This article has been updated.
One high-profile ethics-reform proposal passed the House today, and another passed the Senate, but there’s doubt that either will make it through the other chamber in time to be sent to the governor before the session ends at noon on Saturday.
The Senate approved today a committee substitute bill for Senate Bill 263, sponsored by Sue Wilson Beffort, R-Sandia Park, that also took elements from Senate Bill 296, sponsored by Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque. The bill would require that prospective and current state and local government contractors disclose their campaign contributions and that such disclosures be included in an Internet database accessible to the public.
It was approved on a vote of 26-11.
The House, meanwhile, approved on a vote of 64-0 a proposal to create an independent state ethics commission with subpoena power. The committee substitute for House Bill 151, sponsored by Al Park, D-Albuquerque, was also a replacement for House Bill 614, sponsored by Mary Helen Garcia, D-Las Cruces.
The two bills approved today must make it through the other chamber before the session ends in order to be sent to the governor for a signature. The ethics commission proposal is the most likely to be dead. Several bills that would create a state ethics commission have been languishing in the Senate Rules Committee for weeks. While the House has approved the proposal in the past, no ethics commission bill has made it to the Senate floor for debate in recent years.
The Rules Committee has become notorious for its reluctance to approve ethics-reform measures. During today’s debate on SB 263, Feldman was asked why the bill didn’t ban contributions from contractors, instead of requiring the disclosure of such contributions.
“I’ll tell you what this bill gets you that an outright ban won’t get you, and that is passage through the Senate Rules Committee,” Feldman said.
Aragon’s sentencing discussed
Also noteworthy was the fact that the Senate’s ethics-reform discussion came the same day that former Senate President Manny Aragon was sentenced for his role in stealing $4.2 million in taxpayer money by inflating and falsifying invoices during construction of the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Courthouse.
“It is an important day for the New Mexico State Senate and it is an important day to pass this bill,” Feldman said in arguing for SB 263.
Sen. Eric Griego, D-Albuquerque, also mentioned the Aragon sentencing in arguing for an outright ban on contributions from contractors.
“Rather than pile on, or rather than pontificate,” Griego said, “we ought to just say, ‘What can we do to better set some rules here?’”
Update, 9:55 p.m.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot to write about a big issue with the ethics commission bill that passed the House today. It would require the public release of reports in cases of ethics violations by members of the executive branch, but would keep investigations against members of the legislative branch completely confidential. The public would never get to know about ethical violations by legislators, the New Mexico Independent is reporting.
There are a number of words that could be used to describe that. Unfair is one. Veto-ready is another. Stupid is the first that comes to my mind.
Clearly New Mexico put it this way:
“This is the equivalent of giving the henhouse keys to the fox,” Matt Brix wrote in a posting on the blog. “I doubt the public will buy the line that half of an ethics commission is better than the whole thing.”
Agreed.