NM Senate committee advances universal child care bill with new co-pay proposal — Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
The New Mexico Senate Education Committee on Friday advanced a universal child care bill that would only require co-pays from high-earning families under specific economic circumstances.
Senate Bill 241, co-sponsored by Sen. George Muñoz (D-Gallup), would complement the governor’s statewide universal child care program. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced the initiative late last year, though lawmakers this session have disagreed over whether the program should be at least partially funded by co-pays.
Muñoz’s bill would subject families whose pre-tax household income is more than 600% but less than 900% of the federal poverty level to child care co-pays if any of several conditions occur, including a decline on the average price of west Texas intermediate crude oil. Enrollment numbers in the program and slowed state revenue growth could also lead to co-pays.
For a family of three, 600% of the federal poverty level is $163,920, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Muñoz told committee members he believes the state is in a good position to fund universal child care. The triggers for enacting co-pays — “guardrails,” as he calls them — are there as necessary backstops to make the program more recession-proof.
“You can’t tell someone, ‘I’m going to build this’ and then, ‘Oh, I ran out of money’ and jerk it out from under them,” Muñoz told Source NM after the vote.
Republicans on the committee, including Sen. Candy Spence Ezzell (R-Roswell), said they understood the intent behind the bill. But they expressed reservations about its financial sustainability and questioned whether hitching co-pays to the price of oil was prudent given the state’s push to embrace renewable energy sources.
“Fiscal sustainability of this is going to be iffy…that gives me concerns about what families are going to be able to do,” she said during the hearing, before adding: “I understand the intent of this, I really do.”
Democratic committee members pushed back and cited the balance of the state’s Early Childhood Trust Fund, which in September was worth nearly $11 billion.
“We don’t have to be skittish about whether there would be enough money going forward,” Committee Chair Sen. Bill Soules (D-Las Cruces) said during the hearing, citing the governor’s December request for nearly $161 million to fully fund the initiative. “It would be decades before we’d eat up that trust fund.”
Sen. Gabriel Ramos (R-Silver City) voted alongside Democrats in the 6-3 vote.
Muñoz’s bill stands in contrast to the House-approved budget plan, which would require co-pays from families that make 400% of the federal poverty level. In a news conference Thursday, Lujan Grisham criticized the proposal and said a program is not truly universal if it unevenly requires payments from some families but not others.
House Speaker Rep. Javier Martínez (D-Albuquerque), for his part, said he thought the House’s budget was “building toward” universal child care, but supported co-pays in the meantime.
Muñoz, though, maintained on Friday that he thinks the program should be truly universal and apply to all New Mexico families.
“If you’re in the higher end, why aren’t you allowed to benefit along with the lower end?” he asked. “It’s fair to everyone in New Mexico.”
Hundreds oppose proposed TXNM Energy sale to Blackstone at public hearing — Gregory R.C. Hasman, Albuquerque Journal
It was standing room only inside the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission meeting room on Thursday as hundreds showed up to oppose the sale of the company that runs New Mexico’s largest electricity provider to a New York-based private equity firm.
The crowd spilled out the front doors of the room and some attendees held banners and signs, including two that read, “Blackstone wants your PNM power” and “No private equity in public utilities.”
“We want the commissioners to see just how educated and informed our people are and where we’re at with this acquisition,” said Alicia Gallegos, Pueblo Action Alliance youth justice organizer.
In May, TXNM Energy Inc., the parent company of Public Service Company of New Mexico, announced it reached an agreement to be acquired by Blackstone Infrastructure for $11.5 billion. It had filed the sale with regulators just a few months later, in August.
PNM has about 550,000 customers in New Mexico. TXNM also runs Texas-New Mexico Power Co., which largely covers areas in Texas. New York-based Blackstone is one of the world’s largest private equity firms with more than $1 trillion in assets under management.
Blackstone’s acquisition is still subject to regulatory approvals outside of the PRC, for which transaction hearings will begin in May. It still has yet to gain approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
But the deal got the OK on Friday from the Public Utility Commission of Texas following a regulatory settlement reached with intervenors in December, and it has already been approved by the Federal Communications Commission.
TXNM said the Texas regulatory approval “confirms that the acquisition is in the public interest.”
But New Mexico residents on Thursday, by and large, denied that the deal would benefit them.
Isabel Parlett, who lives in Santa Fe, said before and during the hearing she planned to sell her Blackstone stock despite the private equity firm “tripling in value” because she felt the company “does not have the interests of the people of New Mexico at heart.”
