{"id":27434,"date":"2011-03-18T16:20:38","date_gmt":"2011-03-18T22:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=27434"},"modified":"2011-03-18T21:26:44","modified_gmt":"2011-03-19T03:26:44","slug":"martinez-racks-up-a-couple-of-victories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/03\/martinez-racks-up-a-couple-of-victories\/","title":{"rendered":"Martinez racks up a couple of victories"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Gov. Susana Martinez<\/p><\/div>\n

Gov. Susana Martinez<\/a> is in danger of losing some hard-fought battles with lawmakers as the end of the session approaches, but she has racked up a couple of victories.<\/p>\n

Martinez finally secured her first clear-cut victory of the legislative session today when lawmakers approved her proposed locomotive fuel tax exemption<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The legislation was necessary to convince Union Pacific Railroad to move a hub from El Paso to Santa Teresa. It\u2019s a project that Martinez claims will create more than 600 permanent jobs and 3,000 jobs overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cEncouraging businesses to invest in our state is an\u00a0important step toward\u00a0reviving New Mexico\u2019s economy,\u201d Martinez said in a news release<\/a> earlier today. \u201cI thank members from both parties for coming together to pass this much-needed measure that allows us the opportunity to take back jobs lost to other states, attract new development, and give\u00a0New Mexico businesses\u00a0the tools to grow and succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another issue that has already been given final legislative approval that others are calling a Martinez victory: the film incentive compromise<\/a> approved earlier this week. Lawmakers rejected Martinez\u2019s proposal to cut the reimbursement of expenses from 25 percent to 15 percent, but they did agree to cap annual payments at $50 million.<\/p>\n

It was Martinez who forced the change.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid the governor win?\u201d Sen. President Pro Tem Tim Jennings<\/a>, D-Roswell, was quoted by The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a> as asking. \u201cShe got a cap of $50 million. All those people (film industry advocated) wanted a $60 or $65 cap.\u201d<\/p>\n

So while Martinez didn\u2019t get what she wanted on the film incentives, she did force a compromise.<\/p>\n

Other proposals still pending<\/h3>\n

But as time runs short in the session, which ends at noon on Saturday, Martinez is in danger of losing some high-profile battles with the Senate. That chamber has severely amended her House-approved bills to repeal a law that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver\u2019s licenses<\/a> and to expand a DNA collection law<\/a> to apply to those arrested for felony crimes.<\/p>\n

Martinez does not support<\/a> the bills as amended by the Senate. The driver\u2019s license law is lingering in the House, awaiting a decision from representatives on whether to agree with Senate changes that would continue to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain licenses but place more requirements on them.<\/p>\n

As for the DNA collection law, earlier today the House rejected Senate amendments<\/a> that would require DNA samples only if police show probable cause and would also make it easier to expunge arrest records for those not convicted of crimes.<\/p>\n

Then the Senate voted to stick with its amendments, so a conference committee will be formed to try to resolve the issue.<\/p>\n

Also still alive but not yet given final approval are some Martinez-backed education bills, including one to assign letter grades to schools based on performance.<\/p>\n

The 60-day session ends at noon on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Susana Martinez is in danger of losing some hard-fought battles with lawmakers as the end of the session approaches, but she has racked up a couple of victories.<\/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":[107],"class_list":["post-27434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27434","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=27434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}