New Mexico governor slashes taxes as she pursues reelection - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham Tuesday signed a package of tax rebates, credits and rate reductions worth about $530 million in the initiative's first year and urged congressional leaders to suspend taxes on gasoline in response to surging fuel prices.
Lujan Grisham signed the tax legislation hours after President Joe Biden announced his decision to cut off Russian oil exports in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
New Mexico, the nation's No. 2 producer of crude oil behind Texas, is experiencing a windfall in state government income tied to oil and natural gas production through a variety of taxes, royalties and lease sales as energy prices surge.
"We should be looking at relief in any place that we can," said Lujan Grisham, who signed a letter with five other governors that urges Congress to suspend federal gasoline tax collection through the end of the year.
Under the state legislation signed Tuesday, New Mexico will deliver one-time tax rebates of $250 for individuals who file taxes in New Mexico for 2021, or $500 for joint filers. The reforms also narrow the state's tax on Social Security to high-income retirees while offering a per-child tax credit of up to $175 and slightly reducing taxes on retail sales and business transactions, among other provisions
Lujan Grisham said state tax changes will help local households offset rising retail gasoline prices, and that she has convened Cabinet advisers to study ways to provide additional relief.
"I don't know what that looks like" yet, the governor said. "You can't get to work if you can't pay for gas, you can't take grandparents and children to the doctor or school."
New Mexico is among a dozen states that tax Social Security benefits. The new tax changes restrict state taxes on Social Security income to retirees who make more than $100,000 a year, or joint tax filers who report more than $150,000 in annual income.
State gross receipts tax on retail sales and business services will decline in two stages to about 4.9%. Combined state and optional local gross receipts taxes can reach a combined rate of nearly 9%.
The tax relief bill also gives $1,000 credits to full-time hospital nurses for the 2022 tax year, and provides a new tax exemption on military pension benefits, a credit toward households that install solar equipment to generate electricity and waives sales taxes on the purchase of feminine hygiene products such as tampons.
The one-time tax rebates are expected to cost the state about $312 million. With the tax reforms fully phased in, the state will forgo about $400 million in annual revenue that it would have collected otherwise without the reforms.
Across the nation, state lawmakers in blue and red states are proposing to cut taxes and fees as budget surpluses swell, though warnings have emerged that U.S. inflation and Russia's invasion of Ukraine will change the outlook for public finances.
New Mexico's tax relief bill moved through the Legislature with bipartisan support in the final hours of an annual legislative that adjourned on Feb. 17, though some Republicans favored even larger tax cuts.
The Legislature approved a $1 billion spending increase under a $8.5 billion general fund budget proposal for the year starting on July 1. Lujan Grisham has until Wednesday to sign the plan with veto authority over any provisions.
Prosecutors seek to hold New Mexico woman in fatal pursuit - Associated Press
Prosecutors are seeking to keep in custody a New Mexico woman accused of causing a crash last week that killed a police officer and a retired firefighter after she allegedly lied about having been kidnapped.
Jeannine Jaramillo, 46, had been scheduled to make an initial court appearance Tuesday. Instead, she now is due to appear in court next week for a hearing that will determine whether she will remain locked up pending trial.
Jaramillo on Monday appeared before a Santa Fe magistrate judge on a separate drug charge. A criminal complaint stated she was concealing methamphetamine in a body cavity when she was booked over the weekend on charges related to the deadly pursuit.
Jaramillo faces two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Santa Fe police Officer Robert Duran, 43, and Frank Lovato, 62. Lovato was a retired firefighter from the northern New Mexico city of Las Vegas who was driving a pickup truck and not involved with last Wednesday's pursuit.
Jaramillo also faces charges of receiving or transferring a stolen motor vehicle, aggravated fleeing and tampering with evidence in the First Judicial District in Santa Fe.
"There is, without question, sufficient cause to assert that Jaramillo was driving the stolen vehicle willfully and freely from any kind of duress," District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies told reporters Saturday. "I am confident in saying that Jaramillo acted on her own accord and in a manner that is consistent with her recent criminal behavior of deceit and disregard for public safety."
Jaramillo's public defender, Richard Pugh, did not immediately respond Tuesday to a telephone message seeking comment.
Court records show Jaramillo has a lengthy criminal record that includes two instances last fall in which she was pursued by Cibola County authorities while allegedly driving stolen vehicles. She told officers then, too, that she was held at knifepoint, but authorities never found the alleged attacker, according to court documents.
