Latest Stories

Senate OKs more frequent campaign reporting

By |

I neglected on Monday to report on one transparency bill that received Senate approval over the weekend. So, here goes: On a vote of 37-3, Senate Bill 128, sponsored by Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, now heads to the House. The bill would require that candidates file reports of expenditures and contributions twice a year in off-election years. Currently, the law requires that annually. It’s not a major ethics proposal, but it’s a small piece ethics-reform backers hope will increase transparency in government. Continue Reading

Keep charities at the table, not on it

By |

New Mexico is on the front lines of a critical battle to reform corruption in politics. We need nonprofits to help restore democracy and faith in government. By Larry Ottinger and Aaron Dorfman America’s serious economic crisis is hurting — and will continue to hurt — the children, families and communities that are served by its more than 1.5 million nonprofit organizations. Yet, at the very time our policy-makers most need the wisdom and involvement of nonprofits and ordinary Americans, there are some government and big business cronies who like the “old boys’ network” and want to shut the people out. Take a look at New Mexico today and you will find the front lines of a critical battle to reform the corruption in politics with which Americans are rightfully fed up. Continue Reading

Kintigh plans to webcast Judiciary on Wednesday

By |

State Rep. Dennis Kintigh plans to webcast meetings of the House Judiciary Committee beginning Wednesday after the committee’s chairman, Rep. Al Park, D-Albuquerque, approved it today. Park was “VERY positive” about Kintigh webcasting the committee’s meetings, Kintigh wrote today in an e-mail. The Roswell Republican tried to start webcasting live audio and video from the committee today, but a technical issue prevented it. He’ll try again on Wednesday. The committee is scheduled to meet on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. or sometime after the House floor session ends. Continue Reading

Senate approves housing authority reform

By |

The Senate unanimously approved today a bill that would overhaul the state’s affordable housing system in response to the scandalous 2006 collapse of most of the state’s regional housing authorities. Senate Bill 20, sponsored by Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, now moves to the House. The bill would increase oversight and completely restructure the system. An initial funding request of $600,000 was stripped from the bill before today’s vote because of the state’s budget crunch, but Papen still hopes to secure a portion of the required funding in the budget bill so the transition can begin. “Our state’s tragedy is that some of the housing authorities we created to help with providing (affordable) housing have run themselves off the track,” Papen said in a news release. Continue Reading

Group concerned that NMFA won’t release subpoena

By |

The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government (FOG) says it is concerned by the New Mexico Finance Authority’s (NMFA) denial of a records request I filed in January. The request sought copies of any subpoenas NMFA has received in a federal grand jury investigation of allegations of pay to play in the Richardson administration.FOG Executive Director Leonard J. DeLayo asked NMFA in a Feb. 13 letter to justify its denial of my records request and noted that the denial contrasted with the release of a similar subpoena by the governor’s office in response to requests from me and other journalists filed under the public records act. “If you believe you have any legal or statutory authority to refuse this request under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act, please provide us with that information,” DeLayo wrote in the letter, which you can read by clicking here. NMFA General Counsel Reynold E. Romero responded in a Feb. Continue Reading

House OKs opening conference committees

By |

A bill that would open conference committees and other legislative meetings to the public unanimously passed the House today. On a vote of 66-0, House Bill 393, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, now moves to the Senate for consideration. But there’s a good chance it will run into trouble there. The open conference committee proposal usually passes the House and is killed in the Senate. This year, the Senate version of the bill — Senate Bill 150, sponsored by Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque — has been left off the agenda of the Senate Rules Committee even as other ethics reform proposals have been discussed. Continue Reading

Watching the grass grow again in Senate Rules

By |

This article has been updated with a correction. Those who watched today’s meeting of the Senate Rules Committee in person or via webcast hoping that the committee would finally begin moving ethics-reform bills ended up pretty much watching the grass grow once again. The committee did discuss Senate Bill 555, sponsored by the committee’s chair, Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, but took no action on it. The bill would make the Governmental Conduct Act apply to local government officials in addition to state officials, and also require legislators who have a financial interest that would be affected by their official acts to disclose the nature and value of the interest to the public. But the committee took no action on the bill. Continue Reading

House to vote on open conference committees

By |

A bill that would open conference committees and other legislative meetings to the public could be voted on by the House on Monday. House Bill 393, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, is tenth on the list of bills ready for a full vote of the House on Monday’s calendar. Conference committees are groups of usually of three House members and three Senate members who are tasked with reconciling differences between versions bills that have passed both chambers. In addition to opening their meetings to the public, the bill would open many other currently closed legislative meetings, including executive sessions of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee. Exempted would be investigative or quasi-judicial meetings — such as impeachment proceedings — and political party caucus meetings. Continue Reading

Kintigh ready to begin webcasting

By |

State Rep. Dennis Kintigh says he’s ready to begin webcasting meetings of the House Health and Government Affairs and Judiciary committees. Now all he needs is to get formal permission from the chairs of those committees. Kintigh said he asked Rep. Al Park, D-Albuquerque and Judiciary chairman, on Friday and was told to put his request in writing. “I got no indication Rep. Park was opposed, he just said that was the policy,” Kintigh wrote in an e-mail. Kintigh, R-Roswell, plans to put the request in writing on Monday. Continue Reading

NMI to webcast Senate Rules meeting again

By |

The Senate Rules Committee discussed the proposal to create an independent state ethics commission on Friday but advanced no legislation deal with ethics reform. On Monday, the New Mexico Independent will be back at the committee’s meeting with a live audio and video webcast and a liveblog you can join. Several ethics -reform proposals are on the agenda. I won’t be able to join in, but you can by clicking here. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. Continue Reading

Most voters in poll want contribution limits

By |

The majority of those who voted in last week’s non-scientific poll on this site said the Legislature should approve campaign contribution limits for elections in New Mexico. Of 153 voters, 118, or 77 percent, said lawmakers should approve contribution limits, while 28, or 18 percent, said they should not, and seven, or 5 percent, said they don’t know. Don’t forget to vote in this week’s poll, located at the top of the right column on this page. Continue Reading

Budget crunch slows housing reform bill

By |

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

By |

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

Stimulus — yea or nay?

By |

By Carter Bundy The federal stimulus package is like nothing we’ve ever seen, and for a reason: We’re in times like we’ve never seen (unless you’re an octogenarian or nonagenarian, of course). I have mixed feelings about it. Anyone concerned with our deficits would have to. Part of me agrees with Heath (click here to read that column) that the whole thing is crazy — spending hundreds of billions to get us out of a recession/borderline depression that was largely caused by the last administration’s insane fiscal irresponsibility. But part of me also knows when I’m in over my head, and since a strong majority of economists — liberal and conservative — all agree that some stimulus is needed to arrest our economic death spiral, I defer on this one. Continue Reading

Committee revives, OKs conference committee bill

By |

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