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.
Voters rejected two proposed constitutional amendments that would have relaxed term limits on elected county officials from eight to 12 years and would have allowed state lawmakers to accept positions in other branches of state government.
But voters approved an amendment allowing the state to waive college tuition for some — but not all– honorably discharged combat veterans, changes in the constitution’s antiquated wording on who may vote in N.M., and an amendment providing property tax exemptions to military veterans’ organizations.
At least two of the successful amendments are controversial and may result in court challenges, according to analyses by the Legislative Council Service.
According to an analysis by the Legislative Council Service, the veterans’ scholarship amendment may “invite a potentially disruptive legal challenge” because it excludes veterans who enlisted while residents of N.M. or who have lived in the state for 10 years. The U.S. Supreme Court has prohibited similar restrictions on veterans’ benefits, as violations of the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause, according to the report.
And the seemingly innocuous proposed amendment to remove offensive words (“idiots” and “insane persons”) from the Constitution’s Article 7 definition of who may vote in N.M. also eliminates the current constitutional prohibition of voting by convicted felons who have not been restored their political rights by a judge, the Legislative Council Service analysis also noted.
“Despite a title that indicates the opposite, the proposed amendment eliminates” that prohibition, according to the Service analysis. “The amendment invites a potentially disruptive legal challenge because the ballot title does not accurately reflect the language and provisions contained in the body of Constitutional Amendment No. 3.”
There were five proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot:
• CA1: PASSED, (74.1% to 25.9%, according to unofficial Secretary of State returns as of 10 p.m. Tuesday), to allow colleges to waive tuition for honorably-discharged military veterans of armed conflicts since 1990 who were N.M. residents when they originally enlisted in the military, after they have exhausted their GI Bill and other federal education benefits.
• CA2: FAILED, (15.5% to 84.5%), to relax county commissioners’ term limits from eight years to 12 years.
• CA3: PASSED, (54.2% to 45.8%), to modernize language about who can vote in N.M.
• CA4: PASSED, (52.4% to 47.6%), to exempt veterans’ organizations from state property taxes
• CA5: FAILED, (18.7% to 81.3%), to allow state lawmakers to resign from the Legislature to serve in other branches of state government.
