'We're not moving bills very fast': Governor raises concerns as lawmakers race to the finish

Yahoo

09-03-2025

With only two weeks to go before the end of this year's 60-day legislative session, it's crunch time at the state Capitol.
While lawmakers met a self-imposed deadline to deliver behavioral health bills and a public safety package to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham by the halfway point, much work remains to be done as the clock winds down.
The state budget.
A possible tax package.
Capital outlay.
Plus, myriad other bills some lawmakers are pushing hard to pass while others are fighting just as hard to derail them.
As she walked out of an executive session with lawmakers Friday morning — a closed-door meeting one lawmaker said was focused on potential federal funding cuts — Lujan Grisham said the Legislature's progress so far was hard to assess.
The governor reiterated she was happy with the public safety package of six bills, which one lawmaker called 'just the appetizer' for other pieces of legislation the Legislature will consider during the session to crack down on crime. The package, which the governor signed late last month, reforms criminal competency laws; prohibits devices that transform semiautomatic firearms to fully automatic weapons; and cracks down on shooting threats, fentanyl trafficking and drunken driving.
She also signed bills that take big steps to overhaul the state's behavioral health care system, which many advocates and officials argue is a way to deter crime.
But Lujan Grisham said she's 'not seeing enough movement' on the crimefighting front.
'I know there's a lot of compelling issues about moving bills, but that's a real problem when we're not moving bills very fast,' she said.
Public safety 'logjam'
'I'm not seeing enough progress on the Senate side, in particular, in key committees,' the governor said. 'You can see there's a logjam. Lots of our bills have been sitting there for weeks and weeks, and I worry about that. I'm sure there's a plan, but I get a little anxious about that.'
Lujan Grisham said she was 'disappointed' a bill to implement harsher penalties for juvenile offenders was tabled late last week by the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee on a 4-2 party-line vote. Democratic lawmakers who voted to table the bill — an action that could mean it won't move forward during the session — expressed concerns it focused too much on incarceration and not enough on rehabilitation.
'We're hearing, it's just hearing — I don't see it — hearing that there's light at the end of the tunnel, that they're still going to talk about some of these provisions; they'll look at some other places to make some amendments,' the governor said. 'We'll see. I have yet to see who. I have yet to see how, so I don't really know.'
Lujan Grisham said juvenile crime is growing 'exponentially' in New Mexico.
'If we really care about preventing, we need some guardrails,' she said, adding such efforts would save young people's lives.
'I don't think we're debating that issue enough, and I don't know why we're inviting more victims as a result of not doing right in the public safety area,' she said. 'I don't understand it.'
Late Friday night, though, the governor scored a major win when the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a proposed ban on assault rifles on a 5-4 vote. Chairman Joe Cervantes, a Las Cruces Democrat, joined the three Republicans on the committee in voting against Senate Bill 279, a legislative priority of the governor's that had been postponed twice that week.
The bill still has to go to the full Senate and must make its way through the House.
Senate Minority Leader Bill Sharer, R-Farmington, said time is running out for such bills but noted Democrats are in power.
'Certainly, things that aren't out of the Senate yet are going to have a hard time getting through the House and vice versa, things that aren't out of the House yet,' he said. 'But we always have a way to say, 'OK, this is really important, so we're going to fast-track this bill, so anything the Democrats want, they'll get. Anything I want, maybe I'll get.' '
After Friday's vote, Sharer issued a statement saying the assault rifle bill violates the Second Amendment.
'This unconstitutional proposal represents the worst intentions of the radical progressive wing that has hijacked the Democrat Party: to target law-abiding citizens while promoting soft-on-crime policies that do little to deter criminals as they continue to terrorize our communities,' he said.
In his interview with The New Mexican earlier in the day, Sharer said he refers to the crime package the governor already signed into law as the 'baby steps crime package.'
'Yes, we're in the right direction, but we have other crime bills that we're trying to get through Judiciary right now,' he said. 'There seems to be some reluctance. I don't know why we don't want to take real steps.'
Sharer co-sponsored two of the three behavioral health bills signed into law by the governor but said they do little to address crime.
'Yes, it touches crime,' he said. 'But the real criminals don't need a hug.'
Sharer said Republicans are advocating for a bail reform bill that doesn't seem to be getting much traction.
'Capacity' for tax reform?
Crime, though, is far from the only issue on lawmakers' — and taxpayers' — minds.
