Governor announces wide-ranging agenda for session

The principal reason for the special meeting is to fix an estimated $2 billion hole in New Mexico’s budget caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic and the oil market crash.

Yet the session will go far beyond that. The governor will ask legislators, for instance, to take up police reform measures that would require officers to wear body cameras, ban chokeholds and make “police disciplinary history a matter of public record.”

Those proposals have risen to the surface in the wake of protests in the state and worldwide over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man killed during an arrest in Minneapolis.

Additionally, Lujan Grisham wants to use the session to streamline the election process during the COVID-19 pandemic after county clerks were overwhelmed by the huge volume of absentee ballots they received during the primary election earlier this month.

Lawmakers will debate a proposal, sponsored by Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto and Rep. Linda Trujillo, that would allow county clerks to send mail-in ballots to registered voters without requiring voters to request absentee ballots.

On the economic front, the session will include a proposal to tap the state’s Severance Tax Permanent Fund to provide low-interest loans for small businesses and municipalities, as well as a measure that would waive penalties and interest for people and businesses who are behind on their property tax and gross receipts tax payments.

Lujan Grisham also is asking lawmakers to give her greater authority during the pandemic to allow for services such as liquor delivery and electronic notary services.

On the agenda as well is an effort to create a state commission that would examine the issue of qualified immunity.

Dramatically changed world

Legislators will enter the Roundhouse on Thursday facing a dramatically changed world from the one they knew when the Legislature adjourned its regular session less than four months ago.

Those were the days when lawmakers, their staff and the public freely traversed the state Capitol halls, shaking hands unfettered, speaking at short distance and cramming into crowded committee rooms.

The U.S. economy was also cranking along, investors were enjoying the longest bull market ever, and New Mexico’s oil bonanza seemed unstoppable. In line with the cheerful mood, lawmakers passed the largest budget in New Mexico’s history, at $7.6 billion.

They had no idea what was coming.

Two days before Lujan Grisham’s deadline to sign the budget into law in March, oil prices took their biggest daily hit in nearly 30 years amid a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, and the U.S. stock market posted its biggest one-day drop since the 2008 financial crisis as the novel coronavirus crisis intensified.

On March 11, the very day the new budget was signed into law, that document took a definitive back seat when the governor declared a public health emergency after a number of New Mexicans tested positive for the virus.

A flurry of public health restrictions ensued and the state went on lockdown, with businesses shut, people ordered to stay home and, soon, unprecedented reports of massive job losses.

Then came the social unrest that spread rapidly across the country after the May 25 death of Floyd. Just this week, a man was shot at an Albuquerque protest as demonstrators clashed with a militia group.

A session unlike any other

The dust is far from settling from the social and economic chaos, and it’s clear this will be a session unlike any other at the Roundhouse.

For starters, the public will be barred from entering the state Capitol, a health precaution taken by a legislative panel that then survived a challenge before the Supreme Court this week. Lawmakers will wear masks and practice social distancing, while some members of the House likely will participate remotely.

And then there’s the ambitious task at hand. Legislators have a large and diverse slate of proposals to get through in a very short period of time. Leaders in both the Senate and House have said they aim to finish the session by Saturday evening.

Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, said his caucus is up to the task.

“In these times, doing just the budget — I just don’t think is the way to go,” Wirth said.

“We’re going to move forward with these bills, and I’m very hopeful we can lift them out of the Senate and the House can do the same thing,” he added.

House Republicans were not as upbeat. In fact, they sounded quite angry, accusing the governor of not giving their legislators a heads-up about the items that would be included on the agenda, also known as “the call.”

They said the call included “partisan issues” unrelated to the economic crisis and said Republican legislators were not given draft legislation to review.

“For the governor to call a special session and tell us what we are going to hear with less than 24 hours before we meet is incredibly disrespectful — not just to this institution, but to the people we all represent,” Minority Whip Rod Montoya, R-Farmington, said in a statement. “This is legislating at its most cynical.”

It also remained unclear how Republican lawmakers would respond to social-distancing rules at the Capitol.

Sen. Greg Baca, R-Belen, did not wear a mask during an in-person meeting Wednesday of the Senate Rules Committee, even as all of his colleagues had their faces covered.

And Rep. Greg Nibert, R-Roswell, said Tuesday he most likely would shake hands and hug with fellow legislators from southeastern New Mexico during the session.