2024 Legislative Session

You Win Some
You Lose Some
And Some Get Rained Out

 The 2024 legislative session was a 30-day short session where much of the legislation was to be dedicated to financial matters and approving the state’s annual budget. There were 780 bills introduced in the session but only 72 bills were enacted by the legislature and sent to the governor for signature.  Anything the Governor does not sign by March 6 is “pocket vetoed.”  Here are some selected bills that might be of interest to the DPSC Newsletter readers.

THE WINS

House Bill 2 and 3, General Appropriations Act of 2024.  On February 13, the $10.22 billion state budget was adopted. The $10.22 billion budget is a 6.8% increase from last year while retaining a 31% reserve. The budget includes $4.3 billion in recurring funds for public schools and $532 million for public safety including law enforcement recruitment and equipment.

The largest slice of the general fund would go to public schools, which are slated to receive about $4.3 billion next fiscal year. That includes more than $94 million to give a flat 3% raise to all public-school employees. The version the budget approved by the Senate includes $30 million for summer reading intervention programs, $14 million for early literacy and reading support and $5 million to train secondary educators in the science of reading.

Other budget highlights include the following major appropriations:

• $1.2 billion for natural resources, housing and innovation
• $24 million to judicial branch agencies
• $7 million to support victim advocates, sexual assault victims and supplement federal grants for crime victims
• $11.7 million for the New Mexico Department of Health
• $1.96 billion to the Health Care Authority Department and $180 million for Medicaid
• $3 million for tribal health councils
• $19.6 million to expand Pre-K
• $4.43 billion in recurring funds for public schools
• $50 million to the tribal Educational Trust Fund
• $20 million to pilot and evaluate evidence-based strategies to improve the Children, Youth and Families Department
• The Higher Education Department will receive $1.3 billion in recurring funds
• $100 million to develop a strong workforce
• $10 billion to establish a new Green Bank
• $300 million in the Lands of Enchantment Legacy Fund for water conservation, outdoor recreation, agriculture, and wildlife protection
• $150 million to the Department of Transportation for major infrastructure, maintenance and road improvements.

The budget also contains $30 million in capital outlay funding for a structured literacy institute and  $30 million in the state budget bill for summer reading programs, which an early estimate predicted would reach some 10,000 students who are behind grade level.

The budget was sent to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham to be signed into law, but she could still line item veto some of the appropriations.

UPDATED HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS

On February 9, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed into law House Bill 171 that overhauls and codifies into law the state’s high school graduation requirements. The bill would update the state’s graduation requirements for its high schoolers, allowing for more student choice while keeping the number of mandated units at 24.

New Mexico’s updated high school graduation requirements are as follows:

• Four units of English, the last of which could be more flexible, such as journalism course
• Four units of math, two of which must generally be Algebra I and Geometry, but the rest of which appear to be flexible and could be fulfilled by such courses as financial literacy
• Three units of science, two of which must have a laboratory component and the other which can be more geared toward things such as work-based learning
• Four units of social science, which include U.S. history and geography, government, economics and financial literacy, and world history and geography. The final unit is also flexible and can include such things as psychology or ethnic studies
• Five and a half units of electives, which vary wildly, and also can include financial literacy courses as well as computer science and career-technical education courses
• Two courses set by the local school district or governing board
• One unit of physical education, which can include courses in things such as dance and marching band
• Half a unit in health

The biggest changes to know about are that students will still need to earn 24 credits, but Algebra II will no longer be required but schools must still offer it. Students will now have to complete four full years of social studies classes, and that must include some personal financial literacy coursework. (The latter was a priority of the State Treasurer, Laura Montoya.) A semester of health with lessons on sexual abuse, assault, and prevention is now required. Career technical classes can count toward English, math, and science credits, and local school districts will get to decide on two graduation requirements for their students.

FIREARM SALE WAITING PERIOD

House Bill 129 requires a seven-day waiting period for gun purchases, with a few exceptions. Law enforcement agencies and people with federal firearm licenses or concealed carry licenses would be exempt from the waiting period. People selling a gun to an immediate family member or a law enforcement officer selling to another officer would also be excluded.

NO GUNS AT POLLING PLACES

The New Mexico Senate voted unanimously to pass Senate Bill 5 after the House narrowly passed an amendment to allow concealed carry licensees to bring their weapons to polling stations. The bill prohibits guns from within 100 feet of polling places.

ADJUST INCOME TAX BRACKETS

House Bill 252 adjusts income tax brackets. The House voted on a tax package that included personal income tax reforms, a tax credit for people whose houses were destroyed by wildfire and deductions for pre-kindergarten. A Senate amendment added a severance tax exemption for stripper wells that are defined as oil wells nearing the end of their productivity. Other Senate additions included gross tax receipt deductions for legal services for lawsuits involving the Calf Canyon/Hermit’s Peak fire, the increase of the special needs refundable adoption credit from $1,000 to $1,500, and the creation of a tax deduction for public school teachers buying supplies.

CAPITAL OUTLAY BILLS PASSED

Senate Bill 246, the annual bill to reauthorize a slew of over 250 projects, passed the Senate 31-6 and the House unanimously. Specifically, the measure extends the times, expands the purposes and makes other administrative changes to those projects to keep the funding appropriated for them in play.  Many of those projects have been delayed for a variety of reasons.

