Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Legislative session to focus on budget

The 30-day session starting Tuesday focuses primarily on the state budget. The governor can also put other issues on the agenda.

Among issues lawmakers are expected to consider when they gather in Santa Fe:

Education

Gov. Susana Martinez will continue to push her education reform agenda, including resurrecting legislation to stop the practice of "social promotion" of students to the next grade even if they can't read at grade level by the end of the third grade.

A competing bill would leave that decision to parents.

Martinez will likely push to change the state's teacher-evaluation system, and ask for more than $5.5 million to implement the state's new A-F school-grading system. That includes money to hire coaches for students, incentive pay for teachers who transfer to low-performing schools and funds for programs at top-performing schools.

Legislators could also debate funding formulas for both public education and higher education.

Taxes and spending

For the first time since 2009, legislators don't face the prospect of plugging a budget shortfall.

Thanks to improvement in New Mexico's economy, including increased revenues from oil and natural gas production, the state projects an estimated $254 million in "new" money.

The Republican governor favors using $55 million to cover the cost of targeted tax cuts for businesses and veterans. Some members of the Democratic-controlled Legislature would rather appropriate that money for programs hit by cuts in recent years.

Martinez's proposed tax cuts include lifting the gross-receipts tax on 40,000 small businesses that have a tax liability of less than $200 a month. The governor also wants to remove the tax from some transactions involving construction and manufacturing companies to lessen tax "pyramiding."

Businesses complain that they sometimes pay a tax on a tax when they pay for services that are then incorporated into a final product.

Driver's licenses

The governor will continue to push what she says is a public safety issue: Repealing the law that allows undocumented immigrants to get driver's licenses.

She and others say the current law has made the state a magnet for foreign criminals seeking driver's licenses to obtain U.S. identification. Martinez has repeatedly argued that polls show a large majority of New Mexicans support a repeal. Those who want to keep the law say it encourages more drivers to buy auto insurance.

Some law enforcement officials in Santa Fe and elsewhere say that allowing such identification encourages the undocumented to report crimes and cooperate with police. Some who favor keeping the law also say the repeal effort appeals to anti-immigrant, anti-Mexican prejudice.

Medicaid

New Mexico spends around $1 billion each year on the government's low-income health insurance program.

Martinez's administration is in the midst of proposing a redesign of the program that would require federal approval. Even if it's not final yet, the proposal, and its effect on the 500,000 New Mexicans who depend on Medicaid, will generate debate during the 30-day session.

One expected piece of legislation would give state lawmakers a say over any major changes to Medicaid, a position that could place state lawmakers on a collision course with Martinez.

Voter ID

Republicans are expected to revive their effort to get a law passed that would require voters to show photo identification at the polls. Proponents say such a law is needed to protect against voter fraud by people pretending to be someone else.

Opponents say fears of voter fraud are overblown and that requiring photo identification would suppress voting by the elderly, minorities and young people.

PRC reform

State lawmakers will consider various ways to restructure and reform the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission.

One impetus for the scrutiny is Jerome Block Jr.'s resignation from the commission last fall after he entered guilty pleas to several felonies. The Block scandal is only the latest in a series of setbacks for the agency, which was created in 1999. And for many state lawmakers, it was the final straw. Proposals to break off certain functions from the sprawling agency will compete with legislation to require minimum qualifications for commission members.

DWI

Drunken driving continues to be a hot-button issue in New Mexico.

The governor and other advocates plan to push legislative measures that include a statewide vehicle seizure program for those with more than one DWI arrest. They also want increased penalties for repeat offenders.

The lawmakers who plan to carry the measures believe there is bipartisan support for developing more systematic approaches to dealing with repeat offenders.

Transparency

A bill pre-filed by Rep. Jim Smith, R-Sandia Park, would require 72-hour notice of a public meeting's final agenda — triple what's now required.

Supporters say the current law makes it tough for people to plan to attend meetings, especially those that involve travel.

A bill pre-filed by Sen. Sander Rue, R-Albuquerque, would require that the state's "sunshine portal" website contain salary and title information for all state employees. Until recently, the site showed that information for exempt employees but not the classified employees who make up the bulk of the state payroll.

The governor recently ordered the classified-employee information posted online, but Rue's bill would set that policy into law.

Cabinet confirmations

Hannah Skandera, secretary-designate of the Public Education Department, is the only cabinet nominee who has evoked formal opposition.

A liberal political action committee in recent months has criticized her over several issues, including overturning decertification of three troubled charter schools, then hiring a lawyer from a firm that represented the three schools to head the division that oversees charter schools.

A Martinez spokesman dismissed the complaints as partisan potshots by "a shadow group intent on opposing education reform." The group is led by a private investigator who has done opposition research for former Gov. Bill Richardson and other Democrats.

Other cabinet appointees awaiting confirmation include Jon Barela at the Economic Development Department; Tom Clifford at the Department of Finance & Administration; Gregg Marcantel at the Department of Corrections; Arthur Allison at the Department of Indian Affairs; Retta Ward of the Aging and Long Term Services Department and John Bemis of the Energy, Minerals & Natural Resources Department.