Prosecutors asked the court to dismiss the charges from the first incident in September, pending further investigation. Records show Jaramillo was arrested again in October by a Cibola County sheriff's detective investigating the theft of a work truck. That case was dismissed in November to allow for more investigation.
Jaramillo also has been arrested over the years on charges of receiving or transferring stolen motor vehicles, auto burglary, shoplifting and attempted aggravated battery upon a peace officer.
In the crash last Wednesday that killed the officer and the retired firefighter, authorities reported the car that Jaramillo crawled out of after crashing into another vehicle had been reported stolen in northern New Mexico days earlier.
DNA found on the airbag belonged to Jaramillo and evidence from the vehicle's computer showed there was only one person inside at the time of the crash, according to court documents.
During an interview with police, Jaramillo told investigators that her boyfriend hit her, poured gasoline on her and tried to kidnap her at knifepoint, officials said.
Authorities said there were inconsistencies in her story, including that she had no physical marks, her clothing did not smell of gasoline and she could not provide information to identify the boyfriend, according to court documents.
A police officer reported that he saw only a woman get out of the car. The officer also said the keys to the stolen car were found in the back seat of the police patrol unit where Jaramillo was seated after the crash.
Officials: 1 dead in 2 tent fires in downtown Albuquerque - Associated Press
Authorities say one person is dead following two fires involving tents in Albuquerque's downtown area early Tuesday morning.
A fire department statement said the cause of the male victim's death wasn't immediately known and that police and fire officials were investigating the fires.
The statement said they occurred about a half-mile apart, near First St. and Mountain Rd. and Third St. and Aspen Ave.
The victim's identity wasn't released and no additional information was immediately available.
Lawmakers approved $46 million for new housing projects across New Mexico - Source NM, Patrick Lohmann
Lawmakers across New Mexico approved at least $46 million to spend on new housing or housing-related projects, according to a new database of capital outlay requests.
Rural and urban parts of the state are facing issues with deteriorating housing stock, housing shortages and homelessness. Over the last two years of the pandemic, home and rent prices soared.
A recent analysis by the Housing New Mexico Advisory Committee found the state needs 32,000 more affordable housing units to meet demand. More than 200,000 New Mexicans spend more than 30% of their incomes on housing, according to the committee.
But lawmakers did not appear to make housing a priority in the cash they pulled down for housing-related construction, according to a new database created by journalist Chris Keller and Russ Biggs, a local computer programmer.
The database, available here, breaks down the types of capital projects requested by tribal, county and local governments. Categories include “water infrastructure,” “health care,” “housing,” “public safety” and others.
They identified 24 projects related to housing. Despite the need, that’s only 1.8% of the 1,327 projects lawmakers funded. The $47 million approved for housing-related projects represents 5.6% of the total capital spending contained in Senate Bill 212.
City, county and tribal governments are among the recipients. And “housing” doesn’t just mean houses or apartments people could rent or buy. Included in the spending is $20 million in Sierra County for the creation of a new veteran’s home and $35,000 for new fencing at a shelter in Albuquerque.
One big tribal allocation is $1.2 million to “furnish and construct community housing projects” for the Santo Domingo Pueblo in Sandoval County.
This year, local, tribal and state governments requested more than 2,300 projects across the state, totaling about $5 billion. The capital outlay bill is passed each year and funds all or part of new infrastructure or construction — things like buildings, parks, roads or acequia upgrades.
The requests did seek more housing funding — $129 million for 28 projects — than lawmakers ultimately approved. Ten items were not included in the final package, but six more were later added, according to an analysis by Keller.
The biggest housing request was $30 million for a new shelter at the Gibson Health Hub, a medical center. That funding was approved but the amount allocated was drastically reduced to $421,757.
Half of the 24 approved projects are in Bernalillo County.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has until March 9 to sign the capital outlay bill. In the past, she’s exercised her line-item veto power, crossing off requests or trimming out some spending altogether.
Beyond capital outlay, other state money was spent on housing by the Legislature.
Lujan Grisham signed a bill on Thursday that will put between $20 million and $25 million toward the construction and maintenance of affordable housing each year, overseen by the Mortgage Finance Authority. This year’s capital-outlay bill also includes $9 million for the trust fund. The bill the governor signed will also dedicate 2.5% of annual tax revenues from oil and gas toward a trust fund for this purpose.
