Posts by Trip Jennings

The Senate voted Monday to overrideGov. Bill Richardson’s veto of a 2009 bill that would have required state agencies to share confidential data with the Legislative Finance Committee. The tension between the LFC and state agencies over lack of sharing data has simmered for years. But last month, The Independent revealed, in an exclusive story, that an Attorney General’s report shows the state had hindered Medicaid fraud investigations.

A bill that would allow a tax district in Las Cruces to issue tax-exempt bonds to help pay for revitalizing downtown cleared the Senate unanimously Monday morning.
The bonds would be backed by future state and local tax proceeds.

The House approved raising taxes on businesses to shore up the program that provides unemployment benefits to New Mexicans who lose their jobs, the Associated Press reports.

The state Senate voted 36-4 Saturday to strip more than $130 million from brick-and-mortar projects from around the state.

While senators overwhelmingly supported the legislation, the debate sometimes reflected the anger that lawmakers felt at watching money stripped from projects in their district. State officials say they need to claw money back from stalled projects to beef up the state’s reserves.

This sign posted on the door of Senate Finance Committee sort of sums up the relationship between the two chambers in the New Mexico Legislature.
Yep, folks. We have a long haul ahead before the session is over Feb. 18.

State senators weren’t agreed Friday about how to reform a state agency at the center of an investment scandal. But one thing’s for sure: they’re spoiling for a fight with Gov. Bill Richardson over who should control the State Investment Council. Three reform bills are being combined into one that could be heard on Monday in the Senate Rules Committee.

Watch out, cities. A bill introduced by Sen. President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, this week could dramatically affect cities’ bottom line if it passes, Steve Terrell of the Santa Fe New Mexican informs us today.

A bill that would transfer oversight of the State Investment Council from the executive branch to the state Attorney General’s office cleared a powerful Senate Committee on Thursday morning. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Tim Keller, D-Albuquerque, would take oversight and enforcement of the State Investment Council from the securities division of [...]

A bill that would require the Educational Retirement Board to publicly disclose the pension amounts for each of its 30,000 members cleared its first House committee Thursday. As The Independent reported in December, a state law passed last year prohibits disclosure of such information.

State lawmakers sent Gov. Bill Richardson a message Wednesday evening: You have to share in more in the state’s budget pain, Governor. State lawmakers stripped millions of dollars from high-profile projects and initiatives Richardson has lobbied and pushed for around the state. Among the targeted items: a highway interchange in Belen already under construction; film/media production facilities and a proposed equestrian facility in Albuquerque.

The governor would no longer sit on the state Investment Council if a bill sponsored by Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, succeeds.
The bill is one of three in the Senate aimed at reforming at a state agency at the center of an ever-widening investment scandal with ties to New York state and California. All three bills are scheduled [...]

Vicki Pozzebon, executive director of an organization representing hundreds of Santa Fe businesses, has a bit of heartburn today with a presentation on good tax policy scheduled for a Senate committee.
“I’m concerned that one side will be represented,” said Pozzebon, who heads up the Santa Fe Alliance, a member of the Better Choices Coalition.
Better Choices [...]

Republicans and conservative Democrats on Tuesday used a Senate Committee viewed as a friendly forum to seriously endanger domestic partnership legislation. Before sending the legislation on to Senate Judiciary Committee a 5-4 vote, the Senate Public Affairs Committee approved sending the 816-page bill to a third committee, the kiss of death during a 30-day session.

A Senate Committee viewed as a friendly forum for domestic partnerships may have killed the bill Tuesday.
The Senate Public Affairs Committee approved the legislation but voted to give the 816-page bill a third committee referral.
A bill that must be heard by three committees in either chamber – the House or Senate – during a 30-day [...]

Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has introduced what looks to be a competitor to the House’s budget bill. HB7 is the state budget bill. SB 228 is a near mirror image, weighing in at 220 pages. It was filed Friday.
The House creates the state budget bill each session, and [...]