Budget crunch slows housing reform bill

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But proponents remain optimistic that Legislature will approve affordable housing overhaul The state’s budget crunch is making the path toward reform of the affordable housing system a little more difficult, but reform backers are still optimistic that the Legislature will approve an overhaul of the regional housing authority system this session. Senate Bill 20, sponsored by Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, would expand reforms approved in 2007 to further increase oversight and completely restructure the system. But the state is in the process of cutting the budget to deal with the sagging economy, and Papen’s bill asks for $600,000 for the restructuring and the restarting of housing authorities that shut down during the scandalous collapse of most of the system in 2006. The bill has already received a unanimous do-pass recommendation from the Senate Public Affairs Committee, but it’s been bogged down in the Senate Finance Committee because of the funding issue. Papen said she’s in the process of stripping the funding provision from the bill so it can get the Finance Committee’s approval and begin the rest of its trek through the Senate and then the House. Continue Reading

Guv’s approval rating sinks further

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As an investigation into allegations of pay to play continues, along with headlines about controversy and the sinking economy, Gov. Bill Richardson’s popularity has dropped to an all-time low in a new poll. Richardson’s approval is at 41 percent in the poll, conducted by SurveyUSA for KOB-TV in Albuquerque. The Feb. 23 survey of 600 New Mexicans has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points. Richardson’s previous low of 47 percent in the poll, which has been conducted every month since May 2005, came last month. Continue Reading

Committee revives, OKs conference committee bill

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A day after shelving a proposal to open legislative conference committees and other meetings to the public, members of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee revived and unanimously approved the bill today without making any changes to it. I wrote earlier today that, on a 10-4 vote, the committee on Wednesday tabled House Bill 393, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, and that one concern raised by some members was that the bill would put an end to the appropriations committee’s closed-door meetings. (And I was highly critical of that criticism of the bill.) Cervantes told me following the bill’s tabling that he didn’t know whether he was willing to agree to exempt the committee’s meetings as a way to revive the bill, and he would meet with committee members to discuss their concerns. Apparently, it didn’t take long for Cervantes to address their concerns and convince them that the bill was fine as written. During this afternoon’s meeting, it was Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, who made the motion to reconsider the bill. Continue Reading

Agencies want to reduce access to public records

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Some executive offices want to turn bill designed to increase access to public records into one that creates new ways to deny access Call it a classic win-win situation… just not for the public. What do you do if you head a state agency and a lawmaker is proposing shortening the length of time you have to respond to requests for public records and other changes to the Inspection of Public Records Act that would make your job a little more inconvenient? Propose a bunch of changes to the bill that would create a host of new justifications for denying access to records maintained by your office. If the bill passes, you win by getting new ways to deny access to records. If the bill dies because what you’re proposing will be viewed by many as egregious, you win because you killed a bill that would have, in its original version, placed tougher restrictions on your agency. Continue Reading

Kintigh exploring possibility of webcasting

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State Rep. Dennis Kintigh says he’s interested in joining Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones in webcasting audio and video live from House committee meetings, but he’s not quite ready to commit to doing it. Kintigh, a Republican from Roswell, says he has asked for some help with getting equipped to webcast and needs some training on how to do it. He’s also hoping it won’t be too distracting from his committee work. “The engineer in me wants to test it out before I move forward or commit to doing this,” Kintigh said. “Also, I have not discussed this with the committee chairs, so I’m not sure if it will be permitted.” On Wednesday, the Santa Fe Reporter reported that Kintigh and Candy Spence Ezzell, another Roswell Republican, might start webcasting, and that the tech guy who helped Arnold-Jones start the legislative webcasting revolution in Santa Fe had already equipped laptops for both. Continue Reading

The Senate passes… an ethics reform bill!

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The Senate approved this afternoon a bill that would allow a judge to fine an elected official convicted of corruption related to his or her office. On a vote of 29-12, senators sent Senate Bill 141, sponsored by Minority Whip William Payne, R-Albuquerque, to the House for consideration. It’s the most visible piece of ethics reform approved so far this year by the Senate. Under the bill, a judge could impose a fine when an elected official commits a felony connected to his position. The fine could be no greater than the elected official’s salary and benefits, and would be an additional penalty on top of the standard sentence the official receives. Continue Reading

