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FRI: New Mexico weighs voting reforms and an Election Day holiday, + More

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KUNM

New Mexico weighs voting reforms, holiday on Election Day - By Morgan Lee Associated Press

New Mexico would designate Election Day as a state holiday to encourage voting and make it easier to request and cast ballots by mail under a suggested legislative proposal outlined Thursday by the state's top election regulator and governor.

Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a news release that the suggestions respond to "a wave of anti-democratic sentiment nationwide," discriminatory ballot access policies in other states, and a refusal by Republicans to fortify voting rights at the federal level. The two Democrats are seeking reelection this year.

They say they want to expand opportunities for online voter registration and create a permanent absentee voter list so qualified residents can automatically receive mail-in ballots before each election.

Currently New Mexico voters must request an absentee ballot application before each election in order to vote by mail or ballot drop-off.

The proposal seeks to extend the deadline for accepting marked ballots to 7 p.m. on the Friday after an election, extending the deadline by three days. Lujan Grisham and Toulouse Oliver also want to provide more time in advance of an election for county clerks to distribute absentee ballots to voters.

The announcement coincided with the anniversary of rioters storming the U.S. Capitol and the 110th anniversary of New Mexico's statehood.

It was unclear who might sponsor related bills as the Legislature prepares for a 30-day legislative session that begins Jan. 18. A bill to create an automated absentee ballot registration list failed in 2021 to reach a floor vote in the Legislature.

"We've worked closely with the Legislature on this initiative and it has the support of legislative leadership," said Lujan Grisham spokeswoman Nora Meyers Sackett in an email.

Other proposed voting reforms would lower the minimum voting age to 16 in local elections and restore the option to vote for all candidates from one party by marking a single box.

The Legislature in 2001 abolished straight-ticket voting, and the state Supreme Court in 2018 rejected an effort by Toulouse Oliver to reinstate the system without legislative approval.

Dates for early in-person voting would be expanded to include the Sunday prior to Election Day.

At least 19 states, including Texas, Florida, Georgia and Arizona, have enacted new voting restrictions since the 2020 election, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The national GOP campaign to tighten voting laws has been partly driven by former President Donald Trump's false claims that the election was stolen.

In Washington, Republican opposition has left a bill that aims to set federal standards for state elections stalled in the 50-50 Senate, where Democrats lack the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. Democrats have come under extreme pressure by advocates of the bill to change Senate rules to either eliminate the filibuster outright or carve out an exception for certain bills.

Separately, Lujan Grisham signed a new political map for the New Mexico state Senate, currently dominated by Democrats.

The Senate map embraces recommendations from Native American communities for shoring up Indigenous voting blocs in the northwest of the state.

It would also pit two incumbent Hispanic Republicans against each other for the same seat in the next election. Republicans opposed the map in unison without success.

Concerns persist about pace of cleanup at US nuclear lab - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press

Officials at one of the nation's top nuclear weapons laboratories are reiterating their promise to focus on cleaning up Cold War-era contamination left behind by decades of research and bomb-making.

But New Mexico environment officials and watchdog groups remain concerned about the pace and the likelihood that the federal government has significantly understated its environmental liability at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The U.S. Department of Energy has been estimating that it will be 2036 before cleanup at the lab — which played a key role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II — is complete. Federal officials acknowledged during a meeting Thursday night that the date hasn't changed but they are reviewing whether new risks will boost the need for more funding and more time.

Michael Mikolanis, head of the DOE's Office of Environmental Management at Los Alamos, addressed questions about a 2021 independent audit that found the agency's liability for environmental cleanup topped more than a half trillion dollars for the last fiscal year and is growing. That includes understated liability at Los Alamos by more than $880 million.

Mikolanis confirmed that a recent review turned up new information that increased the liabilities for cleanup beyond what officials previously understood.

"Certainly can't say yes or tell you no that the date is being changed but obviously with increased scope ... either we would need additional funding to do that or stretch out the dates," he said. "We are currently evaluating that. We have made no decision."

