{"id":1354,"date":"2007-03-06T08:23:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-06T14:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/lujan-says-he-isnt-trying-to-kill-housing-proposal\/"},"modified":"2007-03-06T08:23:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-06T14:23:00","slug":"lujan-says-he-isnt-trying-to-kill-housing-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/lujan-says-he-isnt-trying-to-kill-housing-proposal\/","title":{"rendered":"Lujan says he isn’t trying to kill housing proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Speaker of the House Ben Lujan<\/a>, D-Namb\u00e9, said he isn\u2019t trying to kill a proposal that would remake the state\u2019s troubled affordable housing system.<\/p>\n

Those who claim otherwise, he said, are mistaken, and my articles on the topic have been \u201cout of line.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

On Sunday, House Bill 997<\/a>, sponsored by Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones<\/a>, R-Albuquerque, was tabled on a vote of 6-5 by the House Business and Industry Committee. Six Democrats on the committee voted in favor of tabling after Lujan spoke privately with at least two of them during the bill\u2019s public hearing.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Then on Monday, Lujan moved Senate Bill 519<\/a>, sponsored by Sen. Mary Kay Papen<\/a>, D-Las Cruces, off the House Judiciary Committee calendar and assigned it to the same committee that tabled Arnold-Jones\u2019 bill a day earlier.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In an interview conducted Monday evening, Lujan asserted that he had no influence on the votes of members of the Business and Industry Committee. He said he was at Sunday\u2019s committee meeting only because he had his own bill to present \u2013 House Bill 924<\/a>, which would make \u201cChristmas\u201d the state\u2019s \u201cofficial answer\u201d and was approved on an 11-0 vote.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

He said he moved Papen\u2019s bill on Monday not in an attempt to kill it, but because he likes to assign mirror bills to the same committees. He said not initially assigning Papen\u2019s bill to the same committees as Arnold-Jones\u2019 was \u201can error on my part\u201d that he corrected once he became aware of the situation.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The bills, which Papen and Arnold-Jones are carrying for the governor, would shut down the state\u2019s scandal-plagued regional housing authorities and replace them with a system overseen by the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The proposal would also provide for audits of each of the seven housing authority regions to determine the extent of the mismanagement that has led to authorities in Las Cruces and Albuquerque shutting down, the defaulting by the Albuquerque authority on $5 million in bonds it owed the state and an ongoing investigation by the attorney general.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lawmakers and other legislative participants I spoke with Tuesday evening balked at Lujan\u2019s assertions, noting the timing of the situation, but none were willing to go on the record.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But Lujan insisted that he never told committee members during Sunday\u2019s hearing what to do with Arnold-Jones\u2019 bill.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI was there to place a bill on passage that I had before the committee and that\u2019s why I was there,\u201d he said. \u201cI never went to tell Rep. (Debbie) Rodella<\/a> (the committee\u2019s chair) or Rep. (Richard) Vigil<\/a> (a committee member) what to do or not to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

And he insisted that he isn\u2019t out to kill Papen\u2019s bill.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same bill and I try to send the same bills that are duplicate bills to the same committees,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce in awhile I make a mistake, and I try my best to correct it.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lujan said he doesn\u2019t know whether members of the committee intended to kill Arnold-Jones\u2019 bill. He said they might have tabled it so they could vote on both the Arnold-Jones and Papen bills at once, perhaps because they assumed, even though it was not the case at the time, that Papen\u2019s bill was also assigned to their committee.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2018I support trying to correct the situation\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In addition, Lujan admitted, when asked, that he is a co-signer on the Arnold-Jones\u2019 bill, as are at least 15 members of the House. I asked if that meant he supported the bill, and he had this to say:<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI support trying to correct the situation they\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But he then indicated that he believes the problems with the housing authorities aren\u2019t as bad as some claim. He said the state auditor\u2019s office recently finished audits of three of the housing authorities and \u201ctheir audits came in with no audit exceptions.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Because the interview was conducted well after business hours, it was too late for the state auditor\u2019s office to confirm that. I\u2019m told I\u2019ll have an answer today.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Last year, in-depth reviews by the governor\u2019s office and the State Investment Council found widespread misuse of the bond money and a number of other problems. The council referred the case to the attorney general\u2019s office so it could determine whether there was any criminal activity.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The housing authority scandal has been a hot potato in the Legislature because of the relationship between Lujan and former Region III Housing Authority Director Vincent \u201cSmiley\u201d Gallegos. Gallegos is a former legislator and current lobbyist who, in past sessions, has spent a lot of time in the speaker\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Among the scandals that have plagued the housing authority was the disclosure late last year that a top aide to Lujan, who may not qualify for low-income housing, had been living rent-free in a home owned by the Region III authority based in Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. After the situation was revealed by the Albuquerque Journal<\/a>, the aide paid back rent. She continues to live in the home.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lujan has said he didn\u2019t know about the situation until a reporter told him about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaker of the House Ben Lujan, D-Namb\u00e9, said he isn\u2019t trying to kill a proposal that would remake the state\u2019s troubled affordable housing system. Those who claim otherwise, he said, are mistaken, and my articles on the topic have been \u201cout of line.\u201d On Sunday, House Bill 997, sponsored by Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones, R-Albuquerque, was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354","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=1354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}