Senate Bill 275, a measure to authorize more than 1,400 public works projects, according to the bill’s sponsor, passed the Senate and House unanimously. According to the Legislative Finance Committee, appropriations for those projects total about $1.4 billion.  Also included in SB 275 is funding for an education initiative Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has pushed for months. The bill would set aside $30 million for a structured literacy institute that the governor has said in part would be a specialized place to teach reading to students.

THE LOSES

PAID FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT

Senate Bill 3 would have created a fund for paid family and medical leave, up to nine to 12 weeks. Senate Bill 3 was meant to give all New Mexico workers paid time off when they need it most, even if their jobs don’t currently offer it.  Workers would have been able to take up to 12 weeks of paid time off to bond with a new child or grieve the death of a child. Workers would have been able to take nine weeks off in order to care for themselves or family members dealing with serious medical issues. There was also a “safe leave” category for employees recovering from domestic violence.

As for funding, both employees and employers with more than five workers would contribute to a state fund to pay the workers on leave. For every $1,000 in wages, it would cost $5 for workers and $4 for employers.

Senate Bill 3 passed the Senate 25-15. The House lawmakers rejected the proposal on a 34-36 vote.

ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN

HOUSE BILL 137 did not make it through either chamber. It would ban gas-operated semi-automatic guns. It would also prohibit detachable magazines that hold more than 10 bullets, bump stocks, and other “machine gun” attachments that are designed to increase the rate of fire. It mimics a bill U.S. Sen. Martin Hein introduced in the Senate known as the GOSAFE Act.

RAINED OUT

CREATION OF OFFICE OF HOUSING

Senate Bill 71 would have created an Office of Housing that would be attached to the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration. The governor would appoint the office’s director, who would oversee studies on housing issues and work with government agencies and private developers to plan and fund projects.  . The office would be tasked with working hand in hand with the quasi-governmental New Mexico Mortgage Finance (MFA) Authority and other organizations.

This Housing Office is a priority of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. She showed up to the Senate-House Public Affairs Committee to push personally for enactment of the bill. The Senate-House Public Affairs Committee voted 5-4 to advance the bill to the Senate Finance Committee with no recommendation, instead of the more common “do pass” recommendation. The bill never made it out of the Finance committee to the Senate floor for enactment.  It may be reborn next year.

ANALYSIS

In total, lawmakers passed 72 pieces of legislation over 30 days, or about 2.4 bills per day. Any particular bill’s chance stood about an 11% chance of making it to the governor’s desk.  The Governor is now suggesting that she will call a special session to deal with crime measures that failed.

Simply put, trying to squeeze in so much work into a 30 session is crazy and no way to do business. 30-day sessions should be a thing of the pass as should be 60 days sessions and a full-time, paid legislature with much longer sessions is long overdue.

The New Mexico State Constitution was enacted in 1911, one year before New Mexico became the 47th state in the Union.  At the time the constitution was passed New Mexico had a population of about 340,000 people.  Albuquerque, the largest city in the state at that time had a population of about 11,000 people, next largest was Las Vegas with 7,000 people, followed by Roswell with 6,000 people, Santa Fe had under 5,000 people at the time.  Of course, today New Mexico has over 2.1 million residents, with Albuquerque still the largest city having over ½ million residents, about 1 and ½ times the population of the entire state when the constitution was written.

So when the state Constitution was written there were very few people here and those who were here were geographically spread-out.  The state was an agrarian society.  Yet that Constitution, which specified the length of legislative sessions, is still in force today.  Sec 5 of the Constitution states:

Sec. 5. [Time and length of sessions; items considered in even-numbered years.]

1. Each regular session of the legislature shall begin annually at 12:00 noon on the third Tuesday of January. Every regular session of the legislature convening during an odd-numbered year shall remain in session not to exceed sixty days, and every regular session of the legislature convening during an even-numbered year shall remain in session not to exceed thirty days. No special session of the legislature shall exceed thirty days.

Further, Sec 10 of the Constitution specifies:

Sec. 10. [Compensation of members.]

Each member of the legislature shall receive:

1. per diem at the internal revenue service per diem rate for the city of Santa Fe for each day’s attendance during each session of the legislature and the internal revenue service standard mileage rate for each mile traveled in going to and returning from the seat of government by the usual traveled route, once each session as defined by Article 4, Section 5 of this constitution;
2. per diem expense and mileage at the same rates as provided in Subsection A of this section for service at meetings required by legislative committees established by the legislature to meet in the interim between sessions; and
3. no other compensation, perquisite or allowance. (As amended November 7, 1944, September 15, 1953, November 2, 1971, November 2, 1982 and November 5, 1996.)

So here’s the rub.  Our legislature is operating as it did over 100 years ago.  Our needs, problems and challenges are certainly different from those of over a century ago. If the citizens of New Mexico don’t modernize their governing structure, we will continue to fail to meet the needs of its people well into the 21^st century.

Note:  Much of the description of the bills noted here and some of the analysis comes from Pete Dinelli’s blog of 2/20/2024.