The DOE is facing a legal challenge by the state of New Mexico over setting and meeting the milestones of its current cleanup agreement with the state, which was signed in 2016. State officials found the federal government's plan for the previous fiscal year to be deficient.

Watchdog groups said it wasn't until the state sued in February 2021 that the DOE proposed boosting the cleanup budget at the lab by about one-third. Before that budgets were flat, with the groups arguing that DOE had no incentive to seek more funding.

"The conclusion I draw from it is the New Mexico Environment Department gets a lot more from the stick than it does from the carrot with respect to making the laboratory and DOE truly committed to comprehensive cleanup," said Jay Coghlan, executive director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico.

Chris Catechis, director of the Environment Department's resource protection division, said during the meeting that despite the pending litigation, the state wants to continue working with federal officials on moving the needle when it comes to addressing plumes of chromium contamination, the removal of tons of contaminated soil and other projects at the lab.

"We agree that we don't feel the cleanup is moving as quickly as we'd like to see it but with that said, we don't want to walk away from the process," Catechis said.

Some elected officials and other critics also have raised concerns about how the federal government's plan to boost production at Los Alamos of the plutonium cores used in the nation's nuclear arsenal will result in additional waste that will add to disposal liabilities.

Officials indicated during the meeting that the National Nuclear Security Administration has funding for a site-wide environmental review of operations. While they declined to provide more details, advocates have argued for years that the environmental consequences and cost-effectiveness of operations at the lab deserve more scrutiny.

New Mexico lawmakers, governor seek $1B spending increase - By Morgan Lee Associated Press

New Mexico's governor and leading state legislators on Thursday proposed a $1 billion increase in general fund spending for the coming fiscal year — a roughly 14% boost aimed at shoring up access to health care, improving public education and providing new investments in child wellbeing and public safety.

The lead budget-writing committee for the Democrat-led Legislature outlined its spending priorities ahead of a 30-day legislative session starting Jan. 18 that focuses primarily on spending and taxation.

"New Mexico has an opportunity for generational change with the amount of money that we have," said Democratic Sen. George Muñoz of Gallup.

The Legislature's spending plan shares major priorities with a separate budget proposal from Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, including a 7% pay increase for public education workers, plus additional taxpayer support for pensions and medical care.

Public employees at most state government agencies would receive similar pay raises in two stages, starting in April, under the Legislature's plan.

Lujan Grisham promoted her spending proposals to combat hunger, recruit teachers, hire and retain state police officers and to establish a new state "climate change bureau" with 15 employees that would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"These are investments that take us beyond the status quo, beyond decades of unnecessary austerity" said Lujan Grisham, alluding to her Republican predecessor.

Lujan Grisham also called for $50 million in spending to create a training academy for the film and media industries that would be run by a consortium of existing state colleges and universities.

General fund spending under the legislative proposal would increase to $8.46 billion, while the governor's budget calls for nearly $8.45 billion. That's up from $7.46 billion for the current fiscal year that ends in June 2022.

Under the Legislature's budget blueprint, spending on public education alone would increase by more than 12%, or at least $410 million.

The state would funnel an additional $243 million to support Medicaid health care for the needy as the federal government winds down pandemic-related subsidies to the insurance program for people living in poverty or on the cusp. Medicaid enrollment has surged across New Mexico amid the economic disruption of the pandemic.

Republican House minority leader Jim Townsend of Artesia described a growing disconnect between the governor's spending priorities and the primary sources of state government income.

"What usually gets lost in the Governor joyously announcing she is handing out cash to anyone and everyone during an election year, is that this money comes from the oil and gas industry," Townsend said in a news release.

Public schools would be required to extend classroom learning time amid resistance from many teachers and parents, under the Legislature's budget plan. At the same time, schools would get new flexibility to design their own mixture of extended school hours and additional calendar days.

The Legislature's budget and accountability office has assembled extensive research showing that extending the school calendar or daily classroom time without switching teachers can lead to lasting academic advancement among students.

