{"id":58176,"date":"2015-06-09T00:31:02","date_gmt":"2015-06-09T06:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=58176"},"modified":"2015-06-16T10:18:27","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T16:18:27","slug":"session-deal-violated-spirit-of-sunshine-law-advocate-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2015\/06\/session-deal-violated-spirit-of-sunshine-law-advocate-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Session deal violated spirit of sunshine law, advocate says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers were\u00a0celebrating quick passage of capital outlay and tax-incentive bills on Monday, but the head of a transparency group\u00a0said their actions violated at least the spirit of the state’s Open Meetings Act.<\/p>\n

\"A

Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>

A statue of children outside the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.<\/p><\/div>\n

The deal lawmakers\u00a0and Gov. Susana Martinez\u00a0announced Wednesday<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0$295 million in capital outlay projects, the tax incentives, and supplemental funding for two state agencies coasted\u00a0to legislative approval in a matter of hours<\/a> Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The bills didn’t appear online for the public to read until Monday.<\/p>\n

“The manner in which the compromise was hammered out left no opportunity for public input,” said Susan Boe, executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government. “The whole process gave the appearance of government being conducted behind closed doors, which is never good government.”<\/p>\n

Other policymaking bodies in New Mexico probably wouldn’t have been allowed to make such a deal outside a public meeting.\u00a0If more than half of the members of a school board, for example, agreed to fund\u00a0projects behind closed doors, that act would violate\u00a0the state’s\u00a0Open Meetings Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the situation with the\u00a0Legislature is murky, Boe said.<\/p>\n