Latest news with #GreaterAlbuquerqueChamberofCommerce
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lujan Grisham talks crime, homelessness at business luncheon
Mar. 2—With less than three weeks left in this year's legislative session, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham attended an Albuquerque luncheon Wednesday to thank business leaders for supporting her public safety initiatives and commit to getting more done. Along with dropping news that she'll likely call a special session later this year to address proposed federal budget cuts and repeating similar sentiments that she wants more crime bills on her desk, Lujan Grisham hinted at more state involvement in transitional housing programs for people experiencing homelessness. Lujan Grisham brought up $110 million included in this year's budget bill for transitional housing and homelessness, adding that although she's a little nervous about it, the state could take more of a heavy-handed effort in the matter. "I think the state is likely to become the provider, and we will set the evidence-based standards for every single provider — including shelters — in the state," she said. "You want money? You've got to come through me. This is how you do it." Her thoughts on public safety and crime remain the same: Legislators need to send more bills to her desk on the fourth floor of the Roundhouse. "My expectation is that every good idea gets upstairs, and there are many," Lujan Grisham said. "There is no reason not to have racketeering. There is no reason not to have felon in possession." She was referring to Senate Bill 70, which would amend the state's Racketeering Act to add offenses like criminal exploitation of children, and a slew of other bills to increase the penalty for felons who have firearms, which is illegal. None of those measures had been heard by any committees as of Thursday. The Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, which hosted the luncheon, supports both efforts, as well as pretrial detention — making it easer to hold felons in custody pending trial — and more aggressive penalties for juvenile offenders, said chamber CEO and President Terri Cole. In opening her speech, Lujan Grisham said she made everyone nervous when she called a special session over the summer to address crime issues, but she calls the sessions when necessary. The governor added that the Albuquerque chamber put the state in a good position to implement more evidence-based policies to prevent crime and hold criminals accountable. "Crime and public safety have needed New Mexico's attention for well more than a decade," Lujan Grisham said. Cole said despite a lack of progress in the five-hour-long special session, that's what pushed legislators to address public safety in the ongoing regular session. Lujan Grisham on Thursday signed a six-part crime package into law. The governor said she expects more crime-related bills to land on her desk before the end of the session, which is March 22. Cole said other chamber goals include reducing tax burdens, strengthening public education and attracting medical professionals to the state. She added that one of her biggest concerns is so few lawmakers have experience running businesses. Cole has been attending many committee hearings to fight against bills, including measures to tax employees and employers to provide workers with paid medical leave and increase the state's minimum wage to $17 starting next year. "Competition is a choice, and in New Mexico's case, it will require leaders to prioritize and address a set of serious challenges that currently put our state at a competitive disadvantage," she said. Megan Gleason is a business editor for the Albuquerque Journal. She also covers energy, utilities and government. You can reach her at mgleason@
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Governor: Special session later this year all but guaranteed to deal with federal funding cuts
ALBUQUERQUE — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told members of Albuquerque's business community Wednesday she is all but guaranteed to call a special session later this year to deal with federal funding cuts. "When you have such wild swings at the federal level, states have to be in a position to respond to any number of things, so I am predicting right now that when the federal budget, whatever that is, occurs, we're going to need a special session by October just to deal with health care and to keep our rural hospitals open," she said during a luncheon of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce. "That's a prediction I feel pretty comfortable making, and I think the Legislature is pretty clear about that," she said. Her comments come as lawmakers continue to meet in Santa Fe for the 60-day session, which started Jan. 21 and ends March 22. In an interview after her 36-minute speech at the Sheraton Albuquerque Uptown, which was followed by a brief question-and-answer period from the audience, Lujan Grisham said she was "trying to lay the groundwork" and provide context to her highly criticized decision to call a special session last summer to deal with public safety. Lujan Grisham said the special session she called in July, which ended in five hours after warnings from lawmakers that her legislative proposals needed more work, "springboarded where we are now" in the 60-day session, where public safety and behavioral health initiatives were a major focus of the first 30 days. "I call special sessions when I need them," she said. "I call them when I think there's no other option to have movement … and the likelihood that I never call another one doesn't seem likely, just given what we're seeing at the national level." IMG_5158.jpg Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce she is 'likely' to sign House Bill 8 — a public safety package dealing with criminal competency reforms, drunken driving, fentanyl trafficking and more — on Thursday. The governor said proposed cuts to Medicaid alone would warrant action from the state, with about 40% of New Mexicans enrolled in Medicaid. A budget resolution the U.S. House of Representatives passed along a narrow party-line vote Tuesday calls for a $2 trillion reduction in federal spending over a decade. "If they don't restore the hiring of some of these [federal] positions, I think it would require us talking about where we want to maybe redirect some of our spending, which I can't do," she said. "Even though [President Donald Trump] thinks he can do that by executive order, I don't believe the president and/or governors can redirect spending that I don't have the power to redirect without a session." Lujan Grisham said New Mexicans should expect "some of this bad budget [at the federal level], if not all of it," gets through Congress. "So," she said, "I'm just preparing." Asked what advice she would give lawmakers as the spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year advances, Lujan Grisham said there are some ideas she "normally" doesn't like, such as tapping into the state's investment funds, including the Early Childhood Education and Care Fund, to help fund Medicaid on a temporary basis. "I've said, 'I will look at all of those proposals openly and objectively,' but I don't think this is something you piecemeal," she said. IMG_5121.jpg Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Wednesday told the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce she is expecting to call a special session later this year to address federal funding cuts. The governor also announced at the chamber luncheon she is "likely" to sign House Bill 8 — a public safety package dealing with reforms to laws on criminal defendants' mental competency, drunken driving, fentanyl trafficking and more — on Thursday. She is also expected to sign behavioral health bills. Terri Cole, president and CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, said the governor deserved credit for pushing the Legislature to address public safety in New Mexico. "We agree with the governor that more needs to be done," she said. Cole also criticized Democrats, albeit indirectly, for proposals targeting the oil and gas industry. In the last 40 years, she said, she's never seen a Legislature so "hell-bent on trying to impose excessive taxation and regulation on the oil and gas industry." "Everywhere you turn, there's another bill that would make it most costly to produce energy in New Mexico," she said. "That's not competitive."