New Mexico's education system routinely ranks last in the U.S. amid high rates of childhood poverty.

Lawmakers are seeking to resolve a court ruling that the state fails to provide adequate educational opportunities to poor and minority students and those with disabilities.

The state budget plan allocates $180 million to address educational shortcomings identified in the litigation, shifting more spending toward schools with high concentrations of "at-risk" students.

The state's surge in income is linked primarily to the oil and natural gas industry and surging petroleum production in the Permian Basin that overlaps southwest New Mexico and western Texas.

Monthly earnings from natural resources development on state trust lands set a new record for December, adding $141 million to a permanent fund that uses investment returns to underwrite spending on public schools, hospitals and universities.

The budget proposals leaves room for a possible reduction in current rates for gross receipts taxes, which add a charge on top of sales and business-to-business transactions. The tax currently varies from about 5% to more than 9% depending on local taxation.

Legislators indicated that a tax rebate proposal is likely, without further details.

Both budget plans set aside money equal to at least 30% of annual spending obligations — a hedge against any economic turmoil including a possible collapse in world oil prices and local petroleum production.

Democratic State Rep. Patricia Lundstrom of Gallup, chairwoman of the Legislature's lead budget-writing committee, said that it's the right time to boost spending with precautions.

"At this point, we feel that it's just right, and it's because we have a 30% reserve," she said. "That's just the way we roll."

Phoenix among those voluntarily losing Colorado River water - By Felicia Fonseca Associated Press

The city of Phoenix this week outlined how it will voluntarily contribute water to a regional plan to shore up the country's largest reservoir that delivers Colorado River water to three states and Mexico.

The river cannot provide seven Western states the water they were promised a century ago because of less snow, warmer temperatures and water lost to evaporation. Water managers repeatedly have had to pivot to develop plans to sustain it for the long-term.

Phoenix, the nation's fifth-largest city, is among entities in the river's lower basin that are part of the "500+ Plan" meant to delay further mandatory shortages. All pieces of the plan haven't been finalized, but farmers and Native American tribes are expected to play a big role.

The Colorado River serves more than 40 million people in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, California, Wyoming, Utah and Mexico. Lake Mead and Lake Powell store the water and are used to gauge the river's health.

The 500 + Plan will be implemented as Arizona, Nevada and Mexico take the first-ever mandatory cuts from the Colorado River and while water users decide what to do after current rules for managing the river expire in 2026.

Here is a look at the plan:

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WHAT IS THE 500 + PLAN?

The plan announced in December requires states in the lower Colorado River basin — Arizona, Nevada and California — plus the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to reduce water use by at least 500,000 acre feet in 2022 and again in 2023.

The plan is projected to boost the water level of Lake Mead, which has hit record lows, by about 16 feet. The reservoir straddles the Nevada-Arizona border.

Water managers want to keep it from falling to 1,020 feet above sea level. That's the point at which they believe that the reservoir, with just one more dry year, could hit 950 feet and no longer have the capacity to deliver water to Arizona, California and Mexico.

Nevada has an extra layer of water security with a pipeline it built years ago to draw water below that level.

Water users crafted the 500+ Plan within months to create more certainty in the Colorado River supply.

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WHO IS CONTRIBUTING WATER?

The plan anticipates Arizona contributing 223,000 acre feet and California 215,000 acre feet. An acre-foot of water is enough to serve 2-3 households annually.

In Arizona, Phoenix and the neighboring cities of Glendale, Scottsdale and Tempe, irrigation districts, water agencies, state entities and others have said they'll chip in.

The Metropolitan Water District in California will work through existing partnerships with irrigation districts and seek new ways to conserve water, said Colorado River resources manager Bill Hasencamp.

The district recently signed an agreement with the Quechan Tribe along the Arizona-California to pay farmers and the tribe not to plant crops in the hotter months when water use is highest. That could leave 6,000 acre feet of water in Lake Mead a year for two years, Hasencamp said.

