Bill shows how the Legislature works

As time ran out on last week’s legislative session, a “must pass” bill got bottled up in an important committee of the New Mexico Legislature.

Rep. Sandra Jeff, D-Crownpoint, and another Democrat joined GOP lawmakers to table SB 182, a bill that reclaimed $130 million from more than 1,500 stalled projects around the state, to be used to shore up the state’s nearly depleted reserve account. The cash is needed to help New Mexico avert bouncing checks this fiscal year.

But a few hours later, Jeff and Rep. Andrew Barreras, D-Tome, voted for the bill and helped to pass it out of the House Taxation and Revenue Committee on a party-line 10-6 vote.

That move followed a series of high-level meetings between at least one of the legislators and Gov. Bill Richardson in the hours preceding the second vote. Word also came down, delivered by his representatives, that Richardson “was going to veto the tribal infrastructure fund if 182 doesn’t pass,” Rep. Ray Begaye, D-Shiprock, told The Independent earlier this week.

“[Rep. Jeff] wanted to get 182 tabled to negotiate with the governor and the House leadership,” according to Begaye. “What ended up happening, she being a freshman lawmaker, [was] the governor got really upset at her.”

Jeff didn’t respond to two phone messages left by The Independent; the governor’s office declined to comment for this story.

What happened between the two votes on Feb. 17, the next to last day of the regular session, offers a glimpse into how the New Mexico Legislature operates, especially when rank-and-file lawmakers buck a coalition of power brokers.

Jeff’s and Barreras’ rebellion was a rare public rebuff of House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe, the most powerful lawmaker in the Legislature and who has, until recently, ruled the House with an iron grip.

The rebellion was so unexpected that it occupied Richardson’s mind nearly 24 hours after the incident.

“They were making very good progress on the capital bills, but then unfortunately a couple of members in the House spent a lot of time, unnecessary time, that delayed action. And yesterday was a crucial day,” Richardson told media in his post-session news conference Feb. 18, less than an hour after the session’s end.

The bill in question – SB 182 — was important to Richardson and legislative leaders; so important that all had agreed in the waning days of the 30-day regular session that if there was a short list of bills that had to pass, SB 182 was on it.

That’s due to New Mexico’s perilous financial state. The Legislature’s budget arm, the Legislative Finance Committee, has projected that state revenues were $40 million below expectations as of earlier this month, a notion contested by Richardson’s budget team.

With about $100 million in the state’s reserves, anemic revenues this year could force New Mexico to draw down its reserves. Clawing back money from stalled projects gives the state a tool to help beef up the state’s reserves in case that happens, officials said.

But the bill’s path through the Legislature was torturous, partly due its very nature. SB 182 canceled funding for projects in virtually every legislator’s district across the state, funding, in many cases, that those lawmakers had gotten for the projects. That made SB 182 an unpopular bill.

Jeff, like other lawmakers representing tribal areas, was upset that several dozen tribal projects had wound up in SB 182, meaning they would lose funding. A letter had gone out in the fall from the governor’s office putting a freeze on hundreds of brick-and-mortar projects around the state, including the tribal projects.

So Jeff aligned with GOP lawmakers to bottle up the bill in the House Taxation and Revenue Committee in the early afternoon of Feb. 17, the next to last day of the session.

The vote led to unexpected drama. Visibly upset that the bill had not passed during the first vote Feb. 17, committee chairman, Rep. Edward Sandoval, D-Albuquerque, threw his pencil down on his desk.

Lujan, who also sits on the committee, leaned over to Sandoval and stage whispered to recess the House Taxation and Revenue meeting with the possibility of meeting again subject to the call of the chair.

Lujan then walked out.

With that vote, the Legislature appeared to grind to a halt. The House had expected to vote on the bill that day. The Senate also had to vote on the legislation.

Following that meeting the pressure rose on Jeff and Barreras.

Sometime during that day word came down from the fourth floor of the Capitol that Richardson would veto the tribal infrastructure fund if SB 182 didn’t pass, and Jeff met with Richardson, Begaye said.

The tribal infrastructure fund authorized the state to set aside $10.7 million for roads and other much-needed projects in tribal lands. Tribal leaders have consistently supported “a permanent funding source” and this year’s legislation did that, setting aside money from a fund the state uses to fund brick-and-mortar projects around the state.

“That alarmed all the pueblo governors,” Begaye said. “Everybody was upset at Sandra Jeff. It was mass confusion.”

Several hours later, Jeff changed her vote, siding with her Democratic colleagues to pass the legislation out of the Tax and Rev committee, as it’s informally known.

But Lujan wasn’t taking any chances on the legislation again. The muscle on hand prior to Feb. 17′s second Taxation and Revenue Committee hearing that night was apparent.

House Majority Leader, Ken Martinez, and several committee chairmen helped Lujan round up Democratic lawmakers to ensure that the bill passed out of the Taxation and Revenue Committee.

Rep. Luciano “Lucky” Varela, D-Santa Fe, was on hand, as was Rep. Al Park, D-Albuquerque.

Varela is the chairman of the Legislature’s budget arm, the Legislative Finance Committee. Park chairs the House Judiciary Committee.

After about an hour, the 10 Democratic members on the committee were in the committee room. Republican lawmakers until that point had stayed out of the committee room. But they wandered in, taking their seats.

Minutes later, the committee passed out SB 182 on a 10-6 vote.

Roughly nine hours later – around 4 a.m. Feb. 18, the last day of the session — the House of Representatives passed SB 182. Five hours later, with less than three hours to go in the regular legislative session, the Senate passed the bill too.

The bill passed the Legislature. So did the legislation authorizing millions of dollars for the tribal infrastructure fund. Both now await the governor’s signature.