Latest news with #CommonCauseNewMexico
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Governor signs off on 60 bills, including measures dealing with primary elections, psilocybin
Apr. 7—SANTA FE — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Monday signed into law bills making it easier for roughly 310,000 independent voters in New Mexico to cast ballots in primary elections and creating a state-run psilocybin program for medical patients. The measures were among 60 bills signed by Lujan Grisham in a flurry of bill action during her final week to act on legislation approved this year by lawmakers. Other signed bills included a measure, Senate Bill 364, allowing non-citizens to be hired as law enforcement officers in New Mexico if they are authorized to legally work in the United States. The governor, who traveled out of state last week to speak at Harvard University's Kennedy School, did not hold a news conference Monday to announce the bill signings. But that didn't stop supporters of the signed bills from celebrating their final approval. Backers of the bill creating semi-open primary elections in New Mexico said the change could boost voter turnout rates, starting in the 2026 election cycle. "This will ensure the voices of hundreds of thousands of folks across New Mexico will be heard in our primary elections, and Common Cause is honored to be a part of a movement expanding access to voting when we see so many states trying to restrict it," said Molly Swank, the executive director of Common Cause New Mexico. Under the current system, independent voters, or those who decline to align with a political party, must change their party affiliation in order to vote in primary elections. But critics describe that process as cumbersome for county clerks, and say few independent voters have utilized it. Independents currently make up about 23% of the state's more than 1.3 million registered voters. Meanwhile, the governor also signed legislation that will allow patients diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse disorders and several other conditions to legally use psilocybin, or magic mushrooms, under medical supervision. The approval of a state-run psilocybin program will make New Mexico the third state to authorize use of the drug in such circumstances, following in the steps of Oregon and Colorado. Several military veterans urged lawmakers to pass the bill during this year's session, citing their own experiences with psilocybin use. In all, the governor has signed 84 bills passed by legislators during the 60-day session that ended March 22. She has also vetoed two bills, a measure allowing local school boards to determine the number of annual school days and legislation dealing with probation and parole changes. A total of 111 bills are still awaiting action before Friday's deadline, including a $10.8 billion state spending plan for the budget year that starts in July and a tax package approved by lawmakers during the second-to-last day of the session. A high-profile bill requiring registered New Mexico lobbyists to disclose which bills they actively supported — and which bills they lobbied against — is also still awaiting the governor's signature. Any bills that are not signed before the deadline are automatically vetoed, under what's commonly referred to as a pocket veto.
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NM legislative recap Feb. 12: It's still too cold to harvest, but the session is heating up
Mason Graham, policy director with Common Cause New Mexico, is part of a coalition of groups seeking to "modernize" the New Mexico Legislature this year. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source NM) When New Mexico first became a state, it was even more rural than it is today, and most state lawmakers were ranchers and farmers who volunteered to work in Santa Fe during the winter, when it's too cold to harvest. Times have changed, said Mason Graham, the policy director at Common Cause New Mexico, a nonpartisan watchdog group also interested in bills this session related to money in politics and free and fair elections. A lack of pay for lawmakers is 'really an artifact of the old New Mexico Legislature,' Graham told Source NM on Wednesday. On Tuesday, he and a coalition of other advocates held a 'Modernization Day of Action' to push for legislation they say would allow people from more walks of life to serve as state lawmakers. Graham said 'modernization' means bringing the Legislature up to the standards in other state legislatures across the country. 'We want to create an environment where the Legislature is just as effective as the work that the executive branch does, and the work that the courts do,' Graham said. He said accomplishing that requires three main policies: provide lawmakers with paid staff, increase the length of legislative sessions and pay lawmakers a salary. Lawmakers already implemented the first in 2024 through money allowing each lawmaker to have one staffer and one district legislative aide, Graham said. The second is up for debate this year through House Joint Resolution 1, which got the nod from the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee on Jan. 30. HJR 1 still needs to be heard by the House Judiciary Committee. If passed by both chambers, the question would go to voters. The third is also making its way through the Roundhouse in the form of Senate Joint Resolution 1, which passed the Senate Rules Committee on Feb. 5 and awaits a hearing in the Senate Finance Committee. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Lawmakers have identified behavioral health and public safety as top priorities for the first half of the 60-day session. They made big progress on both fronts Wednesday. First, a trio of behavioral health bills that will spend $200 million initially and put an additional $1 billion in a behavioral health trust fund is now headed to the Senate floor. Then, in the afternoon, the House Judiciary Committee forwarded to the full House of Representatives a package of six bills intended to reduce crime. The bills cleared those hurdles amid an ongoing – though declining – substance use disorder and drug overdose crisis in New Mexico, the details of which lawmakers discussed Wednesday after a presentation to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Officials from the state Health Department and an Albuquerque police commander shared data showing the rates and absolute numbers of drug overdose deaths in New Mexico are declining. Preliminary 2024 data shows that trend continuing, though officials noted it is incomplete and tentative. Between 2021 and 2023, the rate of overdose deaths per 100,000 New Mexicans declined from 50.4 to 46.4, according to Mary Durham, chief medical officer at the state health department. Overdose-related emergency room visits also declined in that period, from 2,343 to 2,063. Despite those trends, the rate of children under age 4 who died of drug overdoses has increased, from about 1 per 100,000 people to about 5, according to the presentation. The increasing number of young children dying prompted Sen. Crystal Diamond Brantley (R-Elephant Butte) to call for harsher penalties for parents, including murder charges, who expose their children to fentanyl. Check out the presentation here. Bills and constitutional amendments that would change the way university regents are appointed and trained made it through the Senate Education Committee. The House Health and Human Services committee advanced House Bill 35, which would prohibit the construction of new fracking wells within one mile of schools. 'This bill will protect children from toxic oil and gas pollution, so it's wonderful to see it move closer to becoming law,' Gail Evans, New Mexico Climate Director and senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a written statement. 'New Mexico owes it to our children to make sure they're safe at school and that their learning environment is healthy. Keeping fracking sites away from schools is the least our leaders can do to fulfill that commitment.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
