New Mexico's financial surplus and crime set the stage for the governor's speech to lawmakers - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham outlined an ambitious legislative agenda designed to rein in violent crime, improve public education, expand access to affordable housing, and address concerns about climate change and drought, in a State of the State speech Tuesday.
The speech marked the start of a 30-day legislative session that determines spending priorities for the coming fiscal year amid a multibillion-dollar surplus in general fund income. It was interrupted repeatedly by shouting from dozens of protesters in the state House gallery, calling for solutions to climate change and a ceasefire in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war.
The second-term Democratic governor announced a new proposal to embed experts in low-performing public schools to provide greater support for students, as legislators have expressed frustration with average rates of academic proficiency and high school graduation rates that lag below national averages.
"All of us, including our school districts, all of us have to be accountable for the results that we desire," Lujan Grisham told a joint session of the state House and Senate. "We need to guarantee that the legislature's billions in public education are going to the right places and leading to better outcomes."
Republicans in the legislative minority want a different approach that fosters greater school choices and competition, pitching a proposal to provide tax credits to low-income families who send children to private school.
The state expects to draw in a record-setting $13 billion during the fiscal year that starts July 1 — exceeding annual spending obligations by nearly one-third.
Leading Democratic legislators are calling for a restrained increase of 5.9% in annual general fund spending totaling $10.1 billion, warning of a slowdown in surging income linked to oil and natural gas production. They want to dial back on borrowing for construction projects, while expanding savings and endowments to help sustain critical government programs in the future, including childcare and preschool.
Lujan Grisham is recommending a more robust annual spending increase of nearly 10%. Her new spending priorities include a $500 million plan to expand housing assistance and spur residential construction — along with an additional $40 million to launch a statewide effort to reduce homelessness.
House Democrats on Tuesday emphasized a commitment to improving public safety – including tighter gun restrictions – along with increased spending on early childhood education and legislation designed to attract new investments in clean-energy enterprises that may rein in climate-warming pollution.
"We are at a pivotal moment in New Mexico history — record revenues mean great opportunity, and also a tremendous responsibility to deliver for the people of our state," Democratic House Speaker Javier Martínez said at a news conference Tuesday.
Lujan Grisham has emphasized her support for a broad package of public safety initiates designed to address gun violence, retail crime and hazing. Gun-control proposals would increase the wait period for background checks, restrict features on assault-style rifles that make them more deadly, and raise the minimum age to 21 for purchases of semiautomatic rifles and shotguns.
On Tuesday, she also called on legislators to approve mandatory treatment for addiction for people who repeatedly enter the judicial system for using illicit substances, and she highlighted a proposal to ban panhandling.
"Something must shift," Lujan Grisham said. "We need responsible, accountable and compassionate action that makes a lasting difference. And that means getting these individuals the treatment that they need and, quite frankly, that they deserve."
Republicans in the legislative minority are cautioning against legislation that might infringe on gun rights, while supporting changes to the state's pretrial detention system that would give authorities more leeway to incarcerate some defendants pending trial.
New Mexico overhauled the system, starting in 2017, to eliminate money-bail and ensure dangerous individuals can be jailed pending trial.
Answering to concerns about climate change and fossil fuels, Lujan Grisham wants the state to provide tax credits toward the purchase of electric vehicles. Another proposal would underwrite development of a strategic new source of water for industrial uses — harnessing treated water that originates from the salty byproducts of oil and natural gas drilling.
The entire Legislature is up for election in November.
Nella Domenici files to run for seat her father, Senator Pete, held for six terms – By Andrew Beale, Source New Mexico
Nella Domenici, the daughter of longtime U.S. Senator Pete Domenici, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission announcing her run for Senate as a Republican.
The filing on the FEC website shows Domenici submitted the paperwork Tuesday morning.
Paul Smith, managing director for Rival Strategy Group, confirmed to Source NM that the filings are accurate, and Rival is working as lead strategists for the campaign. Rival’s other clients include Republican Congressional candidate Yvette Herrell and Sandoval County Commissioner Jay Block, who is running as a Republican for state senate.
She faces other Republicans, including former Bernalillo County Sheriff Manny Gonzalez, in the primary on June 4. The winner of the primary will challenge Sen. Martin Heinrich, who is seeking a third term in the Senate.
Domenici is the daughter of long-serving U.S. Senator Pete Domenici, a Republican who represented New Mexico from 1973-2009. He was the longest-serving U.S. Senator in New Mexico history, and his final election in 2002 marked the last time a New Mexico Republican was elected to the Senate.
