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.
Two bills designed to reform laws related to DWI, brought by Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, made their way through the Senate Public Affairs Committee Tuesday. Neither got out of committee with a “do-pass” recommendation, and each gained an additional committee assignment.
Between the two bills, the committee spoke for three hours about the new proposed regulations.
The proposal that attracted the most debate began the legislative session as two bills — Senate Bill 3 and Senate Bill 5, which were combined into one, called a committee substitute.
The bills would include minimum sentencing for first-time offenders, something that the law does not currently allow for, and a minimum three day jail sentence or 30 days of electronic monitoring and fines.
“I was encouraged, I think it was a good hearing,” Wirth told The Independent. “I think it was a fair presentation of both sides and the combination of the two bills works better so we’ve really created an alternative to the mandatory incarceration.”
Sen. George Munoz, D-Gallup, said the legislation would result in those who could afford the fines and electronic monitoring would opt to use that, while those with less money would be forced to go to jail.
Wirth said that the bill is necessary to stop first-time offenders from breaking the law multiple times.
“If we can reduce that by 25 percent, there’s a huge savings to the system. So that’s the hard piece of a bill like this to measure what the cost of the bill is,” he said.
Senators on the Public Affairs Committee were concerned with the price tag of the plan. Legislative analysts have not yet done a fiscal impact report on the committee substitute.
The other bill, Senate Bill 4, would amend laws that Wirth says include loopholes for those who refuse to take a breathalyzer or blood test when pulled over and suspected of a DWI.
The bill would change the law to say “no other disposition by plea of guilty to any other charge in satisfaction of the charge shall be authorized if…the person refuses to submit to a chemical test authorized by the Implied Consent Act.”
Wirth said that in some case’s those who refuse a blood test have been able to plea down to a lesser charge.
