{"id":12645,"date":"2010-02-05T14:35:18","date_gmt":"2010-02-05T21:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=12645"},"modified":"2010-02-07T10:56:49","modified_gmt":"2010-02-07T17:56:49","slug":"missing-gop-members-could-have-killed-lujan%e2%80%99s-tax-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/02\/missing-gop-members-could-have-killed-lujan%e2%80%99s-tax-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing GOP members could have killed Lujan\u2019s tax bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

House Speaker Ben Lujan during debate on his bill. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

House Speaker Ben Lujan\u2019s<\/a> bill to implement a temporary half-cent hike<\/a> in the state\u2019s gross receipts tax would presumably not have passed earlier today if two Republican members hadn\u2019t missed the vote.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, following drama on the House floor, Lujan\u2019s bill was approved on a vote of 34-32, with two Democrats and two Republicans missing the vote.<\/p>\n

The excitement began when Republican Rep. James White<\/a> asked for a call of the House and the doors were locked to ensure no members left the floor. Democratic Reps. Danice Picraux<\/a> and Karen Giannini<\/a> \u2013 who had previously been excused \u2013 were absent, as were Republican Reps. Jane Powdrell-Culbert<\/a> and Dennis Roch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The sergeant-at-arms went searching for missing members. Though the two excused Democrats weren\u2019t required to respond to a call of the House, both did return briefly to the House floor. Lujan got on the phone, and after a moment Picraux and Giannini quickly left again.<\/p>\n

They weren\u2019t required to return for the final vote, even following a debate between Minority Whip Keith Gardner<\/a> and Rick Miera<\/a> \u2013 the Democrat who was presiding over the chamber at the time \u2013 about whether they should be forced to come back and vote on the bill.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the House did vote to excuse Powdrell-Culbert and Roch. It was never made clear why any of the four members were absent.<\/p>\n

The House Republican caucus, minus Powdrell-Culbert and Roch, voted as a group against Lujan\u2019s bill. They presumably would have been joined by the two missing Republicans if they had been present, and the vote would have been 34-34.<\/p>\n

A tie vote kills a bill.<\/p>\n

How Giannini and Picraux would have voted isn\u2019t clear. Neither could be immediately reached for comment. Following the vote on the bill, Gardner put out a statement saying they \u201cclearly\u2026 did not want to be on record as voting for the largest tax increase in recent New Mexico history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kinds of games are an outrageous abuse of democracy,\u201d\u00a0Gardner said.<\/p>\n

Picraux and Ginannini returned to the House floor during debate on the next bill.<\/p>\n

Nine Democrats did join the Republicans in voting against the bill. They were Elias Barela<\/a>, Joseph Cervantes<\/a>, John Heaton<\/a>, Dona Irwin<\/a>, Rhonda King<\/a>, Andy Nu\u00f1ez<\/a>, Al Park<\/a>, Ben Rodefer<\/a> and Jeff Steinborn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s video of the debate between Gardner and Miera, taken by The New Mexico Independent\u2019s Larry Behrens:<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

Updated, Feb. 7, 10:55 a.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The two Republican members were absent because they had to attend doctors\u2019 appointments, the House GOP said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED: House Speaker Ben Lujan\u2019s bill to implement a temporary half-cent hike in the state\u2019s gross receipts tax would presumably not have passed earlier today if two Republican members hadn\u2019t missed the vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[118,107],"class_list":["post-12645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-economy","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}