After serving six terms in the Senate, Domenici declined to run for a seventh, citing health issues. He passed away from complications of abdominal surgery in 2017.
Few details were available Wednesday about Nella Domenici’s campaign, and neither Domenici nor her campaign could be reached for comment. Ashley Soular, a spokesperson for the Republican Party of New Mexico, said she did not have any information about Domenici’s campaign.
Nella Domenici has spent her career in business and finance.
According to her LinkedIn page, she currently serves on the board of three companies: consulting company Cognizant Technology Solutions, investment-management firm AllianceBernstein, and medical data company Change Healthcare.
Source NM reached out to all three companies but did not receive a response by press time.
From 2020-2021, Domenici was Chief Financial Officer for Dataminr, a social-media analysis company that courted controversy prior to Domenici’s tenure by helping police spy on social-media users (the company said it ended the practice in 2016).
Domenici holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. A press release from Cognizant announcing her appointment to the Board of Directors last year says she has “significant experience in strategic finance management, corporate strategy and operations, and capital markets.”
The Domenici family has a complicated political legacy in New Mexican and national politics.
As senator, Pete Domenici advocated for healthcare coverage for mental illness, sponsoring the Mental Health Parity Act to require insurers to provide equal coverage for mental illnesses. In 1988, he bucked Republican party leadership when he voted to pass the Civil Rights Restoration Act over the veto of then-President Ronald Reagan.
Domenici faced sharp criticism from environmentalists over his staunchly pro-oil and pro-mining stances, with the League of Conservation Voters calling him “strikingly anti-environmental.” In 2006, a Republicans for Environmental Protection congressional scorecard gave him a -2, tied for the lowest of any U.S. Senator, singling out his support of oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Domenici secretly fathered a son in the 1980s with lobbyist Michelle Laxalt, who was also the daughter of a Senate colleague, publicly admitting to the fact in 2013. That son, Adam Laxalt, served as Nevada’s Attorney General from 2015-2019, and unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018 and U.S. Senate in 2022.
In 2020, Laxalt co-chaired Nevada’s Trump campaign and, following Joe Biden’s win in the state, helped lead the Nevada GOP’s unsuccessful efforts to overturn the legitimate election results, and asked a judge to throw out 3,000 Arizona ballots including some cast by active-duty military service members.
Domenici had nine children total, including Laxalt and Nella Domenici.
Nella Domenici’s campaign has registered a website, but as of publication it only reads “Guest Area” and “Please enter password below.”
Relative political unknown John Thomas Roberts also filed papers Wednesday to run for U.S. Senate. Roberts, a Republican from Anthony, ran for New Mexico State Senate in 2020, losing 66-34 to Democrat Joseph Cervantes.
New Mexico Supreme Court rules tribal courts have jurisdiction over casino injury and damage cases - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
The New Mexico Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that tribal courts have jurisdiction over personal injury and property damage cases brought against Native American casinos, ending a long battle that saw pueblos and other tribes advocate for protecting sovereignty when such legal claims arise.
The decision stemmed from a 2016 lawsuit in which an employee of an electrical company claimed he was severely injured while making a delivery at Pojoaque Pueblo's casino. The state Court of Appeals had reversed a lower court ruling that initially called for the case to be dismissed.
The tribe then asked the state Supreme Court to settle the question over jurisdiction.
In its ruling, the court pointed to previous decisions in two federal cases that effectively terminated a provision in tribal-state gambling compacts that waived sovereign immunity to allow jurisdiction to be moved from tribal court to state court for some damage claims.
One of those federal cases involved a personal injury claim involving the over-serving of alcohol at Santa Ana Pueblo's casino. The other was a slip-and-fall lawsuit brought in state court by a visitor to the Navajo Nation's casino in northwestern New Mexico.
Attorney Richard Hughes had filed a brief on behalf of Santa Ana and Santa Clara pueblos, with seven other pueblos signing on. He told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the ruling was significant and long overdue.
"We've been fighting state court jurisdiction over these cases for 20 years and so it's the end of a long struggle to keep state courts out of determining tribal affairs," he said.
He and others have argued that nowhere in the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act did Congress authorize state courts to exercise jurisdiction over personal injury claims.
The New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the ruling.
Those who have advocated to have state courts hear personal injury cases contend that the people suing tribal gambling operations could face an unfair disadvantage in tribal court.
Some experts expect personal injury lawyers to opt for arbitration before heading to tribal court, but Hughes said tribal courts are "perfectly competent to handle cases like this in a very fair and equitable fashion."
