New Mexico Legislature will tackle public safety and more starting Tuesday

The Seal of the State of New Mexico inside the Roundhouse on Jan. 10, 2024. (Photo by Anna Padilla for Source NM)

New Mexico lawmakers will convene at noon on Tuesday, Jan. 21 with a hefty 60-day agenda and a healthy budget to help fund existing and new initiatives across a spectrum of programs. Democratic leaders over the last few weeks expressed optimism that their agendas dovetail with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s. Here are a few of the top areas to watch.

Public safety

Following a failed and contentious special session on public safety last summer, the governor embarked on a statewide tour of town halls, gathering public support for her agenda. “I embarked on these specific public safety town halls because I am struggling to get policymakers to help us enact new laws that we believe would make us all safer in our communities and create real accountability, by a number of populations, that I don’t think have been accountable since 2016 or before,” Lujan Grisham said at a recent town hall in Raton.

Specifically, the governor will push for updated treatment requirements for competency cases, pretrial detention and stricter penalties for violent offenses, among other bills. House leaders recently unveiled their own agenda, prioritizing public safety alongside improvements to the state’s behavioral health care system. Expect to see public safety and behavioral health take center stage during the first 30 days of the session.”

“I think the two parts of this overall package that we’ll do in the first 30 days are something certainly that the governor wants: It fits into her agenda,” Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe) told Source (look for the complete interview tomorrow). “Obviously, there will be discussions about what is in the public safety agenda package – her priorities and our priorities – but I’m feeling more optimistic about a process that’s good to get us where we need to go.”

Housing

Lawmakers touted the 2024 session as “historic” to address the state’s housing crisis, calling it the biggest one-time investment in housing in the Legislature’s history.

That meant nearly $200 million awarded for housing and homelessness initiatives, including $125 million in revolving loans to spur affordable housing infrastructure, $50 million for down payment assistance and other subsidies, $20 million to help unhoused people and several million more for a new Office of Housing in the governor’s office.

Some of that money has been spent, but the state still lacks thousands of housing units and is experiencing a sharp increase in people living on the streets. 

This year, several bills have already been filed or announced seeking to address the many challenges for New Mexicans seeking shelter.

One from Sen. Harold Pope (D-Albuquerque) would ban private equity from buying single family homes in New Mexico. Another from Sen. Linda Lopez, also an Albuquerque Democrat, would allow local communities to cap rent increases. A third from Rep. Kathleen Cates (D-Rio Rancho) would require landlords to calculate prospective tenants’ rent-to-income ratios only after subsidies like child support or Section 8 are accounted for.

Cates told Source New Mexico last Friday that she expects a big increase of housing policy bills this session over previous years. She is introducing at least two more housing bills this year, including one that she hopes will make it easier for homebuyers to get federally backed mortgages at condominium complexes and another to subsidize homebuying for medical professionals.

She said she’s joining a group of about 15 lawmakers who are mulling housing bills. That number was two or three in previous legislative sessions, she said. 

“I’ve never seen that many people,” she said of her peers’ increased interest in housing policy.  “And we’re all carrying more than one. So you’re gonna see a lot of housing bills.”

But it’s an open question whether lawmakers will consider spending as much this year on housing as they did last year, Cates said. She suspects the biggest funding asks will be for two other pressing concerns: behavioral health and water. 

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s executive budget also proposes $50 million for a housing downpayment assistance program, $50 million for homelessness programs and initiatives and $2 million for statewide housing initiatives. 

Environment and Health

Lawmakers announced several climate priorities just before the opening of the 2025 legislative session, including efforts to beef up up climate and public health tracking; limit oil and gas drilling around schools, parks and daycare centers; and increase funding for water initiatives.

Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart (D-Albuquerque) will carry forward three bills this session. The Clear Horizons Act, which will codify Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s 2019 executive order to reduce 2005 level emissions by at least 45% by 2030. The bill would set the goals of reducing emissions by 50% by 2040 and 100% by 2050, and charge the Environmental Improvement Board with inventorying progress towards the goals.

Stewart called the act “bold action,” and said working to meet the state’s investments in reducing emissions can strengthen the economy. 

“My top environmental priority is reducing the emissions that are polluting our air and threatening our New Mexican way of life while creating new opportunities for communities statewide to thrive in a resilient and sustainable future,” Stewart said in a statement to Source. “New Mexicans are experiencing the impacts of ignoring the climate crisis right now, from wildfire to drought.” 

Additionally, Stewart is asking for a $340 million Community Benefit Fund, which if passed, would provide funding to projects that reduce emissions and assist communities. A second $10 million Innovation in Government Fund would provide money for state agencies to support efforts to reduce emissions. 

The Santa Fe-based think tank Think New Mexico has focused its efforts on tackling New Mexico’s health care worker shortage. A range of proposed policies from the organization include reform of New Mexico’s medical malpractice laws; boosting support for education programs; joining other state’s health worker compacts; and a $2 billion dollar fund to pay for the reforms. 

Education

Public education accounts for a heft amount of both proposed budgets. Specifically, K-12 would see an approximate 6% budget increase to $4.69 billion while higher education is looking at $1.4 billion this legislative session, as recommended by both the governor’s office and the Legislative Finance Committee. The Legislature has allocated increasingly large amounts of funds to public education programs targeted at reading and writing, math, absenteeism and graduation rates, the LFC budget report notes, but student outcomes remain low. The report states that lawmakers will need to evaluate the effectiveness of the programs before making more long term investments.

Lawmakers plan to introduce several bills this session to increase funding for STEM education, teacher salaries and Career Technical Education. Other bills will propose changes to the capital outlay match local school districts and the Public Education Department spend on construction projects, as well as suggest an interstate teacher mobility compact.

Rep. Debra Sariñana (D-Albuquerque) prefiled a bill proposing New Mexico join an interstate teacher mobility compact which would make it easier for teachers crossing state lines to earn licensure.

Sen. Bill Soules (D-Las Cruces), who chairs the Legislative Education Study Interim Committee, said he will be sponsoring a bill providing more funding to math education throughout the state. He said the bill will also address improvements to how the subject is taught.

“Our scores from Martinez-Yazzie and that whole lawsuit indicate that our reading and writing are very poor. We’ve done a lot on improving the reading and writing side of it but not the math,” Soules said.

Government

While 60 days gives lawmakers time to wrangle over policy, passing a budget remains a key aspect of any session. Both the governor and the Legislative Finance Committee’s budgets propose close to $11 billion in spending, and appear to have more similarities than differences heading into the session.

While lawmakers settle in, good-government group Common Cause will advocate during the session for an Independent Salary Commission via state constitutional amendment. The ultimate goal? Paying legislators for their work.

“Allowing legislators to receive a salary would empower more New Mexicans to run for the legislature and serve the communities they love,” Mason Graham, Common Cause policy director said in a statement. “These pivotal seats shouldn’t be limited by the need to support a family, hold a full time job or financial freedom.”