"Yeah, it's a small piece but an important piece of this plan that's needed to make the Colorado River sustainable," Hasencamp said.

Nevada will contribute money because it doesn't have water to give, said Southern Nevada Water Authority spokesman Bronson Mack. The Colorado River supplies southern Nevada with 90% of its water.

"We're already pretty tight as it is with 300,000 acre feet," Mack said.

The Bureau of Reclamation is expected to contribute about 62,000 acre feet.

Native American tribes will be the biggest players in the plan because they tend to have larger and more secure rights to water that isn't fully being used. The Gila River Indian Community and the Colorado River Indian Tribes have signed on to the 500+ Plan.

"We see this as a win-win for everybody because we have solutions, we can offer solutions, we can offer ways to save the river," said Colorado River Indian Tribes Chairwoman Amelia Flores. "I'm glad that others are looking at tribes in that way, that we can be an asset and not calling on us at the last minute."

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WHO IS FUNDING THE PLAN?

The states are required to put up $100 million, and the federal government will match that amount for a total of $200 million.

Phoenix will receive nearly $4.2 million for the 15,977 acre feet it is contributing, which works out to $260 an acre foot. The city will leave that water in Lake Mead rather than store it underground near Tucson as it had planned, said Cynthia Campbell, the city's water resource management adviser.

Phoenix will use the money for rebate programs for residents to switch to low-flow toilets, smart irrigation control systems and improving the efficiency of cooling towers, Campbell said.

The Metropolitan Water District will pay up to $1.6 million to farmers on the Fort Yuma reservation and the Quechan Tribe to leave fields dry.

The tribe's water counsel, Jay Weiner, said the tribe is gauging interest among farmers.

"It's really a piece of Quechan trying to be as entrepreneurial as possible, figuring out ways that it can continue to benefit from its water rights for the good of the tribe and its members," he said.

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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will lose water this year in the first federally declared water shortage. In Arizona, that reduction largely falls on farmers in Pinal County who are planning to cut the acreage they farm and rely more on groundwater wells.

The Colorado River basin states will start negotiating soon on a new set of guidelines to replace the current ones that expire in 2026.

Lake Mead and Lake Powell upstream on the Arizona-Utah border haven't been full in more than 20 years. As they fall, it impacts water deliveries, hydropower and recreation at the popular tourist spots.

Lake Mead was at 1,066 feet this week, or about 34% full. Lake Powell was at 3536 feet or 27% full.

New Mexico regulators work on rules for new solar program - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press

The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission has until April to finish crafting rules for the state's new community solar program, and the public has just a couple weeks left to weigh in.

The commission has held several workshops and meetings over the past year as part of the process. They were set to hear from members of the public Thursday, but only two people signed up. Commission staff said most interested parties have submitted comments in writing.

Under legislation approved in 2021, the commission was charged with creating a framework for community solar programs. That includes a cap on how large the programs can be within each utility and other requirements for utilities, developers and subscribers.

Community solar projects open the door for households and businesses that don't have access to solar because they rent, don't have the rooftop space or can't afford the upfront costs of a photovoltaic system. Instead, developers build small, local solar facilities from which customers can subscribe and receive credit on their electricity bills for the power produced from their portion of the solar array.

Advocates say their goal is to ensure all communities that want access to renewable energy can connect to community solar, especially low-income households and underserved areas.

Under the legislation, 30% of electricity produced from each community solar facility must be reserved for low-income customers and low-income service organizations.

Ona Porter, president and CEO of Prosperity Works, said during Thursday's hearing that her Albuquerque-based nonprofit has partnered with community groups to get the word out about existing energy efficiency programs over the past couple of years. She said the challenges revolve around building trust, combatting misinformation and addressing costs.

She said most families her group works with have annual incomes of $25,000 or less and can't benefit from tax rebates or wait to get reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses. She suggested that a fund be developed so people could subscribe to community solar at no cost.

