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.
Gov. Bill Richardson (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Gov. Bill Richardson came out in favor of one of two State Investment Council reform bills Tuesday, saying he prefers House Speaker Ben Lujan’s version. That comes as no real surprise; Lujan’s version keeps Richardson on the State Investment Council, while the Senate bill gives him the boot.
“The speaker has a very good bill that has more balance in representation,” Richardson said at a mid-day news conference in his fourth-floor Capitol office.
When asked if he’d veto the Senate bill if it got to his desk, Richardson said he hadn’t seen it.
Over the past three weeks, the Senate bill worked its way through that chamber with multiple hearings before Senators passed it unanimously last week. Lujan’s bill, on the other hand, materialized as if by magic Sunday while lawmakers were on the House floor. Using a floor substitute, Lujan turned a five-page bill specifying who sits on the SIC board into a 20-page piece of legislation that substantially alters how the agency is governed. The House voted 68-0 in favor.
It was all over within minutes. The altered bill didn’t go through a single House committee.
Lujan’s bill, now in the Senate, has one committee referral – Senate Finance Committee – compared to the two House committees the Senate bill received.
A single committee referral often signals an easier path to passage than multiple committee referrals.
The House’s action Sunday increased the potential for back-room maneuvering and haggling to see who gets credit for reforming an agency at the center of an ongoing scandal.
The state investment agency is at the center of a growing investment scandal with ties to New York and California. It also is the subject of a federal Securities and Exchange Commission probe and a federal criminal investigation into pay-to-play allegations.
In many ways, the amended House legislation appears to mirror the Senate’s reform bill. It would de-centralize authority at the SIC, removing power from the State Investment Officer and giving it to the State Investment Council.
But there are differences.
While the Senate version removes the governor from the State Investment Council, the governor remains on the board in Lujan’s version.
And where the Senate version requires a certain level of investment expertise among some SIC members, the House version doesn’t include that requirement, according to a quick read of the 20-page bill.
The two bills appear in agreement in several areas, however. Both the Senate and House bills:
The move to take authority away from the State Investment Officer came after revelations that former State Investment Officer Gary Bland made decisions on advisers and outside managers without informing the State Investment Council.
Bland, the former State Investment Officer, resigned in October after New Mexico’s former investment adviser pleaded guilty to securities fraud in New York. As part of the plea deal, Saul Meyer of Aldus Equity admitted to pushing certain deals to New Mexico’s two investment agencies — the SIC and Educational Retirement Board —because politically connected individuals here recommended them.
