Legislative Recap Feb. 24: The potential for change

Yahoo

25-02-2025

Members of the Albuquerque Justice for Youth Community Collaborative wore matching black and yellow shirts in the New Mexico Legislature on Feb. 24, 2025. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source NM)
Parents, advocates and young people with experience inside New Mexico's juvenile detention centers on Monday criticized House Bill 134, which would make it easier to prosecute children as adults, and called on lawmakers to instead invest in education, mental health treatment and job training.
Tracey Chavez said she has witnessed her youngest son Timothy Chavez change over the last seven years since he was charged as an adult at age 15 for first-degree murder.
'It was challenging for him to understand the legal system, especially being treated as an adult in a system adults find hard to navigate,' Chavez said. Her son's public defender dedicated herself to helping them understand each step in the process, she said.
Brandi Sedillo's first-born child Estevan Lucero also was 15 years old when he was charged with first-degree murder, and 17 when he was convicted and sentenced to 22 years in prison.
She said Lucero is isolated from the rest of the incarcerated people in a unit meant for people who break prison rules. He has limited time outside, no access to the library and minimal to no interaction with others, she said.
'This isn't rehabilitation, it's psychological damage,' Sedillo said. 'Isolation, especially for a young person capable of growth, is a form of cruelty.'
Chavez and Sedillo say their children's stories aren't unique but, rather, symptoms of a system that prioritizes punishment instead of rehabilitation, and 'a system that fails our children.'
Chavez and Sedillo are members of Stronger Together, Never Alone, a support group for parents of incarcerated youth. They joined the Albuquerque Justice for Youth Community Collaborative at a rally in the Rotunda on Monday. Twenty-eight different groups comprise the Youth Community Collaborative, each working around juvenile justice in areas such as re-entry services and rehabilitation.
Reps. Andrea Reeb (R-Clovis), Nicole Chavez (R-Albuquerque), Art De La Cruz (D-Albuquerque) and Cynthia Borrego (D-Albuquerque) are sponsoring HB 134, which awaits a hearing in the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee.
Sedillo and others at the rally said they oppose HB134 on the grounds that it would lead to the incarceration of more young people. Sedillo said the bill and others like it would 'only further damage our children and push them deeper into the system.'
'It frustrates me to hear people advocate for charging minors as adults, and holding them to adult standards,' Chavez said. 'They are not adults. Their brains are still developing and they lack the maturity to think and reason like adults.'
Recent court decisions and neuroscience studies suggest that young people are less culpable than adults when they commit crimes.
Chavez said her son is now 22 facing three years left in prison, and he 'continues to make me proud every single day.'
'Our children deserve a justice system that recognizes their potential for change and growth,' she said. 'Charging them as adults and subjecting them to adult penalties only serves to strip them of their future and does not address the underlying issues that led to their actions.'
The state's ninth record budget in nine years cleared the New Mexico House of Representatives after a three-hour debate Monday.
The $10.8 billion budget represents a 5.8% increase from last year, while still keeping more than $3 billion in reserve. The reserves could prove vital should President Donald Trump cut funding to the state, Rep. Nathan Small (D-Las Cruces), chair of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, said at a news conference ahead of the House Floor debate.
'That's our first line of defense to make sure that New Mexico is the best prepared financially, particularly when it comes to federal cuts,' Small said.
The House budget's crafters did not make any changes to recurring spending levels this year in anticipation of any federal cuts, Small said.
'There's been no federal action yet, and there's a lot of different things that are out there,' he said. 'We're focused on delivering now under the rules and the laws that exist.'
The budget contains a 6% increase in public education funding, allocating $4.7 billion. With the help of Medicaid funding and other federal health care spending, the budget will provide $15 billion for critical health care services, according to a news release from House Democrats.
Among many other items, this budget would also spend $50 million on uranium mine cleanup, $110 million on housing in Las Cruces and Albuquerque areas and $19 million on groundwater monitoring and improvements, according to the news release. You can read the 265-page proposed budget here.
'If you're a rancher in Raton, this budget's for you. If you're a sixth grade student at Seboyeta Elementary, this budget's for you. If you're worried about affordability and access to health care in Albuquerque and any other part of the state, this budget is for you,' Small said as he wrapped up his remarks on the House Floor on Monday afternoon.
