McDonald: Don't expect much from session

So here we are, at the onset of another legislative session. It’s one of the short ones, 30 days, and it’s at the front end of an election year, so it probably won’t be an overly productive one.

Sure, a budget will be passed, since that’s essentially required by state law. But I’m not optimistic much of anything else will get done in the upcoming session.

Take the REAL ID issue as an example of what’s to come (or what’s not to come). Two weeks ago it appeared reasonable to expect Democrats and Republicans to sit down and hammer out compromise legislation that would satisfy the feds when it comes to the issuance of New Mexico driver’s licenses. Now it’s not so certain.

Tom McDonald

In October, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security denied an extension for the state to comply with the REAL ID Act. State Republicans, with Gov. Susana Martinez leading the charge, sounded the alarm that something must be done in the upcoming session or else New Mexicans would have to have their passports to fly commercially inside the U.S.

Word of a compromise bill that would create a two-tiered licensing system was circulating — until reports late last week that Homeland Security will allow New Mexicans at least two more years of flying with their driver’s licenses as identification. That set off an alarm from the Democrats, with Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez leading that charge, accusing the governor of inciting unnecessary “panic” over the issue.

Going into this year’s legislative session, compromise is still being discussed but it remains to be seen if that’s possibly now.

This will be the sixth year for Martinez to try to overturn the state’s law and prohibit undocumented immigrants from getting licenses. The Dems have blocked her efforts every year and could well do the same this year.

Another proposal that’s expected to surface this session involves capital outlays, but I’m not optimistic about that one either.

Think New Mexico, a nonpartisan think tank with a track record for success at getting common sense legislation passed, is proposing an overhaul of the process used to fund capital projects around the state.

Nicknamed the Christmas Tree Bill for its “gifts” to lawmakers to take home to their constituents, the process used to select and fund these projects is tainted in politics. Lawmakers control the process from beginning to end (or, almost the end, as the governor still has the power of the line-item veto).

Think NM wants to shift the process to a more transparent, merit-based system of funding, by creating a “capital outlay planning board” of qualified appointees instead of elected officials.

Then comes the primary and general election cycles, when most of the same lawmakers who rose and fell in Santa Fe will be hearing from their constituents as to how they’re doing on the job, and whether they deserve to keep doing it.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

[email protected]