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 state Legislature on Thursday morning passed a bill that would reform the State Investment Council. The Governor has said he will sign the bill.
Over the past three weeks, the bill worked its way through that chamber with multiple hearings before Senators passed it unanimously last week. The House amended the bill to remove changes to the Educational Retirement Board, Public Employee Retirement Board, campaign contribution limits and experience requirements and keeps the governor as the chairman; the Senate agreed to those changes.
“The bill is simplified and reflects a lot hard work by staff, the legislature and the Governor. … We are pretty much aligned in terms of balanced sweeping reform now,” Sen. Keller said in a press release.
The bill, as it goes tot he governor, would de-centralize authority at the SIC, removing power from the State Investment Officer and giving it to the State Investment Council, but the governor would remain on the board.
It also:
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.
This post has been updated to add more information and correct errors in the sequence of passage. Sorry–we are sleep deprived.
