Legislature 2018 slated for Jan. 16 start

The focus of the 2018 New Mexico legislative session may be on the state’s budget, but there is plenty more that legislators on the east side of the state hope to accomplish.

The session runs from Jan. 16 to Feb. 15, and its primary purpose is to develop the state’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year, according to Rep. Randal Crowder, R-Clovis.

“That is always the priority of the legislature on the even-numbered years. It’s a 30-day session, so that’s the only thing we’re really considering.”

That isn’t to say Crowder isn’t carrying a few bills of his own however; he said he’ll introduce “a couple of bills for the environment department to help generate funding for wastewater projects and that sort of thing.”

Rep. Bob Wooley, R-Roswell, won’t be sponsoring many bills this year either, but is passionate about a particular bill involving something called “stolen valor.”

“It’s where someone imitates a veteran for gain. We’re gonna try to put a stop to that in this state. I personally experienced this the other day at the VA hospital in Albuquerque with a guy,” he said.

Wooley will also be sponsoring a bill aimed at keeping nurses in the state for work and a bill to drive more in-state students to attend the New Mexico Military Institute.

The financial theme of this year’s session has seemingly influenced Republican Sen. Pat Woods’ legislation, which includes a bill to allow low-income citizens to keep welfare benefits “a little bit longer, until their income actually comes up enough to offset those programs.”

The Broadview senator also hopes to pass a bill addressing the amount of feral horses in the state.

“You can’t just take an overpopulation of horses and feed them for the rest of their life. Right now, the federal government has got about $1 billion worth of horses on welfare. It’s gonna cost $1 billion to feed them through their life expectancy. Of all the things we need to do in this world, we need to take care of people before we need to take care of a bunch of feral horses,” he said.

The state’s future concerns Rep. George Dodge, D-Santa Rosa, who is in the process of crafting a bill to “make sure that the educational system is funded as much as we possibly can.”

“We’ve made cuts and we’ve made cuts and we’ve made cuts, and we need to start shoring up our educational system to the point it starts to improve immensely,” he said, adding that he’s worried the state is “not cutting fat (from the budget) anymore.”

“I think we can (prevent more cuts). We just have to be very careful with our nickels and dimes, and make sure that we put our priorities first, and then make sure that we don’t spend beyond our means, to the point where we can’t put anything in reserves,” said Dodge.

Social issues, too, will make their way to the session — Wooley said a committee on sexual abuse will likely be formed, considering the national fervor against sexual harassment in the workplace.

Any action against sexual harassment would have the full support of Woods, who believes morality is the foundation of democracy.

“We just need to wake up and decide that we’re gonna be moral people, that we’re gonna do things that are right. That’s the only way our democracy can work, if we all agree to do right,” he said.

Despite some hot topics coming before the legislature, Crowder believes the session should be fairly mellow.

“That’s because it’s an election year, and everyone is very guarded not to vote wrong or anything,” he said.