Gov. Susana Martinez’s spokesman says the funding bill was flawed in part because, in addition to paying for the automated notification system, it would have created “new state employee positions” that “are arguably unnecessary for an automated system.”
When she was a district attorney, Gov. Susana Martinez was instrumental in bringing to New Mexico an automated victim notification system about defendants’ incarceration status and court hearings.
So many of the state’s district attorneys were disappointed earlier this year when she pocket vetoed a bill that would have funded continuation of the program at the end of a federal grant by imposing a fee on jail inmates’ phone calls.
Now, with federal funding for the system ending today, district attorneys are scrambling to try to find a way to keep the system going.
“The district attorneys were absolutely dumbfounded when we found out what happened,” 13th Judicial District Attorney Lemuel Martinez said about Martinez’s veto. He said he still doesn’t understand.
Scott Darnell, spokesman for Susana Martinez, said the bill was flawed in several ways. In addition to paying for the automated notification system, he said it would have created “new state employee positions” that “are arguably unnecessary for an automated system.”
Darnell said the bill had a sunset provision, so it didn’t ensure long-term continuation of the program. And the governor, he said, wants to ensure that district attorneys use the system to supplement, not replace, the personal relationships between victims’ advocates and victims.
One idea district attorneys are exploring to keep the system going involves obtaining funding from county governments, and Darnell said the governor is supportive of that effort.
A fee on inmates’ phone calls
Martinez has promised to not raise taxes during her tenure. The governor hasn’t made an explicit promise to not raise fees, but she didn’t sign any new fees into law during her first legislative session.
The victim notification bill Martinez vetoed would have funded the system by implementing a fee of up to 35 cents per call a jail inmate makes to anyone other than his or her attorney. State Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell and the sponsor of the bill, said Martinez told him she didn’t sign it because of the fee. He’s disappointed by the governor’s veto.
“That was my goal – to have the cost of the system be paid by a fee, rather than by taxes, to have the costs borne by those who make the system necessary, rather than forcing all taxpayers to, in essence, be taxed directly to pay for the outside costs of a system that few of them are involved in making necessary,” Adair said.
“The problem is the governor is refusing to raise any revenue at all through taxes, through loopholes, through fees.” – State Rep. Mimi Stewart
State Rep. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, who sponsored the House version of the legislation, said it was frustrating that the governor vetoed the bill after she and others worked hard to gather widespread support.
“The problem is the governor is refusing to raise any revenue at all through taxes, through loopholes, through fees,” Stewart said. “So it will be hard to come up with a compromise with her when what we need is about $1 million to keep this system going.”
Bipartisan support for funding proposal
Called VINE, or Victim Information and Notification Everyday, the system has two components. The first tracks inmates housed in county jails and lets people sign up for phone, text or e-mail alerts when they’re released. The second tracks criminal court cases and sends notification about hearings.
Both are designed to keep crime victims informed and safe. They are also used by family members of those charged with crimes, witnesses, prosecutors, defense attorneys, the media, and others.
The system is in place for about two thirds of New Mexico jails and most district courts.
The fiscal impact report for Adair’s bill said it would have provided as much as $1 million a year over two years to pay for the system, though the approved fee of 35 cents per call could have been reduced if that much wasn’t needed. The bill required legislative oversight of the program.
It had the backing of the state’s district attorneys, the Public Regulation Commission, and a bipartisan majority of lawmakers in the House and Senate.
Kelly Kuenstler, head of the state district attorney’s association, said use of the VINE courts and jails components costs the state about $500,000 a year, thanks in part to a significant discount the jails get for banding together. Then, Kuenstler said, there’s an additional $225,000-a-year cost for “the staff required to maintain the system, train the users and be the statewide administrator.”
That $225,000 is the money with which the governor takes issue.
Martinez knows the VINE system well. As a district attorney, she was instrumental in getting the program implemented in New Mexico. It started with the Doña Ana County Detention Center in 2003 thanks to a legislative appropriation from Sen. Mary Kay Papen and then-Sen. Leonard Lee Rawson. Martinez them implemented it in her office, paying for it out of her existing budget.
Martinez pushed the rest of the state’s district attorneys to take the system statewide. Several years ago the district attorneys secured Department of Justice grants totaling $1.6 million to expand it to other jails and district courts.
The state currently has no funding in place to keep the system going after today.
Company offers two months free
The company that owns the VINE system, Appriss, has offered to let the district attorneys keep the VINE system going for the months of July and August free of charge. The district attorneys agreed to keep the jail component going through August but opted against extending the court component, according to Kuenstler.
E-mails obtained by NMPolitics.net in response to a records request reveal disagreement among the district attorneys about whether to keep the court component going through August.
Kuenstler said her office is planning to develop a “diluted version” of the court component in-house that would still provide text and e-mail notification of court hearings, but not phone calls. She said the majority of district attorneys voted to shut down the VINE court component because they can’t afford to sustain it beyond the two months Appriss is offering for free.
Some aren’t ready to give up on the VINE court component. Ninth Judicial District Attorney Matt Chandler sent an e-mail to the other district attorneys on Monday urging them to reconsider and take Appriss up on its offer of two free months. He’s trying to buy more time to figure out a way to keep the courts component of VINE going.
“It makes no sense to shut down victim notification prematurely when it’s being offered at no cost to anyone throughout July and August,” he wrote in the e-mail.
“It makes no sense to shut down victim notification prematurely when it’s being offered at no cost to anyone throughout July and August.” – District Attorney Matt Chandler
Lemuel Martinez said he’s among those who supports Chandler’s efforts.
Ideas for funding the system
As for the jail component of VINE, Kuenstler met with the New Mexico Association of Counties recently to discuss the possibility of counties funding it. The association’s executive director, Paul Gutierrez, said he doesn’t know if that’s possible.
“I will need to follow up with some of the county managers to see if they have the funds available,” he said. “We did support the (district attorney’s association) with the legislation they had introduced. I don’t know if the counties will have the funds to pay for the program.”
Chandler is working on a proposal to split the cost between every district attorney in the state, every county, and possibly the Department of Corrections, which could make each agency responsible for only a few hundred dollars a month.
Others spoke with NMPolitics.net about the possibility of new legislation next year or even later this year during the redistricting special session if they can get the governor’s support for it. But Martinez’s office hasn’t responded to a follow-up question about whether there is a proposal for state funding for VINE that she would support.
Adair said he hopes officials can find a way to keep the system going, but whether he’d sponsor legislation again is a “difficult question” because he doesn’t know what the governor would support.
“A state-of-the-art victim notification system is absolutely a public safety issue in the modern world,” he said. “It is a life-saving and cost-saving requirement for New Mexicans. We must have such a system, either paid for by those whose crimes make the system necessary, or we must have it paid for by all taxpayers through direct taxation applied to everyone, regardless of whether they commit crimes or not.”
But Adair said he would not sponsor legislation that pays for the system with a tax on the general public.
“I’ve never supported a tax increase of any kind,” he said.
A subheadline in this article previously read “A fee on inmates” but has been updated to more accurately reflect that it’s “A fee on inmates’ phone calls.”