House lawmakers approved the spending plan 50-18. They did so after voting down a proposal from Rep. Cathrynn Brown (R-Carlsbad) to give every New Mexico resident $600 in July, in recognition of the booming oil and gas revenue the state is currently enjoying.
The budget now heads to the Senate Finance Committee and then to the Senate Floor. After both chambers reconcile changes made in the Senate, it will head to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, where she can sign the bill and also veto various provisions.
House lawmakers also voted 68-0 in favor of House Bill 74, which would allow firefighters and other first responders to set up peer support groups.
They voted 67-0 on House Bill 214, which would create a licensing process for doulas, so they could get reimbursed by Medicaid for providing their services.
Proposed legislation that would make significant changes to New Mexico's public records law passed the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee Monday morning on a 7-1 vote with no recommendation. An amended version of the bill will be heard next by the House Judiciary Committee.
The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Christine Chandler and state Sen. Linda M. Trujillo, both Democrats from Los Alamos and Albuquerque, respectively, would allow government agencies to ask anyone requesting public records whether such records would be used for commercial purposes. If so, the proposed law would allow the agencies to charge a fee of up to $30 per hour for time spent preparing the record beyond the first hour.
Currently, under the state's Inspection of Public Records Act, people or entities requesting records are not required to explain why they are doing so. The bill also would create an Inspection of Public Records Task Force and require anyone who planned to take legal action over IPRA violations to first alert the government agency and allow 15 days to resolve the conflict, among other facets.
Advocates for the bill representing various New Mexico cities and other government entities testified that they had become overburdened by public records requests, while noting their ongoing support for transparent government. Alison Nichols, director of policy for the New Mexico Municipal League, said the League looked at more than 200,000 individual requests from local governments in 29 cities and counties across the state and that monthly requests had doubled between 2022 and 2024. Nichols said many of those requests came from data brokers such as LexisNexis. Representatives from the City of Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Las Cruces and Española also testified in the bill's favor.
Media and other organizations testified in opposition, including the Foundation for Open Government and the American Civil Liberties Union/New Mexico. Albuquerque Journal Assistant Managing Editor and FOG Board President Lucas Peerman called the bill 'well intentioned but potentially harmful,' noting: 'We feel HB283 attempts to add unnecessary red tape to the process of getting public documents, giving officials additional opportunities to deny or add barriers to information. New Mexico has some of the best open records laws in the country and has for 40 years. You can scrap this bill and keep it that way. The alternative is an environment in which corruption and cover-ups can more easily thrive.'
The House Education Committee unanimously passed House Bill 65, which clarifies the state requirements for school instructional time in the Public School Code, and aligns with a recent court decision about public school calendars.
The Senate Education Committee on Monday morning voted 9-0 on Senate Joint Resolution 6, which would ask voters to make the Early Childhood Education and Care Fund permanent in the state constitution.
The committee voted down Senate Bill 386, which would have allowed chiropractors to join other physicians in their ability to clear students to return to class after suffering a concussion.
Committee members voted 8-1 to advance Senate Bill 394 without a recommendation. The bill would set aside $1.5 million to build an observatory at the University of New Mexico's campus in Taos.
They also voted 8-1 in favor of Senate Bill 201, which would require the Public Education Department to write evaluation and accountability plans for projects funded by the Public Education Reform Fund, and for the Legislative Finance Committee and Legislative Education Study Committee to have input.
Senate Bill 4, the Clear Horizons Act, was still in the public comment phase before the Senate Finance committee as of press time. SB4, which would enshrine goals for the state government to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions which Gov. Michelle Lujan enacted a 2019 executive order. The legislation is one of the bills targeted in $126,000 of ads bought by oil and gas lobbyists, Capital & Main reported.
Danielle Prokop contributed to the reporting and writing of this article.
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