Paid leave bill passes first Senate committee
Passed on a party-line committee vote Saturday, a paid work leave effort is heading to the Senate Finance Committee, its second-to-last stop before potentially landing on the governor's desk.
The Welcome Child and Family Wellness Leave Act, formerly the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act, would send rebates of up to $9,000 over the span of three months to working families with a new baby, paid for through the state's Early Childhood Care and Education Department budget, according to bill sponsors. It also ensures parents don't lose their jobs for taking leave in those 12 weeks and specifies that only one parent is eligible for the rebates, unless parents split the money.
House Bill 11 additionally allows employees to take up to six weeks of paid time off for medical, bereavement, foster, military exigency or safety — like sexual assault — purposes. That money would come from a fund paid for by employees and employers with five or more workers, with new wage premiums of 0.15% on employers and 0.2% on employees.
The effort, initially introduced in the Roundhouse in 2019, made it past the House for the first time this year. Similar efforts have already passed the Senate multiple times in the past, though the parental leave portion of the bill has significantly changed this year.
Despite the debate on HB11 falling on a weekend, members of the public filled the Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee meeting and even flooded Zoom on Saturday morning to express their opposition or support for the measure. Most of the committee discussion on the legislation was public comment, not legislative debate.
Republican committee members, similar to past debates, voiced concerns over the fiscal solvency of the proposed paid leave fund and worried about the financial impact on New Mexicans.
"It's really sad that we're going to try and bill our employees throughout the state of New Mexico when we know that we have the lowest payroll base in the union," said Sen. Gabriel Ramos, R-Silver City.
Committee chair Sen. Carrie Hamblen, D-Las Cruces, asked if bill sponsors considered specialty jobs, bringing up that a radiologist's position would be difficult to find a replacement for.
"The person will leave, regardless ... and then the employer will be facing the same replacement issue," said bill sponsor Rep. Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos.
Republicans tried to table the bill but failed on a 4-6, party-line vote.
If HB11 passes the Senate Finance Committee, which has some more moderate Democratic members, it heads to the full floor.
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