Guv to sign road bill, close book on special session

Gov. Bill Richardson will sign a road-funding bill approved during last month’s special session of the Legislature at a ceremony today in Albuquerque.

House Bill 2, sponsored by Rep. Dan Silva, D-Albuquerque, provides about $108 million for roads around the state, including $10 million for a road to Spaceport America. Richardson plans to sign the bill during a ceremony marking the opening of a train station in Albuquerque at 1:30 p.m. today.

Richardson has already signed House Bill 6, sponsored by Speaker of the House Ben Lujan, D-Nambé, which extends the state’s public financing system to races for appeals judges and Supreme Court justices. The system is voluntary.

Richardson vetoed a provision in the bill that would have implemented the system only if voters approved a constitutional amendment that ended the retention system. Even without that provision, the system only applies to contested races. Public financing can’t be used in retention races or other races where a judge has no opponent.

Richardson signed the bill last week.

“With the signing of this bill, New Mexico becomes one of only two states in the country to have public financing for judicial races and fulfills a key recommendation of my Ethics Reform Task Force,” Richardson said in a news release. “Public financing helps assure that Court of Appeals and Supreme Court judges can run for office without the pressures of partisan campaigning or fundraising.”

Once Richardson signs the road bill today, the state can close the book on the difficult special session. But the ethics task force will soon be at work again, and Richardson has said he may call another special session later this year for ethics reform. Lt. Gov. Diane Denish has said she is interested in a special session to deal with health care.

A prior version of this posting incorrectly stated that the public financing system would apply to retention races.