Gov. Bill Richardson will be in Las Cruces on Friday to sign a bill that would create a state veteran’s museum and establish Las Cruces as its home.
Richardson will sign House Bill 59, sponsored by Rep. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, during a ceremony at the Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum. The event is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.
The governor also plans to spend two hours — from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. — holding five-minute meetings about legislation with state residents at his Las Cruces satellite office, which is located at the museum. The meetings are on a first-come, first-served basis. Those who want to meet with the governor must present a valid New Mexico driver’s license and have the name and number of the bill they want to talk about.
They can check in at the information desk at the museum.
The veteran’s museum proposal passed the Legislature for the first time in 2008, with Richardson supporting it and two of his cabinet secretaries testifying on its behalf. But a controversy ensued when Richardson vetoed that bill after its Republican sponsor — Leonard Lee Rawson of Las Cruces — became Richardson’s most vocal critic on other issues during the 2008 session.
Richardson then convened a task force to decide on the best location for the museum. His task force reiterated what was in the 2008 bill — that Las Cruces was the best spot. Richardson agreed with the task force’s recommendation last fall.
The Legislature easily approved the bill in the session that ended on Saturday.