New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops

“One thing that is clear, its not gray its black and white, Jesus was with the poor, and this is an attack on the poor,” said Allen Sanchez of the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops, moments after the Senate Finance Committee passed an omnibus tax bill that includes a tax on food.

At one of the most unique rallies at the Roundhouse during the session, 12,000 white tortillas were handed out by St. Joseph Community Health and other groups opposing a bill that would reimpose the gross receipts tax on certain foods–including a New Mexico staple, tortillas.

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.

“This is a tax on the poorest people of New Mexico,” Allen Sanchez, a lobbyist for the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Thursday. He’s referring to a bill that would reinstate the gross receipts tax on certain foods–including white tortillas. Sanchez is planning a rally Friday at the Roundhouse–involving 12,000 tortillas.

A petition with thousands of signatures came to the Roundhouse on Wednesday, and the message was: We support raising taxes for education. The argument hits to the core of the debate going on during the legislative session.

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.

Approximately 100 people turned up at the New Mexico state capital Monday to support domestic partnership bill (SB 183) expected to be heard in the Senate this week.

Even before the legislative session, passing domestic partnerships was an uphill climb. Now, with the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops adding its voice to the opposition, suddenly advocates have found themselves scaling Mt. Everest without an oxygen tank, in 100 mph winds. Even supportive lawmakers say it’s DOA unless the miraculous occurs.

Domestic partnership legislation failed in the Senate today, by a vote of 17 to 25. Click below to read the (very, very long) transcript of our live blog, and to watch a video of the proceedings.

The state Senate is expected to take up domestic-partnership legislation this week, possibly as early as Wednesday morning most likely Thursday morning. Join the New Mexico Independent and The Santa Fe Reporter as we co-host a live blog during the debate. We’ll be discussing the bill and its implications for gay, elderly, disabled New [...]

Archdiocese of Santa Fe officials and parishioners have turned up the pressure on the measure this year, saying that they fear domestic partnerships will clear a path for legalizing gay marriage. But not all Catholics share that fear.

The vote may come in the State Senate as early as Monday, and supporters and opponents alike say that while they’re hopeful they’ll emerge victorious, nothing is certain.

Advocates for reproductive freedom say they plan to push again this year for passage of a state Freedom of Choice Act that would repeal an old abortion ban and cement decades worth of laws protecting access to contraception and abortion.