Lawmaker, educator, wants language programs to lead public school education reform - Megan Taros, Source New Mexico
Bilingual education programs in New Mexico sit in a precarious place.
There’s often only one teacher taking on the role – and if they go, so does the program. Beyond that, other programs that cater to diverse students are dwindling from lack of staffing.
That’s why House Bill 39 lays out more than $27 million in funds for bilingual education, culturally-relevant education and student health, according to its sponsor Rep. Yanira Gurrola (D-Albuquerque).
The bill would allocate funding to public colleges and universities, tribal colleges in the state and the Public Education Department to help bring New Mexico into compliance with the Yazzie-Martinez ruling. In 2018, a judge ruled that New Mexico was failing to provide the majority of its students in public schools with an adequate education to the point that it was unconstitutional.
HB 39 lists 40 items that would be funded by the general fund.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s budget proposal highlights $6 billion in K-12 and higher education combined, focusing on adding financial support for families and students, expanding availability of child care and learning opportunities, and improving student success by bolstering attendance and childhood literacy.
Gurrola, who is also an educator, said her bill addresses the reality that robust student-success programs require extensive funding.
“It’s very heartbreaking when you see the budget these programs need to survive,” she said. “We want to make sure these programs are elevated.”
The money in the bill won’t go directly to K-12 public schools. Gurrola wants the legislation to build bilingual education programs at colleges and universities to create a pipeline for aspiring educators to stay in New Mexico.
The goal is to support bilingual and culturally-responsive education in the state’s public schools, reform that is required under the Yazzie-Martinez judgment. The proposal also seeks to enable universities to do more outreach to high school students.
Students are missing out on proven methods to increase their success by getting support in ways that reflect their lived experiences, she said.
Gurrola said staffing challenges often mean students don’t get the same opportunities. That’s why the bill focuses on building capacity to support these programs in the long-term.
“I’ve been to schools where nobody was there to teach math in a multicultural setting,” Gurrola said. “That was not fair for our students. That hurts education equity.”
The bill also gives tribal colleges funding to create their own programs to preserve culture and language and teacher education.
Last year, Rep. Derrick Lente (D-Sandia Pueblo) tried to pass two bills that would’ve created a tribal education trust fund to support tribes to build infrastructure and culturally-responsive education programs on tribal lands and change the Indian Education Act to give more money directly to tribes, respectively.
Both bills died as a result of disagreements between stakeholders about funding distribution.
It’s also something that he’s committed to bring back during the 30-day session.
Gurrola said it was important to her that tribal colleges receive autonomy to develop programs that reflect their community’s needs.
“Many have said, ‘You have told us for a long time what to do and it hasn’t been successful, so we’ll take it from here,’” she said. “And I think they have the right to say that and do what they need for their communities. They are the experts.”
Attorneys representing the plaintiffs in Yazzie-Martinez said in October that the state is failing to provide a comprehensive plan to address education inequities and is not enforcing how districts spend money.
Two months prior, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez made a bid to take over the case as advocates criticized the Lujan Grisham administration for being resistant to creating change.
Meanwhile, New Mexico House Republicans made their own case for education reform this week with the announcement of a scholarship tax credit aimed at helping low-income families send their children to private schools.
Businesses and individuals would be able to contribute to fund school tuition organizations that provide scholarships to low-income students attending private schools. Contributors would receive a “dollar-for-dollar” tax credit of up to $700 for individuals and $1,400 for married couples.
“Every child in New Mexico deserves access to high-quality education, irrespective of their zip code or socio-economic status,” said House GOP Leader Ryan Lane (R-Aztec). “This scholarship tax credit program is a significant step towards that goal, putting the power of choice in the hands of parents and students.”
Critics of school choice in New Mexico have said similar plans would divert funds from public schools.
Gurrola said the need for building up language and cultural programs in higher education would help bring relief to K-12 public schools struggling to create such programs with a lack of staffing and funding.
“If we don’t act now, we’re going to regret it later,” she said. “This bill is about solutions and creating a plan to address what students are facing in their classrooms.”
Federal judge rules Trump can appear on NM ballots -Santa Fe New Mexican, KUNM News
A federal judge has dismissed an effort to keep former President Donald Trump off the state’s 2024 ballots.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports John Anthony Castro filed a lawsuit in New Mexico and other states last year, asserting he was a fellow Republican presidential candidate, and so had standing to challenge Trump’s eligibility to run.
Castro alleged the former president should be barred from the ballot for his role in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021, which he contended violated the 14th Amendment.
