House Minority Whip Rod Montoya, left, R-Farmington, and Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque, discuss an election bill at the Capitol. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)
SANTA FE — New Mexico’s special session hit some turbulence Saturday, as Senate members wrapped up their work and left a divided House to decide the fate of bills on mandatory police body cameras and economic recovery.
The Senate adjourned after voting 30-12 to approve a budget solvency fix, sending that bill on to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for final approval with less than two weeks before the start of the state’s new fiscal year.
Senators also passed measures dealing with creating a New Mexico civil rights commission and halting tax interest penalties during the coronavirus pandemic, though both those measures still hinged on the House agreeing to Senate changes.
“Given what we were facing with COVID-19, I think we made significant progress,” Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, told the Journal shortly after the Senate’s adjournment.
But the House still had a long to-do list as of Saturday evening, and members were preparing to come back Monday to finish what they didn’t get to Saturday.
Under the state Constitution, the Senate would have to return to Santa Fe on Thursday if the House is still in session.
The drama came after the House initially refused to authorize emergency changes to the state election code Saturday, citing opposition to a Senate-approved amendment — added into the bill just 24 hours earlier — that sought to make changes to New Mexico’s closed primary system.
The legislation, Senate Bill 4, ran aground in a dramatic 38-32 vote as 14 Democrats joined all 24 Republicans to reject the bill.
But the House subsequently agreed to reconsider the bill. It ultimately passed 44-26 after all but two of the Democratic opponents switched their votes and supported it.
The election bill now goes to the governor.
The proposal centers largely on emergency election procedures for the 2020 election, changes intended to protect Native American voting locations and create some flexibility for election officials as they prepare to conduct an election amid the coronavirus pandemic.
But some Democratic opposition emerged because the Senate added a permanent election change into the proposal — a provision to allow independent voters to change their affiliation at a voting site, allowing them to participate in primary elections.
Democratic Rep. Matthew McQueen of Galisteo slammed the Senate change, describing it as an inappropriate addition that bypassed the usual vetting process.
“There was no public notice about it,” McQueen said. “There was no meaningful public input on it. … The public at large doesn’t know this is happening.”
He remained opposed to the bill, even after some of his Democratic colleagues agreed to switch their votes and support the measure.
The change-of-heart for some Democrats came after the Senate adjourned and left the building, meaning it might be futile to try to change the bill and secure Senate approval for a new version.
Republican legislators in the House consistently objected to the election bill. Republican Rep. Greg Nibert of Roswell raised questions about whether it would grant too much power to the Department of Health and a legislative task force to change election procedures.
Before adjourning, the Senate spent much of Saturday honoring seven incumbent legislators who were ousted in this month’s primary election and won’t be back in January.
During their farewell speeches, several of the defeated Democrats decried large spending by outside groups in their primary election campaigns.
“I wasn’t running against my opponent,” said Sen. Gabriel Ramos, D-Silver City. “I was running against PACs that were spending tons and tons of money trying to make me look like a dog.”
The ousted incumbents include several prominent Democrats, including Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen of Las Cruces and longtime Senate Finance Committee chairman John Arthur Smith of Deming.
Smith urged his colleagues to listen to bright young minds in state government and avoid the Senate’s rancor of the past.
But he also warned the state’s finances are unlikely to bounce back quickly from a double-whammy caused by the coronavirus pandemic and plummeting oil prices.
“New Mexico, we are not alright,” Smith said. “This looks like it’s going to be a prolonged downturn.”
Those remarks came shortly before the Senate voted to approve the budget solvency bill aimed at absorbing a projected $2 billion revenue decline for the budget year that starts next month.
That bill, House Bill 1, is one of several solvency measures approved during the special session. It relies on a mix of federal funding, cash reserves and one-time budget maneuvers to avoid deep spending cuts.
But spending levels for the coming budget year would still be reduced from $7.6 billion to $7 billion — or roughly the same as current levels.
More budgetary belt-tightening may be necessary when the Legislature returns to the Roundhouse in January, Smith and other lawmakers said.
The special session called by Lujan Grisham started Thursday and was focused on budget adjustments.
But the governor also added several other issues to the special session agenda, and the Democratic-controlled Legislature acted on most of them.
Specifically, the Senate also approved legislation creating a nine-member New Mexico civil rights commission to study issues including qualified immunity, a legal doctrine in federal law that protects law enforcement.
Senators also voted 42-0 to approve a measure, House Bill 6, that would temporarily forgive tax interest penalties during the pandemic and boost temporary state payments to New Mexico cities hit hard by the economic downturn.
In addition to those proposals, the House was still preparing late Saturday to take up bills requiring police officers to wear body cameras and targeting institutional racism.
The fast-moving session played out in a Capitol closed to the public, with little expert testimony, because of procedures intended to protect public health.
The unusual circumstances drew bipartisan criticism from lawmakers who questioned whether some of the legislation was getting enough scrutiny.
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NM Senate adjourns, House keeps working - Albuquerque Journal
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