A legislative committee is scheduled to vote this afternoon on proposed legislation to strengthen oversight over New Mexico’s investment of taxpayer money.

One proposed bill before the Investments Oversight Committee would require all state funds that invest money to add seats to their respective boards, state Sen. Tim Keller said in a press release. State lawmakers would appoint members to the new board seats under the proposed legislation.

Another proposed bill would require a fund’s board or council to hire its chief investment officer rather than allow the governor to make the appointment, as occurs now, according to Keller’s press release.

Hiring and firing of all third-party marketers ultimately would fall to a state fund board or the appropriate advisory committee rather than leaving that responsibility to the chief investment officer, Keller’s press release said.

An approval by the Investment Oversight Committee of the proposed legislation today would provide a boost to the bills during the 30-day legislative session that begins in January.  Monday’s vote, in other words, is not final, but puts the committee’s imprimatur behind the bills.

The proposed legislation comes amid a year increasing scrutiny of how New Mexico has invested taxpayer money because of an ongoing federal investigation that in October led former state investment officer, Gary Bland, to resign.

Bland, a political appointee of the governor who made $301,000 a year, has been near the center of controversy for months. Saul Meyer, the founder of the investment firm Aldus Equity, New Mexico’s former investment adviser, pleaded guilty in New York in October to felony charges related to a kickback scheme that reaches all the way to New Mexico.

In pleading guilty, Meyer admitted to recommending “investments that were pushed on him by politically-connected individuals in New Mexico” while Aldus was the investment adviser to New Mexico’s SIC and Educational Retirement Board, according to a New York attorney general news release announcing Meyer’s guilty plea.