Judge Matthew Garcia dismissed the suit Friday based on Castro’s questionable status as a GOP candidate.
In his opinion, Garcia wrote that Castro provided “no concrete proof of campaign operations within the state or contributions from New Mexico voters.”
Castro has appealed.
Colorado and Maine have barred Trump from appearing on their primary ballots, though both decisions are being challenged in court.
The first nominating contest in the 2024 presidential election takes place Monday night with the caucuses in Iowa.
Early childhood department requests $800 million from state budget - By Susan Dunlap,New Mexico Political Report
The New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department is requesting $800 million for Fiscal Year 2025 from the state budget.
The department made its budget request this week to the House Finance and Appropriations Committee this past week.
The request would expand childcare assistance eligibility, expand access to high-quality infant and toddler child care, continue expansion of the agency’s pre-K and early pre-K programs and increase state investment in quality and workforce supports, according to a news release.
Bill Jordan, interim co-director and government relations officer for New Mexico Voices for Children, said one of the nonprofit’s legislative priorities for 2024 is to see full funding for early childhood services. He said NMVC doesn’t want to see lawmakers slack off on expanding early childcare services now that the 1.25 percent additional distribution from the Land Grant Permanent Fund is helping to expand ECECD’s services.
After a 10-year fight, a constitutional amendment went before the voters in the state to increase the Land Grant Permanent Fund by 1.25 percent. Some of the additional dollars goes to the Public Education Department but the majority of the money became available to ECECD starting July 1, 2023.
The ECECD’s budget request for FY2025 would provide:
· $75 million to maintain expanded child care assistance eligibility and expand access to high-quality care for infants and toddlers through contracted slots
· $33 million to serve up to 2,700 additional children in PreK and Early PreK
· $30 million to improve quality supports for childcare and PreK, coaching and professional development on early literacy and social and emotional development, and improve the compensation of infant and toddler teachers
General fund special appropriation requests for FY2025 include:
· $7 million to increase the number of families participating in evidence-based home visiting that is funded through Medicaid through incentives and a more coordinated intake and referral system
· $3 million to increase child care supply through low-interest loans for child care businesses
Bill would fund ‘grow your own’ healthcare - By Susan Dunlap,New Mexico Political Report
Legislation that seeks to appropriate $1.1 million to the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center’s Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion communities to careers program could help address shortages in the healthcare industry in New Mexico, said the bill’s sponsor.
While healthcare provider shortages are a national problem exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, New Mexico’s healthcare provider shortage is particularly acute, especially in rural areas. The OB-GYN shortage has led to the New Mexico Hospital Association and New Mexico Human Services Department to propose establishing a telehealth prenatal and postpartum program for rural patients last fall.
State Rep. Pamelya Herndon, D-Albuquerque, sponsored the bill and defined HB 35 as a “grow your own” program when she spoke to NM Political Report this week. The program isn’t just aimed toward college students and medical school but also provides funding for programs for K-12 to encourage youth to think about careers in the medical profession.
Herndon said one way it can help a high school student is by encouraging that student to start as a licensed practical nurse, or LPN, immediately out of high school. The student can then continue to rise up in the nursing ranks to become a registered nurse, or RN, or move onto medical school to become a doctor, she said.
Dr. Valerie Romero-Leggott, a medical doctor and vice president and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion executive officer at UNM Health Sciences Center, said through email that the programs offer pathways to help diverse K-12 students create an interest in health care careers and build student confidence so that the students realize these professional career paths are attainable for them.
“With New Mexico short thousands of health care workers, it is encouraging to see the New Mexico Legislature consider funding long-standing, dedicated programs that help close that gap and improve health and well-being for our communities,” Romero-Leggott said through email.
Herndon said she hopes that, ultimately, allocating state funds into the programing will have the long-term impact of helping to address New Mexico’s maternal mortality rate, which is higher than the national average for women of color.
“Look at [former tennis star] Serena Wiliams. She has a lot of money but she almost died in childbirth,” Herndon said, referring to Black maternal mortality rates.
Nationally, Black and Indigenous women have three and two times higher rates of death caused by pregnancy-related illness, according to a recent report by KFF, a nonprofit source for health policy research and news.
“It’s important to have a diverse group of medical providers to address health,” Herndon said.
Herndon said the bill is also important to help ensure that individuals who have been excluded from professional fields and institutions of higher learning in the past now feel included.
“It’s not that anybody is being excluded but it’s a way of including people who often are excluded,” Herndon said.