New programs make solar a good investment

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By Bill McCamley and Mark Westbrock “To truly transform our economy, protect our security and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy.” – President Barack Obama Communities in the State of New Mexico receive more direct sunlight every year than almost anywhere else in the world. This resource gives homeowners a chance to provide power to their homes through solar energy, allowing them to save money over the long term and contribute to the nation’s renewable energy infrastructure. However, two major problems have hampered the spread of individual solar systems: high up-front costs and the inability of solar owners to link the value of solar equipment to the value of their home. Recent policy developments at the local, state and federal levels seek to remedy these issues. The first of these is a new program implemented by the N.M. Public Regulation Commission available to all PNM and El Paso Electric customers. Continue Reading

Bob Johnson, thou aren’t avenged yet

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Fate of open conference committee bill rests with a ‘backpedaling’ governor You might recall me writing in 2007 about the death of Bob Johnson, then the head of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government (FOG). He was a tireless supporter of opening legislative conference committees to the public who was once berated on the Senate floor by an opponent of opening the meetings. “Bob Johnson, thou art avenged!” was what The Santa Fe New Mexican’s Steve Terrell wrote on his blog last week after the Legislature, following years and years of debate, approved a bill that would open conference committees and most other legislative meetings to the public. Then Gov. Bill Richardson announced earlier this week that, despite saying for years that he would sign such a bill, he might not sign the bill the Legislature approved this year. So, referring to his prior statement about Johnson, Terrell slammed on the brakes in a column published today in the newspaper and on his own blog. Continue Reading

Denish to speak at J. Paul Taylor Symposium

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Lt. Gov. Diane Denish will deliver the keynote address at a symposium on the state’s juvenile justice system at New Mexico State University next month. Denish will speak at 7 p.m. on April 15 at the J. Paul Taylor Symposium: Justice for Youth, according to a news release from NMSU.She will address the state’s overall vision for the juvenile justice system and the challenges, obstacles and improvements needed in New Mexico. The 5th annual event will be held from April 14-16 in the Corbett Center Ballrooms on campus. The symposium is dedicated to the many years of social justice work of Taylor, a former state representative and teacher. The symposium was created as a mechanism to explore NMSU’s role in partnering with others to explore and address the social justice issues facing the larger community, state and region. Continue Reading

Herrera named president of Latino organization

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Secretary of State Mary Herrera was named president of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) today. Herrera had previously been serving as the organization’s vice president. “I am deeply honored and humbled in the confidence my colleagues have in my leadership for this very important organization,” Herrera said in a news release. “During the difficult times our nation is facing, I am proud of the public service Latino elected officials are providing to lead our nation in the right direction. NALEO plays a critical role in supporting their leadership and I am proud to serve my colleagues in this capacity.” The association is a nonpartisan leadership organization. Continue Reading

Guv to sign veteran’s museum bill in Las Cruces

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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. Continue Reading

NM officials praise new focus on border

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New Mexico’s political leaders praised President Barack Obama’s plan, announced today, to redirect resources to the U.S.-Mexico border to help combat drug-related crime and strengthen border security. Obama announced that he’s moving more than 450 law enforcement agents and additional equipment to the border to help combat cartel violence that has led to the deaths of more than 7,200 people in Mexico since 2008 and resulted in the deploying of the Mexican Army to the border city of Ciudad Juárez, which has become a battle zone. The violence has the American government on edge. According to the Washington Times, The U.S. Defense Department believes “Mexico’s two most deadly drug cartels together have fielded more than 100,000 foot soldiers — an army that rivals Mexico’s armed forces and threatens to turn the country into a narco-state.” The violence has also spilled over, to some degree, into the United States. Phoenix’s police department, according to its mayor, is overwhelmed by drug-related kidnappings and torturing, CNN is reporting. Continue Reading

Lujan retracts accusation of racism

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House Speaker Ben Lujan is retracting his statement that Senate Finance Chairman John Arthur Smith is racist. But Lujan didn’t apologize in an interview with the Albuquerque Journal for his verbal assault on Smith, and he is continuing to defend the legislation Smith attacked on Saturday, the last day of the session. “Maybe my choice of words could have been better,” the Journal quoted Lujan as saying. “But there was no reason to make an accusation things were suspicious of any kind.” It was after Lujan slipped an already-killed proposal into an unrelated bill to try to resurrect it that Smith, on Saturday, opened the first conference committee in the history of the legislature, invited the press, and said that slipping the amendment into the bill created a “cloud of suspicion.” The proposal to allow bigger cities and counties to issue bonds to finance private projects — and have the bonds repaid through lease payments — was Lujan’s attempt to help a developer fund a project at the Santa Fe Railyard. Shortly after the session ended, Lujan called Smith a racist in an interview with two journalists. Continue Reading

Furloughs spread to additional NM newspapers

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The latest bad news for the state’s newspapers comes in the form of mandatory furloughs at three east-side papers. The Clovis News Journal, Portales News-Tribune and Quay County Sun in Tucumcari are the New Mexico newspapers owned by Freedom Communications, Inc., which announced Friday that all company employees have to take five days off without pay between April 1 and June 30. “We need to continue to reduce expenses while delivering our valuable products and services to our customers and advertisers. Of the many options we considered, a furlough provides the savings we’re seeking while still allowing us to maximize operations,” Freedom CEO Scott Flanders said in an article published in the Sun. Earlier this month, the Las Cruces Sun-News laid off three staffers. Continue Reading

