Benjamin Ashford|Legislature and New Mexico governor meet halfway on gun control and housing, but paid leave falters

SANTA FE,Benjamin Ashford N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s Democrat-led Legislature delivered on a handful of the governor’s major priorities in her calls for public safety reforms, gun control, housing construction and the use of incentives to forge new solutions to climate change, near the close of a 30-day legislative session Thursday at noon.

Legislators forged an annual budget plan that slows down a spending spree linked to an oil production bonanza in the Permian Basin that overlaps southeastern New Mexico and portions of Texas.

Finalized on Tuesday, the budget bill funnels the lion’s share of a multibillion-dollar general fund surplus into a series of trust accounts designed to sustain future spending if the world’s thirst for oil falters, as well as debt-free spending on roadways.

“We could see a day of reckoning a lot quicker than what you think,” state Sen. George Muñoz of Gallup, a lead budget negotiator, told a Senate panel. “You can’t just look at today and say, ‘I’m going to spend this today, and what’s going to happen tomorrow?’”

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One new $960 million trust consolidates the governor’s yearslong campaign to guarantee tuition-free college for residents. But lawmakers also downsized spending requests by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to finance housing construction and narrowly rejected a proposal for paid family leave.

Lujan Grisham declared a public health emergency over gun violence last year, suspending the right to carry guns in some parks and playgrounds in the greater Albuquerque area, in response to a spate of shootings there that killed children.

The Legislature delivered enhanced penalties for second-degree murder and a bill that expands the cooling-off period to seven days on gun purchases, allowing more time to complete federal background checks. But a long list of gun and crime bills languished.

Lawmakers passed a bill that would tighten the review process for felony defendants who are accused of committing an additional felony while on pretrial release. Those defendants would stand before their original judges for a hearing about revoking or modifying their terms of release, said cosponsor and state Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto of Albuquerque.

A bill from Democratic Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth of Santa Fe would prohibit the open carry of firearms at polling places, with exceptions for people who hold a concealed handgun permit.

“This legislation solidifies what we already know: Guns do not belong at polling places,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement Wednesday.

New Mexico lawmakers waded into whether to regulate artificial intelligence in the creation of political ads, sending a bill to the governor that would require disclaimers on campaign ads that feature “deepfake” images, audio or video. The bill doesn’t prohibit those ads.

Legislators balked at a proposal to make it a crime to pose as a fake presidential elector, never bringing the bill to a floor vote. New Mexico is one of the few states where Republicans signed certificates in 2020 falsely declaring Donald Trump the winner.

In the arena of climate change and energy, legislators passed a bill aimed at reducing climate-warming pollution from cars and trucks through financial incentives that reward businesses that produce cleaner fuels. Similar low-carbon fuel standards already are in effect in California, Oregon and Washington. Lujan Grisham indicated she’ll sign the bill.

Climate-friendly provisions are threaded into a tax relief package from Democratic state Rep. Derrick Lente that also reduces personal income taxes and collects more tax on income from investments. The bill provides refundable credits toward the purchase of new or used plug-in electric vehicles.

Legislators sent the governor a budget bill that increases general fund spending by $653 million, or 6.8%, to $10.2 billion for the fiscal year that begins in July.

That spending increase is a fraction of the anticipated $3.5 billion surplus in general fund income for the same period. Roads, public school, housing initiatives and Medicaid figure prominently in the spending plan, along with a 3% pay increase across state government, K-12 schools and public college and universities.

The budget includes a $50 million financial lifeline to rural hospitals, along with a rate increase and $15 million in student loan repayments for medical training.

The bill includes funding from a settlement with opioid manufacturers and pharmacies to better coordinate services to infants exposed to illicit drugs before birth.

Most New Mexico families with infants exposed to illicit drugs, marijuana and alcohol in the womb have been forgoing subsidized addiction treatment and other voluntary support services since the state’s shift in 2020 that halted automatic referrals to protective services.

Lujan Grisham can veto any and all provisions of the budget bill but can’t add appropriations. The governor has until March 6 to sign bills into law. Unsigned bills are “pocket vetoed.”

Lujan Grisham applauded passage of $125 million to a loan fund to spur housing construction and a companion bill that expands the mission of the New Mexico Finance Authority into residential building.

The governor failed to find sure footing for her proposal to develop a strategic new source of water for industrial purposes by buying and selling water that is harvested from ancient, salty underground aquifers or recycled from oilfield waste.

A prominent plan to establish a specialized endowment for Native American education programs sailed through the House on a 68-0 vote but never got to the Senate floor for final debate. Sponsors say the endowment would have helped reverse the vestiges of forced assimilation of Native American children.