{"id":1389,"date":"2007-03-12T10:56:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-12T16:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/foley-says-housing-bills-will-be-heard-tuesday\/"},"modified":"2007-03-12T10:56:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-12T16:56:00","slug":"foley-says-housing-bills-will-be-heard-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/foley-says-housing-bills-will-be-heard-tuesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Foley says housing bills will be heard Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The House minority whip says the Business and Industry Committee will hear three bills related to the state\u2019s housing authority scandal during Tuesday\u2019s meeting. <\/p>\n

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

The bills aren\u2019t on the published schedule, which doesn\u2019t necessarily mean they won\u2019t be heard. Committee Chair Debbie Rodella<\/a>, D-Ohkay Owingeh, and other Democrats who previously voted to table one of the bills have agreed to allow all three to be heard, according to Dan Foley<\/a>, R-Roswell.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThey\u2019ve agreed,\u201d Foley said. \u201cI want to thank the chairwoman, Debbie Rodella, for agreeing to hear all three tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Rodella could not be reached for comment. The committee will meet shortly after Tuesday\u2019s House floor session in Room 309 at the Roundhouse.<\/p>\n

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

On Sunday, the committee\u2019s Republicans and Rep. Dona Irwin<\/a>, D-Deming, made a failed attempt to bring back House Bill 997<\/a>, sponsored by Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones<\/a>, R-Albuquerque, for consideration. The bill was tabled last week on a vote of 6-5.<\/p>\n

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

Also awaiting hearings in the committee are House Bill 1321<\/a>, is sponsored by Foley, and Senate Bill 519<\/a>, sponsored by Sen. Mary Kay Papen<\/a>, D-Las Cruces.<\/p>\n

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

The Papen and Arnold-Jones bills would replace the scandal-plagued authorities with a new system overseen by the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority<\/a>. They would also fund a probe by the Legislative Finance Committee<\/a> to determine the extent of the mismanagement of money that led to the system crumbling last year in scandal. <\/p>\n

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

Foley\u2019s bill, which was introduced last week because of concerns that the others were being stonewalled, only proposes funding for the LFC probe.<\/p>\n

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

Speaker of the House Ben Lujan<\/a> is a close ally of Vincent \u201cSmiley\u201d Gallegos, a lobbyist, former lawmaker and former director of the Albuquerque-based Region III Housing Authority, which defaulted last year on $5 million in bonds it owed the state. Lujan was tenuously tied to the scandal last year when it was reported that one of his top aides, who may not qualify for low-income housing, was living rent-free in a home owned by the Region III authority.<\/p>\n

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

Papen\u2019s bill was approved last month by the Senate on a vote of 36-1.<\/p>\n

\n

Update, 4:10 p.m.<\/p>\n

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

There\u2019s apparently some question as to whether Foley is right about what will be considered on Tuesday. Rep. Jose Campos<\/a>, D-Santa Rosa and a member of the Business and Industry Committee who opposes the bills, said it\u2019s his understanding that only Foley\u2019s bill will be heard. Rodella has not returned a call seeking comment.<\/p>\n

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

Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> said today that Lujan told him \u201che\u2019s going to bring it up on Tuesday\u201d in the Business and Industry Committee, but didn\u2019t specify whether \u201cit\u201d meant a specific bill or all three.<\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> said he has been speaking with two members of the committee who voted to table Arnold-Jones\u2019 bill in an attempt to get them to change their votes. Arnold-Jones and Papen are carrying the bills for the governor.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe need reform of these housing authorities,\u201d Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> said. \u201cThey\u2019re important bills. They\u2019re very high on my list.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> also said Lujan told him he supports the bills. In my conversations with Lujan, he has said he supports the broad concept of fixing some of the problems with the housing authorities, but has refused to comment on whether he supports the bills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The House minority whip says the Business and Industry Committee will hear three bills related to the state\u2019s housing authority scandal during Tuesday\u2019s meeting. The bills aren\u2019t on the published schedule, which doesn\u2019t necessarily mean they won\u2019t be heard. Committee Chair Debbie Rodella, D-Ohkay Owingeh, and other Democrats who previously voted to table one of […]<\/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-1389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389","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=1389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}