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.
Planned policy changes announced last month to restrict employees’ contact with journalists at the Public Regulation Commission (PRC) will not be implemented in the near future, Chief of Staff Michael Rivera has told The Independent.
“It’s going…
Legislators have drafted a constitutional amendment and companion legislation that would abolish the controversial Public Regulation Commission (PRC), New Mexico’s most powerful regulatory agency. The move came as a surprise to commissioners.
State Insurance Superintendent John Franchini has said he plans to meet individually with members of the Public Regulation Commission to discuss how the division plans to fix serious problems pointed out in a recent national audit. “They may think they’ve figured out a ‘loophole’ [in the Open Meetings Act], but they’ll lose the public’s trust and confidence in the process. So what have you really gained?” says Sarah Welsh of the Foundation for Open Government.
Public Regulation Commission (PRC) Commissioner Sandy Jones’s quest to identify and fire the employee he believed leaked an audit report that was published Friday by The Independent is legally dubious, according to New Mexico…
The Public Regulation Commission (PRC)’s Tuesday meeting erupted into a heated debate overa national auditors’ report that was sharply critical of the agency’s Division of Insurance. Although the report was released after a public records request, the agency announced that a new, more restrictive PRC-wide policy about employee contact with news reporters is being drafted.
I sat down with Sarah Gustavus of KUNM today to talk about Bryant Furlow’s story on the District 5 Public Regulation Commission race to be decided Nov. 2. Republican Ben Hall and Democrat Bill McCamley are competing to…
Former Republican state legislator Ben Hall and former Democratic Doña Ana County commissioner Bill McCamley both want to clean up the powerful and scandal-plagued state Public Regulation Commission. The men, who are fighting over outgoing Commissioner Sandy Jones’s District 5 seat, both told The Independent they want to see increased PRC scrutiny of utility and insurance companies’ rate hikes, and increased accountability at the PRC’s semi-autonomous Division of Insurance. But the candidates differed on how they would achieve those goals.
The Public Regulation Commission (PRC) has fined Picacho Hills Utility Company owner Stephen Blanco $950,000 and the utility itself $50,000, for dozens of violations of state public utility law and PRC rules and orders.
The $1 million…
The PRC voted Thursday to fine the small, 800-customer Picacho Hills Utility Company an unprecedented $1 million to $1.5 million in a case that involved allegations of embezzlement, witness intimidation, perjury, and a long-standing and unresolved threat to residents’ health: untreated sewer contaminating the affluent neighborhood’s golf course. The owner of the company claims the charges and fines are intended to force him to sell his utility — and its water rights, which he said were recently appraised for $18 million.
The Public Regulatory Commission (PRC) rebuffed proposals from legislators that would dismember the controversy-plagued agency, moving its Division of Insurance, Transportation Bureau and other regulatory programs to other agencies.
“We’re a young agency and we’re sorting out some…
The Division of Insurance isn’t the only Public Regulation Commission (PRC) agency being targeted for potential changes.
The Government Restructuring Task Force, a panel researching how to make state government more efficient, has several scenarios before it…
The Public Regulation Commission (PRC) might not issue a record $850,000 fine or order a fraud audit of a Las Cruces water utility’s finances despite protests from some of its staff. The difference of opinion emerged during a PRC hearing Tuesday.
The state Public Regulation Commission (PRC) declared the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM)’s electric rate hike filing to be incomplete last week, delaying approval at least until June 30, 2011.
The commission’s approval or disapproval of…
PNM filed a request last week for approval of another 21.2 percent hike that would take effect in April 2011. But two PRC commissioners said Tuesday they would not be open to accepting a rate hike settlement before next year. The Commission’s go-slow approach with PNM contrasts with the Insurance Division’s rushed weekend deal with Blue Cross Blue Shield—before public hearings on that company’s request.
State land commissioner Patrick Lyons “really pounded (Robert) Corn” in the Republican primaries for Public Regulation Commission (PRC) District 2, PRC Chairman David King said Tuesday.
“Unless he does something, it’s his to lose,” King, District 2′s…
With a 9.7 percent lead over Santa Fe Commissioner Harry Montoya, Ray B. Powell will be the Democratic candidate for state land commissioner. He is a veteran of the office, having served as land commissioner from 1994 to 2002.
As…
The hotly contested Democratic primary for Public Regulation Commission (PRC) District 4 Commissioner Carol Sloan’s seat was won convincingly by the only woman and Native American in the race, Theresa Becenti-Aguilar.
With 35.8 percent of the Democratic primary vote,…
If you need to find out more about the candidates for state land commissioner before casting your vote next week, you’re in luck. The New Mexico Wildlife Federation has compiled an excellent set of video clips from a forum…
On Wednesday, May 12, The Independent’s Trip Jennings moderated a debate between the five candidates running for the job of commissioner of public lands. The host of the event, the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, has posted video clips from…
New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) commissioners Thursday morning unanimously directed Interim Insurance Superintendent Thomas Rushton to rescind the Insurance Division’s controversial approval of a 21.3 percent hike in the health insurance rates for individual policyholders of Blue Cross Blue Shield N.M.
Rushton announced that he had recused himself from further involvement in the case.
That, at least, came as welcome news to the Attorney General’s office, according to Spokesman Phillip Sisneros.
“We do support Mr. Rushton’s recusal from a hearing on the matter,” Sisneros said. “(But) our position is still in support of the settlement. Remember, our agency is not the policy making authority on this issue and in fact, we were asked to step in to help find a resolution. We are happy to continue in that advisory role in the future.”
Rushton appeared reluctant to rescind the Insurance Division’s April approval of the rate hike, telling commissioners that rate change review procedures had been followed.
“There was a hearing conducted,” Rushton said. “There was prefiled testimony. There was discovery. There was a settlement reached, and Morris Chavez accepted that stipulated settlement.”
PRC Chairman David King interrupted Rushton to say that there were outside interests that had not been heard in the rate hike settlement process.
“We’ve had death threats to the Commission, to staff, and the former superintendent (Chavez),” King said. “They certainly followed the law, but it wasn’t done as well as in California,” where a Blue Cross rate hike was recently overturned.
Rushton assigned Deputy Insurance Superintendent Darlene Gomez to be the hearing officer for the reconsideration of the settlement approval. Gomez will receive whatever staffing assistance she needs from the Commission, King pledged.
But the Insurance Division will work under close Commission scrutiny, King said. King said the Commission will also ask for a third-party independent audit of Blue Cross Blue Shield NM’s financial records.
Commissioners King, Jason Marks, and Jerome Block, Jr. have all said they want the PRC to investigate why Blue Cross Blue Shield has a virtual monopoly in much of rural New Mexico.
Marks and Block appeared to try to manage policyholders’ expectations, Thursday.
“I don’t want false hope here,” Marks said. “It’s only right to do what we can. But we don’t want false hope. There’s still a stipulated settlement.”
Block said Blue Cross Blue Shield was starting “from scratch,” as far as he was concerned.
But he cautioned that the company would not take the Commission’s decision lightly, and warned policyholders that the extra scrutiny could backfire on consumers.
“They’re going to come out swinging,” Block said. “There could be (financial) data that justifies a higher increase. I hope the public is ready to face that outcome if it’s substantially different.”
Switching interim superintendents?
Marks also floated the possibility of replacing Rushton as interim superintendent with former insurance superintendent Don Letherer, noting that Rushton is very busy.
“Don could keep the wheels on,” Marks said. “We’d have twice the assurance the job’s getting done.”
Commissioners agreed to add a meeting with Letherer to next week’s Commission agenda.