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Highlights and lowlights: An update on business priorities in the Legislature
Feb. 23—It's fast and furious time. That's how Terri Cole, president and CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, described going into the last half of the Legislature. She and Adam Silverman, president of NAIOP New Mexico, were on the latest Business Outlook podcast episode to talk about progress at the Roundhouse. On Cole's mind was the crime package, House Bill 8, moving through the Roundhouse. It's a six-bill package and a priority after last summer's very short special session on crime. Cole said the criminal competency bill, an effort to allow for the involuntary commitment of certain civil and criminal defendants, and increasing penalties for fentanyl trafficking are good measures in the package, but she wants to see more — a sentiment echoed by Republicans and the Governor's Office. "There's a lot that we can still do. We have about seven bills that we're going to be pressing hard on," Cole said, referring to measures like more aggressive penalties for juvenile offenders or felons who illegally possess firearms. Silverman acknowledged all the bills aren't perfect, but it's time to try something. "These are economic development issues," he said. "The stuff that gets decided on in the Roundhouse is felt much further than just what happens in that building. People around the country are watching. There are people that want to come to New Mexico, (but) we're on the bottom of all the bad lists." Cole pointed out that education deters people from relocating to the state, as well. Senate Bill 169 would allow the state to help public and private entities get site locations shovel-ready for developers to move in. It's something Cole and Silverman are very supportive of and has bipartisan support in the Roundhouse. It passed its first committee on a unanimous vote. Silverman said it can take four or five months to get something like a water and sewer availability letter, which is required before a developer can apply for permits. Getting a head start on the process, he said, could really change both rural and urban areas in the state. "It's something that will give a shot of adrenaline to the built environment in New Mexico," he said. Cole added that it'll drive New Mexico to be more competitive against other states, a goal of many of the measures business leaders push for in the Legislature. She also feels positive about the job training funds that are moving in the Roundhouse, she said. What Cole believes will hurt the state is House Bill 11, an effort to create up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave and up to six weeks of paid medical leave, paid for by a state agency and premiums on employees and employers, respectively. She supports a more straightforward Republican bill that would provide up to nine weeks of paid parental leave paid for by the state. Cole also doesn't support many of the oil and gas regulation and finance bills making progress. Measures like increasing oil and gas royalty rates and raising civil penalties for violations of the Oil and Gas Act are passing through committees. A lot of the state's revenue comes from oil and gas, Cole said, and the state needs an all-of-the-above approach to energy, using oil and gas but also solar, wind and nuclear. "This oil and gas effort that's going on right now is something I just haven't ever seen in this Legislature before," she said. "They are hell-bent on passing excessive punitive bills to hurt the oil and gas industry." Silverman also brought up efforts pushing for energy-efficiency requirements for developments, something he said would make everything more expensive. "We're just not going to be able to charge the rents, and we're just going to be in this weird cycle of not being able to build new things — commercial, retail centers, hotels, hospitals," he said. He's also concerned about developers being discouraged from building multifamily housing units if Senate Bill 186 doesn't pass, which would create a special method to value residential multifamily housing for property taxes. On the other hand, Silverman said it's looking hopeful that the Legislature will fund more affordable housing projects, which he's excited about. "We need all the housing solutions we can get, from the most populous cities to the most rural areas," he said. "Housing is a major challenge, and I was happy to see the Legislature started to step up and fund some of these programs." Editor's note 2/23/25 9:20 a.m.: This article has been corrected to reflect NAIOP's support for Senate Bill 186.
