CONTRACTORS (KELLER)
SB 262 POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO CANDIDATES (BEFFORT)
SB 263 CONTRACTOR DISCLOSURE OF CONTRIBUTIONS (BEFFORT)
SB 296 STATE CONTRACTOR CONTRIBUTION DISCLOSURE (FELDMAN)
SB 346 POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO CANDIDATES (SANCHEZ B.)