Once again, committee skips ethics reform

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But Senate Rules Chair Linda Lopez says bills will be voted on in the coming days This article has been updated.For nearly two weeks, the New Mexico Independent webcast ethics hearings from the Senate Rules Committee — some of them with the help of Mark Bralley — and substantive ethics reform discussions took place each time. But on Monday, NMI was unable to do it. Without a camera in the room, no ethics reform was discussed. NMI was back today. KUNM’s Jim Williams was also present and recording the meeting. Continue Reading

Report: More GOP legislators to start webcasting

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It appears that House Republicans are getting ready to expand their audio and video webcasting of committee meetings. Reps. Candy Spence Ezzell and Dennis Kintigh of Roswell may be preparing to join “Lady Sunlight,” Janice Arnold-Jones of Albuquerque, in webcasting their committee meetings, according to the Santa Fe Reporter. The newspaper’s blog posting quotes Howard DeLaCruz-Bancroft, the tech guy helping Arnold-Jones webcast her meetings, as saying he’s already prepped laptops with webcasting equipment for Ezzell and Kintigh. Ezzell sits on the House Energy and Natural Resources and Labor and Human Resources committees, and Kintigh sits on the Health and Government Affairs and Judiciary committees. Continue Reading

Bill would give legal force to e-mail records requests

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A bill that would require government agencies in New Mexico to accept requests for public records via e-mail and fax cleared its first hurdle on Tuesday. House Bill 598, sponsored by Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, was given a do-pass recommendation by the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee on a vote of 6-1, with only Rep. Zachary Cook, R-Ruidoso, voting against it. “The citizens in our state should have ready access to government documents without artificial barriers,” Cervantes said following Tuesday’s vote. “E-mail is an integral and accepted means of communication, and no less so than a mailed letter or postcard.” Cervantes’ bill comes in response to New Mexico State University’s assertion in 2007 that records requests I filed weren’t valid because they were sent via e-mail. The attorney general considered the issue and said that, though his office and the vast majority of state agencies treat e-mail requests as valid, state law doesn’t explicitly require that they be treated as valid. Continue Reading

Independent plans webcasting, liveblogging

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The New Mexico Independent will once again webcast live from the meeting of the Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday morning as the committee is scheduled to take up a number of ethics-reform proposals. The news outlet will also host a live blog on its Web site in which anyone can take part. Click here to join in. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. In addition, sometime this week the Senate is going to debate and vote on the controversial domestic partner benefits bill. The Independent and the Santa Fe Reporter plan to jointly host a live blog during that debate, and anyone can participate. Continue Reading

Conference committee bill moves through House

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The annual battle in the Senate to open legislative conference committees to the public hasn’t yet begun, but the proposal is making its way through the House. House Bill 393, sponsored by Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, has already received a do-pass recommendation from the House Judiciary Committee — of which Cervantes is vice chair — on a vote of 12-0. It’s scheduled to be considered Wednesday by the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, where it passed on a vote of 18-0 the last time it was considered, in 2007. Assuming the Appropriations and Finance Committee OKs it, the bill would then go to the full House for a vote. The last time the House voted on the conference-committee bill, in 2007, it passed 53-5. Continue Reading

From Bacchus to governor?

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The god of wine? That’s Val Kilmer’s current project as King of Bacchus for the Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans. See for yourself: Now ponder this question: Can you really picture this guy in a suit and tie giving a State of the State Address to the New Mexico Legislature? Following in the footsteps of King Bill, maybe it isn’t such a stretch to imagine… Continue Reading

Guv says GRIPgate isn’t why he skipped meeting

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The governor’s office says an ongoing federal probe into allegations of pay to pay isn’t the reason Bill Richardson skipped a weekend meeting of the National Governors Association. “The governor felt that he needed to be here in New Mexico because of the possibility of a vote on domestic partnerships and because lawmakers were working on budget issues over the weekend,” said Alarie Ray-Garcia, Richardson’s deputy communications director. The Washington Post has noted that two prominent governors — Richardson and Alaska’s Sarah Palin — skipped the weekend of meetings in Washington related to the stimulus package, which included a black-tie dinner at the White House and a meeting with President Barack Obama. And the Post noted the context of Richardson’s absence: The governor “withdrew in January as Obama’s commerce secretary nominee amid a federal ‘pay to play’ investigation.” Richardson has a history of traveling out of state while the Legislature is in session and insisting that he can keep track of the business being in conducted in Santa Fe via phone and through staffers who remain at the Roundhouse. In fact, in March 2007, when he was running for president, Richardson called lawmakers into special session for an agenda that included domestic partner benefits, and then left the state to attend a fundraiser in California. Continue Reading