'Another thing that we've talked about a lot here is why don't we have a tax package,' Sharer said. 'We're rolling in dough, so why can't we give some of that back?'
Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, said the Senate Finance Committee is laser focused on a proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
'We will decide shortly if there is capacity for a tax package,' he said.
Republicans are being told there is no capacity for a tax package in the state budget, Sharer said.
'I go, 'Wait a minute. Just a few years ago, we had a $6 billion budget. Now we have an $11 billion budget.' You can't tell me that there's not $500 million in there somewhere that we could give back to the people of New Mexico,' he said. 'I am concerned that ... we've squandered a lot of money instead of giving it back to the people.'
Rep. Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo, who chairs the House Taxation and Revenue Committee, said representatives have been asked to rank bills the committee considered that have a potential to be in the tax package.
'We're compiling the data now and seeing who ranked what and in what place,' he said. 'That's where the House part of the omnibus [tax package] will take shape in terms of these are the bills that people have an interest in seeing and then it all depends on what capacity we have and how much it takes up.'
Budget under scrutiny
The state's proposed $10.8 billion budget is moving along but has remained a work in progress in the Senate Finance Committee since the House approved its version of the spending plan nearly two weeks ago — in large part because of uncertainty about federal funding.
'We're looking really hard at what's happening federally,' said Senate Finance Committee Chair George Muñoz, D-Gallup.
'We're looking on how we hold the state so we're not just coming in and raiding every fund we have and trying to do a balancing act,' he said.
'We don't know what the future holds,' Muñoz added. 'The president can do whatever he wants. But we still have to manage our state.'
Muñoz said the committee hasn't heard a word about a possible tax package.
'That's a big unknown for us where that money is going to come from, how it's going to get spent, what's really going to happen in that package,' he said. 'Until we balance some of this stuff, we're just kind of moving, shifting, seeing where the needs are, where the gaps were missed in the House, where they overspent in the House.'
A capital outlay bill totaling some $1 billion also remains a subject of negotiation, though it is usually among the last bills to pass.
The governor's budget recommendation called for $300 million for infrastructure projects — money lawmakers decide how to spend in their districts after receiving multimillion-dollar wish lists from local governments — and about $700 million for statewide projects. The Legislative Finance Committee recommended $525 million for local projects and about $475 million for statewide projects.
'The governor wants a bigger piece of the pie, and that's why we don't have a finished capital outlay package yet because that's all being negotiated, even today, even though we thought we had it done a couple weeks ago,' Sharer said.
Capital outlay — what Sharer has described as a 'political hot potato' — often draws fiery debates at the Roundhouse, not only because of disagreements between the governor and lawmakers over how to divvy the pork barrel spending but also because of a massive backlog in unspent funds.
The balance was nearly $6 billion at the end of the first quarter of this fiscal year, according to a November report to the Legislative Finance Committee. That included over $900 million allocated for local construction projects in the current fiscal year, which ends in June.
'It's gotten out of hand,' Muñoz said at the time.
He and other lawmakers vowed to take action and overhaul the capital outlay system, especially as construction costs soar, spiking the costs for projects that face long delays.
Changes to a system that buys lawmakers political influence back home don't come easy, however.
Pleased with 'aggressive pace'
Wirth said he's 'feeling good' about what the Legislature has accomplished so far, noting lawmakers made good on their promise to send behavioral health and public safety bills to the governor at the midway point.
'The final two weeks of the session will be fast and furious,' Wirth said. 'I am optimistic that when we gavel out on March 22, New Mexicans will see that we delivered.'
House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, said the Legislature's 'aggressive pace' would continue in the final two weeks.
'Robust packages to address public safety and vastly expand behavioral health care in our state have already been signed into law,' he said.
'The House has also passed a responsible budget, meaningful reforms to better protect the children in the care of [the state Children, Youth and Families Department], a paid medical and parental leave proposal that reflects our New Mexican values and several key measures to make life more affordable for everyday folks across our state,' he said.
Wirth noted lawmakers have passed additional public safety bills, including a proposal to expand the racketeering statute, also a priority of the governor's.
'CYFD reform bills are the next big effort, and we hope to have legislation up to the governor by the end of next week,' he said.