The New Mexico Legislature is approaching the finish line of a 30-day session with major political compromises in place to revise driver's licenses for immigrants, overhaul the state's bail bond system and trim spending next year to offset plunging state revenues linked to oil revenues. The legislative session comes to a close by law at noon today. Governor Susana Martinez has embraced a plan that will bring New Mexico driver's licenses into compliance with federal REAL ID requirements. Various criminal justice measures await her signature, while bail reforms are headed to the November ballot.
New Mexico legislators agreed Wednesday to a spending plan, with an additional measure to tap into millions of unspent dollars found in state accounts by the office of State Auditor Tim Keller. According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, a 6.2 billion-dollar budget is headed to Governor Susana Martinez’s desk for approval. That’s the same budget level as in 2009, the fiscal year after the Wall Street financial crisis. The budget bill came out of the House and was trimmed down by the Senate, with House lawmakers approving the changes Wednesday. Under the legislation, New Mexico will spend 2.75 billion dollars on public education in 2017, about 7 million more than in the previous fiscal year. Funding for Medicaid would rise to 928 million dollars, still not enough to fully fund services at the current level for New Mexicans enrolled in the program. Other agencies, like the courts and the Department of Corrections and Public Safety, would receive small increases under the bill.
A bill to overhaul New Mexico's online clearinghouse for political contributions and lobbying expenditures is headed to the governor's desk for consideration. The Senate voted unanimously on Wednesday in favor of the bipartisan legislation. The House already approved the initiative without opposition. The proposal would standardize electronic reporting so that filings by candidates, lobbyists and political committees can be searched, cross-referenced or downloaded for analysis. It also would require lobbyists to file regular reports, as candidates already do. The Office of the Secretary of State eventually would spend as much as $985,000 to set up the database, depending on bids from vendors and available funding. Registration fees from lobbyists would be reinvested in maintaining the clearinghouse. This measure’s Senate approval comes after a House-sponsored constitutional amendment aimed at creating an independent agency to evaluate campaign finance transparency died this week in a Senate committee.
The Senate has approved legislation that would increase prison sentences for manufacturing, distributing and possessing child pornography, with a unanimous vote that sends a heavily redrafted version of the bill back to the House with hours left in the legislative session. The legislation introduced by Rep. Sarah Maestas Barnes and backed by Attorney General Hector Balderas originally aimed to allow prosecutors to bring individual charges against suspects in child pornography cases for each image distributed or in their possession. The Senate changed the legislation, striking language that would allow the charges for each image and instead creating a new sentencing structure that hands down stricter sentencing terms for child pornography crimes. Another Senate amendment says teens caught sexting wouldn't be prosecuted under the legislation. Attorney General Hector Balderas withdrew his support of the legislation as amended over the teen sexting exemption.
A bill aimed at welcoming and regulating ride-booking companies like Uber and Lyft in New Mexico has been approved by state Senate. The Senate passed the legislation Thursday morning. The House has until noon to send the bill to the governor. The legal status of the companies has been in limbo in the state since they began offering services in 2014. The companies say the state's Motor Carrier Act does not apply to them because they do not operate as commercial taxi businesses. Uber and Lyft use smartphone apps to connect their drivers with people seeking rides. The new regulations include background checks for drivers against criminal and sexual offender databases.
A former Albuquerque police officer accused of kneeing a law student in the groin and deleting a cellphone video will stand trial in Albuquerque. State District Judge Briana Zamora recently ruled that Pablo Padilla must stand trial in Albuquerque for aggravated battery causing great bodily harm and tampering with evidence charges. His lawyers had sought to move the trial. An attorney for University of New Mexico law school student Jeremy Martin says his client was forced to undergo emergency surgery to remove a testicle after Padilla kneed him during an April 2014 traffic stop. Albuquerque Police Chief Gorden Eden later gave Padilla a 240-hour suspension. Padilla resigned in December.
White Sands Missile Range plans an event providing public access to the southern New Mexico site where the first man-made nuclear explosion occurred. Officials at the Army installation near Alamogordo have scheduled a free open house on April 2. Visitors will be able to walk a quarter-mile to Trinity Site's ground zero -- the spot where the bomb was exploded on July 16, 1945 at 5:29 a.m. MST. There's a small obelisk at ground zero, and historical photos are mounted the fence around the area. Visitors may also ride a shuttle bus two miles from ground zero to a ranch house where scientists assembled the bomb's plutonium core. Visitors may reach the site through the range's Stallion Range Center gate, which will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
And now this national news:
Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has broken with some major Republican figures in saying President Obama should nominate Justice Antonin Scalia’s replacement. According to CNN, O’Connor, who retired in 2006 and served as the Supreme Court’s swing vote since her appointment under the Reagan administration, says the appointment’s proximity to the Presidential election “creates too much talk around the thing that isn’t necessary.” O’Connor asserts that the American public deserves a fully staffed Supreme Court, and wishes the President well as he makes what she calls a difficult choice. Justice Antonin Scalia passed away last week in Texas at the age of 79.
And the weather in Santa Fe:
Today, mostly sunny, with a high near 64 degrees. Tonight, partly cloudy, with a low around 39. Tomorrow, mostly sunny, with a high near 62.