Legislative subcommittee to consider ethics reform

The New Mexico Legislature has created an interim subcommittee that will hold four meetings this year to consider ethics reform.

It would be an understatement to suggest that some of the members of the ethics subcommittee aren’t exactly champions of reform. Membership includes leaders from both parties and both chambers.

The committee will be co-chaired by House Majority Leader Ken Martinez, D-Grants, and Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen. Martinez is a member of the governor’s ethics task force and authored much of the ethics legislation that passed the House earlier last year. Sanchez is one lawmaker often blamed for torpedoing many of those proposals in the Senate.

Their co-leadership of the subcommittee creates an interesting dynamic. The task force’s other members are House Minority Whip Dan Foley, R-Roswell; Senate Majority Whip Mary Jane Garcia, D-Doña Ana; Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle, R-Portales; Senate Minority Whip Leonard Lee Rawson, R-Las Cruces; House Majority Whip Sheryl Williams Stapleton, D-Albuquerque; and House Minority Leader Tom Taylor, R-Farmington.

Martinez works closely with Republicans in the House, and he was able to secure overwhelming support in that chamber for the reform proposals he authored and the governor backed during this year’s legislative session.

The Senate, on the other hand, approved gift limitations, amendments to the Governmental Conduct Act and an expansion of the public financing system, but torpedoed a number of other reform proposals. But the Senate doesn’t get all the credit – or blame – for killing many of the reform proposals. Though the House approved creation of a state ethics commission, it didn’t fund it. The Senate didn’t approve it at all.

And the Senate, after much debate, agreed to campaign contribution limits, if the limits applied to individuals and political action committees, but the legislation died because the House would only agree to place limits on contributions from individuals.

This subcommittee’s meetings are where members of the governor’s task force and other reform advocates must sell their proposals if they have any chance of approval next year.

The subcommittee will meet Sept. 14, Oct. 10, Nov. 7 and Dec. 13 at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.

The subcommittee will consider whether there are any problems with implementing the reforms approved this year, re-examine the legislation proposed this year and consider whether any additional reform is needed. It will also consider the proposals that will be made next month by the governor’s task force.

The governor’s task force will hold its next meeting Tuesday in Santa Fe. The meeting begins at 9 a.m. in Room 307 at the Roundhouse. The task force’s last scheduled meeting is on Aug. 30.