Bill to rename New Mexico Game and Fish Department snags approval

Yahoo

28-01-2025

Whether you shoot with a camera or a gun, anyone who enjoys the outdoors in New Mexico will want to pay attention to Senate Bill 5 during the 60-day legislative session.
The bill, which cleared its first legislative committee Monday, represents the biggest proposed reform of the New Mexico Game and Fish Department since its inception, from renaming it the Department of Wildlife and expanding its mission to reflect its new name to raising fees for hunting and fishing licenses for the first time in nearly two decades.
The proposal, which the Senate Rules Committee endorsed 6-3, also would change the way members of the New Mexico Game Commission are appointed by creating a nominating committee that would vet applicants and recommend a list of eligible candidates to the governor.
"Perhaps not everyone is 100% sold on the bill," said Rep. Matthew McQueen, D-Cerrillos, who has been pursuing similar legislation for years. "But we have heard from different points of view, and we have tried to address those points of view, so I think the bill is in pretty good shape."
Though three Republican members of the Senate Rules Committee voted against SB 5, a fourth member of the GOP caucus, Sen. Crystal Brantley, R-Elephant Butte, not only voted in support of the legislation but signed on as a co-sponsor.
McQueen said he views the bill as a package with four parts.
The first changes the name of the department and "clarifies" its mission, he said.
"The agency already conserves and manages a broad range of species, so the agency already has authority over some nongame species," he said. "What we're trying to do is clarify that authority and make it so the agency has the authority to engage in management of any species in New Mexico but the discretion not to."
The second part of the bill reforms the State Game Commission, which oversees the agency.
"In keeping with the history of the commission, we maintain seven seats overall," he said, "three at-large seats that have geographic and political diversity requirements and four new positions. There's a rancher or farmer, a hunter/angler, a conservationist and a scientist."
McQueen predicts the commission would end up with more than one hunter, as has been the case in the past.
"There's a lot of overlap between these different positions," he said. "The ultimate commission will have a mix of people that we think adequately represents diverse interests."
Critical to the process is creating a nominating committee, he said, adding a bill that distributed the appointments to different political leaders in state government was vetoed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham a couple of years ago.
"What I realized in the process of working on that bill is that when I was trying to take the politics out of the commission, what I really was kind of doing was rearranging the politics," he said. "If you get an appointment from the speaker of the House, that's a fairly political appointment, and the governor, since it's an executive branch agency, also objected to having the Legislature make appointments."
Members of the nominating committee, who would be appointed by different political officials, would review applicants' qualifications and send a list of eligible candidates for the governor, who would make an appointment with the consent of the Senate.
"The governor will pick from a list of prescreened qualified people to be on the Game Commission," McQueen said, adding the new panel would have four advisory members, including the director of the state's Outdoor Recreation Division and the state land commissioner.
Commissioners would serve six-year staggered terms "that will extend beyond a governor's term" to prevent a major shakeup when a new governor takes office.
The third part of the bill would increase fees on 36 of 53 hunting and fishing licenses "and create a mechanism, using the consumer price index, for raising the fees in subsequent years without the need to amend statute," according to the fiscal impact report.
"The fourth part of the bill, which actually isn't in the bill but is really important to the bill, is funding," McQueen said, adding the Legislative Finance Committee's proposed budget includes $3.5 million in annual funding for three years to help the department manage its "broader mission."
"We've worked hard to accommodate diverse interests," he said. "I think we're in a good place."
Supporters of the bill include the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, the Audubon Society and the New Mexico Soil and Water Conservation Districts.
The only opposition was from the New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association, which raised concerns about expanding the mission of the department. While the association agrees license fees should be increased, President-elect Tom Paterson said they need to be "reasonable." He specifically called out the proposed increase for a junior trapper's license, which would jump to $50 from $9.
"That's a problem for our rural kids," he said. "Regardless of your views on trapping, please don't punish rural kids."