The money will go toward construction, maintenance, weatherizing and energy efficiency improvements for housing. The additional funding for the trust fund could mean 4,578 more affordable housing units in the state, according to an analysis by the Legislative Finance Committee.
“Every New Mexican deserves a safe, affordable and comfortable place to live, and this funding stream will make a real difference in the lives of New Mexicans, especially in rural areas of the state,” Lujan Grisham said in a news release announcing her signature on the trust fund boost.
US looks to boost cooperation with tribes on land management - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
National Park Service Director Chuck Sams said Tuesday he and other officials are committed to boosting the role Native American tribes can play in managing public lands around the U.S.
He told members of a congressional committee during a virtual hearing that part of the effort includes integrating Indigenous knowledge into management plans and recognizing that federal lands once belonged to the tribes.
Sams was questioned about how the National Park Service could use existing authority and recent executive directives issued by top federal officials to make good on the latest round of promises to tribes regarding meaningful consultation and having a seat at the table.
Sams, who is Cayuse and Walla Walla and a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, is the first Native American to lead the Park Service. He said education will be a key part of seeing changes on the ground.
"Much of this has been missing from our history books, that understanding that tribes are sovereign," he said, adding that the federal government has an obligation to ensure that tribal voices are heard.
There currently are four national parks where tribes share co-management responsibilities: Canyon de Chelly National Monument within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation in Arizona, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in southeast Alaska, Grand Portage National Monument within the Grand Portage Indian Reservation in Minnesota, and Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida.
Tribal officials from New Mexico, Colorado and the Pacific Northwest also testified about the importance of including Native American voices when weighing decisions that could impact cultural sites, water supplies or even forest health.
Sams said his agency has about 80 cooperative agreements in place with tribes now and he expects that number to grow.
At Acadia National Park, the Wabanaki Nations of Maine have been involved in a multiyear project focused on traditional gathering of sweetgrass that have resulted from centuries of learned ecological knowledge.
The Nisqually Tribe is working with officials at Mount Rainier National Park to publish a report on plant gathering there. Consultation with the tribe also has resulted in a guide for developing interpretive programs.
Carleton Bowekaty, the lieutenant governor of Zuni Pueblo and a member of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, told lawmakers that tribes in the Southwestern U.S. banded together to protect their mutual interests as part of the fight over the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.
While some tribal communities are located hundreds of miles away from the monument, Bowekaty said the area still plays an integral role in traditional practices and ceremonies and that tribes are being asked for their traditional knowledge as the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service work on a management plan for the monument.
"What could be a better avenue of restorative justice than giving tribes the opportunity to participate in the management of lands that their ancestors were removed from?" he asked, adding that collaborative problem-solving and a candid exchange of perspectives will be crucial for co-management to work.
Doug Kiel, a citizen of the Oneida Nation and an assistant professor of history at Northwestern University, told the congressional panel about a philosophy of long-term planning that is central to many Native American tribes. He said it centers on what will be in the best interest of people seven generations from now.
Land managers today can learn from thousands of years of history, he said, as the pressures of climate change and global instability mount.
"One important way to think about what it means to incorporate Indigenous thought into these dialogues is to think about depth of time, a different perspective," he said. "That's a lot of what we're talking about with traditional ecological knowledge."
New Mexico court: Grand juries can't challenge COVID orders - Associated Press
New Mexico's Supreme Court ruled Monday that citizens can't convene grand juries to investigate the governor's response to COVID-19 because her actions were lawful and within the scope of her authority.
The unanimous order by the five-member court scuttled three grand jury petitions in the politically conservative southeastern corner of the state against Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. The justices also ordered district courts to deny any similar petitions as they are filed.
In the response to the pandemic, the Democratic governor has pursued aggressive emergency public health orders that restricted nonessential business, imposed extended mask mandates and enabled many public schools to suspend classroom teaching for a year or more. The orders withstood multiple legal challenges.
New Mexico is one of six states that allows citizens to convene grand jury investigations directly. But the grand jury petitions against Lujan Grisham were dismissed on face value because the state's pandemic response was legally valid.
"This court previously has held that (the governor) acted lawfully and within the scope of her executive authority when she declared a public health emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic," the court wrote in a unanimous order. Any other grand jury petitions "based on substantially similar petitions should be denied as facially invalid because they describe only lawful, noncriminal activity."