Guv might not sign conference committee bill

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Despite prior pledge, Richardson now says ‘loopholes’ in bill concern him Though he previously pledged to sign a bill that would open conference committees and many other currently closed legislative meetings to the public, the governor’s office now says Bill Richardson is concerned about “loopholes in the bill” and isn’t certain he’ll sign it. “The governor has concerns about what appear to be major loopholes in the bill,” Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos wrote tonight in an e-mail. “…The governor is taking his time to scrutinize the bill.” That’s not what Richardson said on Thursday when asked by a reporter during a news conference if he would sign House Bill 393, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, should it pass the Senate. “Yeah,” Richardson said at that news conference. The bill passed the Senate that night on a vote of 33-8. Continue Reading

Legislature OKs one land office reform bill

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A bill that would require competitive bidding on all State Land Office development leases was the only legislation in a package of proposals made by three Las Cruces Democrats to gain approval in the session that ended Saturday. Senate Bill 540, sponsored by Steve Fischmann, is now awaiting action by the governor. The bill was a mirror of House Bill 606, sponsored by Jeff Steinborn, who along with Fischmann and Rep. Nate Cote pushed the package of bills in response to a development controversy in Las Cruces. “Given the problems we’ve had with the State Land Office, and the unchecked opportunity that office has to arbitrarily develop state lands, it was important that we close this loophole,” Steinborn said in a news release about the passage of the Fischmann bill. “This reform will ensure that any developer who acquires state land for development does so through a competitive bidding process, and not through insider connections or big campaign contributions.” Fischmann said in the release that he was “proud to be a partner in this legislative effort to protect New Mexico’s treasured public resources while also protecting our schools’ financial bottom line. Continue Reading

Guv likely to OK veteran’s museum this time

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Gov. Bill Richardson once again has an opportunity to make Las Cruces the home of a planned state veteran’s museum, and he’s likely to do so this time. The Senate gave unanimous approval on Saturday to House Bill 59, which would create the museum and establish Las Cruces as its home. The House had already approved the bill, also unanimously. “I can’t think of a better way for the Legislature to finish their work this session than to honor our veterans with this new museum,” Rep. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces and the bill’s sponsor, said in a news release. “In addition to honoring their sacrifice and telling New Mexico’s rich military history, it will also contain an office for veterans to get important services and information. Continue Reading

Las Cruces TIDD bill dies at session’s end

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The TIDD proposal for the controversial SunCal development on Albuquerque’s west side wasn’t the only proposal to use the controversial financing method that failed in the legislative session that just ended. A proposal to use TIDD funding for redevelopment of Las Cruces’ downtown also died when House Speaker Ben Lujan failed to call it up for a vote on the final morning of the session on Saturday. The proposal would have committed a percentage of gross receipts tax collected in the special tax district around downtown to provide up to $7.25 million for the city’s attempt to revitalize the area. The proposal, Senate Bill 19, was sponsored by Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces. In an interview, Papen noted that the bill was on the House calendar for Saturday and, before that, had sailed through every committee hearing and a vote on the Senate floor without any lawmaker opposing it. Continue Reading

Open conference committees are good after all!

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Smith’s about-face on conference committees thwarts the speaker’s shenanigans and shows the importance of opening the meetings to the publicI didn’t think I’d have an example until next session that I could use in a column about why the New Mexico Legislature was right to open conference committees to the public. But a bullying move by House Speaker Ben Lujan and an about-face by a state senator who has vehemently opposed opening conference committees in the past gave me the ammunition to write that column today. So, without further ado, here’s a perfect example of why it was so important that the Legislature approve a bill last week that opens conference committees and most other legislative meetings to the public. A stinky proposal The story begins with House Bill 820, sponsored by Lujan. Officially, the bill would have allowed bigger cities and counties in the state to issue bonds to finance private projects. Continue Reading

GRIPgate, housing scandal tops in nonscientific poll

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Two scandals earned the most votes in last weeks’ non-scientific poll asking which current scandal is most likely to result in criminal charges. Of 196 voters, 82, or 42 percent, picked GRIPgate, the grand jury probe of allegations of pay-to-play in the Richardson administration, while 71 voters, or 36 percent, picked the housing authority scandal that includes the default on $5 million in state-owned bonds. Meanwhile, 24 voters, or 12 percent, picked the misuse of federal funds by the administration of former Secretary of State Vigil-Giron and 19, or 10 percent, picked the probe of the U.S. attorney scandal, which includes Domenici’s call to Iglesias. Don’t forget to vote in this week’s poll, located at the top of the right column on this page. Continue Reading

Public confrontation colors end of session

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The talk among the state’s politicos is of a very public confrontation between House Speaker Ben Lujan and Senate Finance Chairman John Arthur Smith that occurred moments after the legislative session ended earlier today. In fact, the confrontation on the Senate floor was so public that it was witnessed by a number of other lawmakers and recorded by two journalists who were interviewing Smith when Lujan arrived. Want to know more? Click here to read about it from the New Mexico Independent and here from The Santa Fe New Mexican’s Kate Nash. If profanity offends you, you might not want to click on the links. Continue Reading