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.
Legislative leaders were at the Roundhouse Thursday for a third day of “intense, behind-closed-doors talks and one key Senator said they were almost exactly in the same place they were when the session ended a week ago.
“I’m very disappointed they failed to reach an agreement,” Gov. Bill Richardson said half an hour after the end of the session. “They were very close. It was nip and tuck.”
On Wednesday evening it became clear lawmakers didn’t have a budget deal, Speaker of the House Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe said, while speaking to reporters after the close of the 2010 regular session. Democratic leaders say the difference between their budget and the Senate’s was narrowed to $50-$70 million dollars but there were still sticking points they couldn’t overcome.
A bill that could result in larger school classes and shorter school days, passed the House by a vote of 34-30 Wednesday afternoon. The bill now goes to the governor.
A fiscal impact report on the bill warned of potential “negative…
The House Taxation and Revenue Committee tried but failed minutes ago to bring back up a capital outlay bill viewed as key to state budget negotiations. The House committee amended SB 182 late Tuesday and then tabled it. Committee Chairman
The curious case of Senate bill 531 is heating up. The bill–which would force state agencies to share financial data, including Medicaid spending, with the Legislative Finance Committee–is on today’s agenda of the House Judiciary Committee, but it wasn’t…
Legislative leaders are running out of time to finalize a state budget package, but a deal must come together by tonight in order to clear the logistical hurdles of passage. If no deal is made, leaders agree they must claw back capital $130 million in outlay funds to make sure the state doesn’t start bouncing checks.
A House committee on Tuesday removed two Belen projects from a bulging capital outlay bill (SB182), setting up a possible showdown between the House and Senate.
The capital outlay bill is meant to sweep $130 million in state money…
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.
Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe, said the House should vote Tuesday on whether to accept substantial changes to the state budget made by the Senate on Saturday. If the House agrees with the changes, that means the state budget…
Speaker Ben Lujan is trying to keep the House from voting on an open government bill that would override one of Gov. Bill Richardson’s 2009 vetoes, Rep. Paul Bandy, R-Aztec, charged Monday.
The Senate voted to override Richardson’s veto…
The House passed its own stab at reforming the State Investment Council (SIC) Sunday. The 68 to 0 vote occurred quickly and without much fanfare on the House floor, and follows by two days the Senate’s passage of its own more aggressive reform bill.
The House’s action now sets up a scenario where the Legislature has dueling SIC reform bills and increases the potential for back-room maneuvering and haggling to see who gets credit for reforming an agency at the center of an ongoing scandal.
A measure that would capture state taxes from people not currently paying them cleared the Senate Finance Committee on Saturday.
The legislation, sponsored by House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe, would yield an estimated $15.6 million to help New…
Public school teachers and state workers would pay more toward their retirement while several, but not all, state agencies would get fewer dollars next year under a state budget plan approved by a powerful Senate committee on Thursday.
Also roughly 250 more state jobs across state government would disappear than in a House-approved state budget plan that served as the starting point for the Senate proposal. Many of those targeted state government positions are already vacant, legislative officials said.
Senator Steven Neville, R-Aztec is appealing directly to House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe, to hear his bill in the House. The measure, which would restructure the State Investment Council, passed the Roundhouse last year but was vetoed by Governor Richardson. In the second time in as many days the Senate voted to override a veto, sending Neville’s bill back to the House. Speaker Lujan told the Independent after the Senate’s first veto override that it likely wouldn’t get a hearing in the House. More …
Rep. Al Park, D-Albuquerque, stood up this afternoon to bring back a revenue-enhancing bill that narrowly failed on Friday, 34-33. The motion by Republicans to table Park’s motion failed 26-40 and the bill was put back on the president’s table.…
Those who stopped to take a look at the Legislature’s webcasting page noticed a new option this morning. In addition to being able to hear the debate on the House floor, everyone can now see it.
After the House narrowly approved a temporary, half-cent hike in the state’s gross receipts tax on Friday, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish said she’ll vote against the “harmful tax” in the event of a tie vote in the Senate.
U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., made a brief stop at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe earlier today.
House Speaker Ben Lujan’s bill to implement a temporary half-cent hike in the state’s gross receipts tax would presumably not have passed earlier today if two Republican members hadn’t missed the vote.
