Heath Haussamen / NMPolitics.net
Gov. Bill Richardson (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Gov. Bill Richardson was in Las Cruces today to sign into law the Whistleblower Protection Act, funding for the Las Cruces downtown tax increment development district and colonias, and a spaceport-related bill.
The whistleblower law – House Bill 165, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces – allows government employees to sue their employers if they’re retaliated against for reporting government corruption, testifying before a public body or refusing to participate in unlawful activity.
Richardson signed three other bills while in Las Cruces:
• Senate Bill 279, sponsored by President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, and Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, which creates an annual fund of $10 million that is designed to ensure that residents of colonias get assistance for infrastructure improvements.
• House Bill 112, sponsored by Antonio Lujan, D-Las Cruces, which gives the City of Las Cruces the authority to issue $8 million in TIDD bonds to redevelop downtown.
• Senate Bill 9, sponsored by Papen, which would require that paying space travelers sign a waiver agreeing to hold companies harmless before they pay those companies to take them into space from Spaceport America in Southern New Mexico.