The governor's complaint noted that it was difficult for her to determine how many grand jury petitions had been filed or to respond because the proceedings are sealed and confidential.
The Supreme Court responded by directing a judicial committee to consider possible rule changes that would give notice to a public official who is the target of a grand jury petition and allow the official to intervene in the case.
New Mexico lawyers spar over criminal diversion program - Albuquerque Journal, Associated Press
The top prosecutor in New Mexico's busiest judicial district said a program aimed at steering low-level offenders away from criminal prosecution remains underused despite a big increase in participation last year. But public defenders argue that progress is being made.
Bernalillo County District Attorney Raúl Torrez said defendants represented by public defenders don't accept enough offers from his office to participate in the pre-prosecution diversion program.
He pointed to data from his office that shows the rate at which those represented by state public defenders accepted diversion program offers remained at 16% in 2020 and 2021.
The program is offered as an alternative to prosecution for people charged with drug possession, shoplifting and other low-level crimes.
It's aimed at removing nonviolent low-level offenders from the criminal justice system and providing them with services — such as mental health and drug treatment, housing and other programs.
"A recurring argument made by mostly members of the public defender's office is that the emphasis should be on helping on the root causes of problems — on addiction, on mental health issues," Torrez said in a recent meeting with the Albuquerque Journal's editorial board.
Public defenders argue that they have accepted more offers since the district attorney began removing barriers to participation, such as a requirement for drug offenders to admit guilt. However, the admission-of-guilt requirement remains in effect for low-level offenders other than those charged with drug possession.
Public defenders said that if a defendant is kicked out of the program for any reason, prosecutors could use the defendant's admission of guilt to help secure a conviction.
According to the data, the number of offers made by prosecutor to public defenders more than tripled from 219 in 2020 to 698 in 2021.
During the same period, the number of offers accepted by clients of public defenders in Bernalillo County increased more than threefold, from 35 in 2020 to 112 in 2021.
Adolfo Méndez, chief of policy and planning for the 2nd Judicial District Attorney's Office, said the increased participation "is a function of us just making more and more and more offers."
Aside from eliminating a requirement that people charged with drug possession admit guilt before they are eligible for a diversion offer, prosecutors have also ended some fees, such as drug testing costs, that participants previously had to pay to participate in diversion programs.
Méndez said prosecutors are disappointed that the removal of barriers hasn't resulted in a higher acceptance rate.
Public defenders said eliminating the admission-of-guilt requirement has increased acceptances.
Defendants represented by public defenders accepted 29% of offers in November and 23% in December, according to data provided by Torrez's office.
Bennett Baur, chief public defender for the Law Offices of the Public Defender, said the trend toward more offers and acceptances shows broad support for the program among prosecutors and public defenders.
"The prosecutors and the public defenders on the ground are cooperating to make this program work for as many of our clients as possible," Baur said. "But I think the district attorney's rhetoric over this undermines that very real progress that's been made."
Julpa Davé, managing attorney of the felony division of the public defender's office, said defense attorneys and their clients have many factors to consider before deciding whether to accept pre-prosecution diversion offers.
"Maybe it's better to actually try to fight the case because there are constitutional issues," she said.
Public defenders often represent homeless people, making it difficult to discuss options with clients in time to meet deadlines for accepting diversion offers, Davé said.
Navajo Nation seeks members for car dealership settlement - Farmington Daily Times, Associated Press
Navajo Nation officials are seeking anyone who purchased a car from a chain of dealerships on or near the reservation to claim part of a settlement.
The Daily Times in Farmington reports that the Office of Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission is searching for people eligible to receive part of a $450,000 settlement between Tate's Auto Group and the Federal Trade Commission.
The owner of Tate's Auto Group was accused of manipulating consumer information on financial documents, according to a FTC complaint filed in 2018. The settlement was reached last summer and approved by a federal judge in Arizona.
It's believed as many as 4,000 consumers were impacted.
Tate's Auto had locations in Gallup and the Arizona communities of Holbrook, Show Low and Winslow. Tribal officials believe many of the customers were members of the Navajo Nation.
The Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission says their members who bought cars would have been greatly harmed.
Sandi Wilson, an investigator with the commission, says tracking down customers on the Navajo Nation can be hard because some often change mailing addresses. They hope to hear from customers by March 18.