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The Senate Rules Committee has finally begun to move on a number of ethics-reform proposals, and that has reform supporters saying there is reason for optimism despite the committee’s late start on the issue.
“The public pressure is pretty clear at this point… and my impression is that our legislators are aware that the public pressure has been raised quite significantly,” said Steve Allen, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico.
One key source of optimism is that the rules committee gave a unanimous do-pass recommendation on Wednesday to Senate Bill 141, which would allow a judge, in the case of an elected official who commits a felony connected to his office, to impose a fine no greater than the elected official’s salary and benefits in addition to the standard sentence. The bill is sponsored by Sen. William Payne, R-Albuquerque.
Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, and a member of the committee, missed the vote.
The committee didn’t have time to consider two other ethics bills on the agenda, so both are now scheduled for the committee’s hearing on Friday, along with at least nine other ethics-reform bills.
The two that were rescheduled are Senate Bill 261, sponsored by Sen. Sue Wilson Beffort, R-Sandia Park, which would establish a process for the forfeiture of retirement benefits for state employees and state retirees convicted of felonies “arising from conduct related to” their public employment. The second is Senate Bill 165, sponsored by Eric Griego, D-Albuquerque, which would expand the state’s public financing system to include legislators and statewide elected officials.
Other bills scheduled to be heard on Friday propose campaign contribution limits, prohibiting lawmakers from becoming lobbyists for one year after they leave office, increasing the frequency that campaign finance reports must be filed, and banning campaign contributions from state contractors or prospective contractors, or at least requiring the disclosure of their contributions.
Absent from that list are a number of ethics bills, including proposals to create a state ethics commission and another to open legislative conference committees to the public.
Hearing is devoted almost entirely to ethics reform
Though it’s common for committees to run out of time and reschedule bill hearings — as happened on Wednesday with the two ethics bills — it appears that at least some of the bills that are scheduled will actually be considered on Friday. There are only a few bills on the committee’s agenda for the meeting other than the ethics bills. The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 a.m. in Room 321 at the Roundhouse.
Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque, expressed the same optimism shared by Allen.
“I’m looking forward to that hearing, and I’m hopeful we can identify the areas of agreement and the areas that we need to work on, and go forward,” said Feldman, who has bills related to contribution limits and the disclosure of contributions from contractors scheduled to be heard Friday.
Sen. Tim Keller, D-Albuquerque, whose bill to ban all contributions to statewide elected officials from current or prospective contractors, said he’s also optimistic that the bills “will get a good hearing.”
He said the real question is whether the state Legislature “wants to appease public demand for common reform, such as contribution limits,” or wants to focus on “directly dissolving some of the connections between money and politics, such as contractor contribution bans and public financing.”
The omnibus bill
If reform advocates are correct in their optimism, the tone in the Legislature — and in particular in the Senate — is different than it has been in recent years. It’s no secret that many senators have been apprehensive about ethics reform in recent years, and many proposals have been approved in the House but died in the Senate.
Many who have opposed reform in the past are instead talking about folding a number of different proposals into one omnibus bill this year.
Feldman said that concerns her “because one little thing can doom it.” She said the committee’s do-pass recommendation for Payne’s bill is encouraging because it shows that the committee may allow some other proposals to move forward on their own.
“It was a sign, I think, that there is appetite enough to propel the bills forward,” Feldman said.
Feldman said, at the very least she hopes the architects behind the planned omnibus bill only “group birds of a feather, so to speak, together, and don’t try to be all things to all people with one huge bill.”
Matt Brix, policy director for the Center for Civic Policy, said he hopes the omnibus bill won’t be used to kill reform.
“With each legislative session, there are more and more compelling reasons to enact key ethics reforms,” he said.
“We do hope that by rolling several bills into one omnibus bill, opponents of reform will not find reasons to block the bill, limit public comment, water down the bill or add a poison-pill amendment.”