Porter said regulators should also think about ways for low-income residents to participate in training and the renewable energy workforce as the state looks to address the effects of climate change by mandating more clean energy.

"We think this is really a huge opportunity," she said.

More than 40 states have at least one community solar project online, with more than 3 gigawatts installed through the third quarter of 2021, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. The industry group estimates that the next five years will see the community solar market add more than 4 gigawatts nationwide.

Electricity consumption can vary by state and the size of a home, but 1 gigawatt would be enough to power roughly 10 million 100-watt light bulbs.

Pattern Energy completes New Mexico wind project

A California-based renewable energy company says work is complete on four wind farms in New Mexico that total more than a gigawatt of capacity.

Pattern Energy officials announced Thursday that the Western Spirit Wind project has started commercial operations. The company had billed it as the largest single-phase construction of renewable power in the U.S.

The wind farms span three counties in central New Mexico and while electric consumption varies by state and the size of homes, company officials have that Western Spirit's generating capacity can provide enough electricity to meet the needs of about 365,000 homes.

Power purchase agreements already are in place to serve several California utilities, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the city of San Jose. Some of the electricity will also serve customers in New Mexico.

Western Spirit is projected to provide nearly $3 million per year in new property tax revenues for Guadalupe, Lincoln and Torrance counties and the two school districts that encompass the area over the next 25 years. Pattern Energy also plans $6 billion in wind energy and related infrastructure projects in New Mexico over the next decade that will net more tax revenues.

Pattern CEO Mike Garland said in a statement that the Western Spirit project generated over 1,100 construction jobs during the 15 months that work was underway. More than 50 workers will operate and maintain the wind facilities going forward.

"Western Spirit Wind is a groundbreaking mega-project that demonstrates large-scale renewables can be developed and built in the United States," Garland said. "These projects create significant job opportunities and local economic investments."

The transmission line that connects the Western Spirit wind farms took much longer to build than installing the wind turbines. It was about 11 years before all the federal, state and local permits were in place, and officials have said that streamlining the process for transmission approval will be key to ramping up renewable energy development in remote areas like eastern and central New Mexico as more utilities face zero-carbon emissions mandates.

In New Mexico, investor-owned utilities have to be carbon-free by 2045.

Navajo Nation reports 294 new COVID-19 cases, but no deaths -Associated Press

The Navajo Nation reported 294 new confirmed COVID-19 cases Thursday, but no deaths for the second time in the past three days.

Tribal officials said the latest numbers pushed the number of cases on the vast reservation to 42,324 since the pandemic began. The latest count includes 59 delayed reported cases.

The known death roll remains at 1,592.

Tribal officials said the omicron variant was detected on the Navajo Nation by Monday and the cases totals have jumped since then — from 10 on Monday to 35 on Tuesday to 168 on Wednesday.

"The rise in new COVID-19 cases is very alarming, but we should not panic because we have the vaccines to help push back on the variants and we know what precautions we have to take to protect ourselves and others," tribal President Jonathan Nez said in a statement Thursday. "The safest place to be is at home here on the Navajo Nation where we have a face mask mandate, extra precautions in businesses and other safety measures in place that are not in effect in border towns and other cities."

The reservation covers 27,000 square miles and extends into parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Coconino County supervisors fill a vacant seat in District 7 -Associated Press

The Coconino County Board of Supervisors has appointed Theresa Hatathlie to fill a vacant seat in Legislative District 7.

In a special session Thursday, the board voted unanimously to appoint Hatathlie, a Democrat.

The seat was previously held by state Sen. Jamescita Peshlakai, who resigned on Dec. 22 to take a position with the U.S. Department of Interior.

Hatathlie will serve the remainder of her predecessor's 2020-2022 term.

A lifelong resident of Coalmine, Arizona, Hatathlie currently serves as the logistics coordinator for Yee Ha'ólníi Doo Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund.

She previously was human resources director of the Tuba City Unified School District and represented the Western Navajo Agency of the Navajo Nation as a Board of Regent for Diné College.