“They exist to extract wealth quickly, when they see an opportunity,” she said. “And I think because an electric utility isn’t something we can comparison shop for, it seems to me (the sale) would be disastrous in terms of giving them that power to raise rates, to deteriorate service.”
If the sale is approved, Blackstone would pay $61.25 per share in cash upon the deal’s closing, TXNM officials have said. Blackstone would also take TXNM private.
TXNM is hopeful the sale will go through after a proposed 2021 sale to Avangrid Inc. was shot down by the commission. Avangrid later terminated the agreement, the Journal previously reported.
The deal with Blackstone, officials have said, would keep PNM locally managed with headquarters in Texas and New Mexico, and it would retain the employees and honor union agreements.
The two companies have also promised a $25 million investment toward clean technology “at no cost to customers,” and a $105 million rate credit over four years — which they said would lower the average monthly bill by 3.5%.
But the 3.5% would be “hardly enough to buy a fast-food (meal), which is an insulting supposed benefit,” said Vittoria Judy with Youth United for Climate Crisis Action.
Albuquerque resident Andrew Keleher was one of a handful of people to request that the commission approve the deal.
“This doesn’t change the PRC’s regulatory nature,” he said. “They’ll still be the ones setting the rates. They’ll still be the ones approving profit margins.”
New Mexico State University student David Wichman said “this deal asks New Mexicans to surrender long-term control of our energy future in exchange for short-term promises that simply don't add up.”
“PNM is more than a utility,” he said. “It is public trust. It powers our homes, businesses and our (transition) to cleaner energy. Turning that responsibility over to one of the world's largest private equity firms, whose primary obligation is to ... generate rapid returns for investors, creates fundamental conflict with public interests.”
Angelina Crowley with the Party of Socialism and Liberation said what Blackstone is doing is “attempting to position themselves as a monopoly in the energy sector” by having control over the entire energy grid.
“Blackstone is making empty promises to New Mexicans without any proof that they will fulfill these promises,” she said.
Actor Timothy Busfield indicted in New Mexico on 4 counts of sexual contact with a child — Morgan Lee, Associated Press
“West Wing” and “Field of Dreams” actor Timothy Busfield has been indicted by a grand jury on four counts of criminal sexual contact with a child under age 13, a New Mexico prosecutor announced Friday.
The allegations are tied to Busfield's work as a director on the set of the TV series “The Cleaning Lady” from 2022 to 2024.
Busfield has denied the allegations, initially filed in court by police, and a defense attorney on Friday said he would “fight these charges at every stage.”
Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman announced the indictment in a social media post.
Busfield had turned himself in to authorities in January on related charges by police and was released from jail by a judge who found no pattern of criminal conduct or similar allegations involving children in Busfield's past. The grand jury indictment allows the case against Busfield to proceed toward possible trial without a preliminary courtroom hearing on evidence.
Larry Stein, an attorney for Busfield, did not comment directly on the sexual contact charge in the indictment but said the grand jury declined to endorse grooming charges sought by prosecutors. Prosecutors declined to comment on what accusations it brought before the grand jury.
Stein said in a statement that a detention hearing already “exposed fatal weaknesses in the state’s evidence — gaps that no amount of charging decisions can cure.”
“Mr. Busfield will fight these charges at every stage and looks forward to testing the State’s case in open court,” the statement said.
An investigator with the Albuquerque Police Department said a boy reported that Busfield touched his private areas over his clothing when he was 7 years old and again when he was 8, according to the initial criminal complaint from police. The boy’s twin told authorities he was also touched by Busfield, but he didn’t say anything right away because he didn’t want to get in trouble, the complaint said.
The indictment — filed Friday in state District Court — reiterates allegations that Busfield “touched or applied force to the intimate parts” of one of the boys on several occasions.
At a detention hearing last month, Busfield’s attorneys pointed out that the children initially said during interviews with police that Busfield didn’t touch them inappropriately. Busfield’s attorneys then accused the boys’ parents of coaching their children toward incriminating statements after the boys lost lucrative roles on the show.
But Assistant District Attorney Savannah Brandenburg-Koch has called evidence of abuse against Busfield strong and specific, with support from medical findings and the boys' therapist. She also said witnesses expressed fear about potential retaliation and professional harm.
Prosecutors have outlined what they said was grooming behavior and abuse of power by Busfield over three decades.
Each count in the indictment against Busfied carries a possible penalty of six years in prison that can be enhanced if it involves a sexual offense, according to prosecutors.
In freeing Busfield on Jan. 20, state District Court Judge David Murphy said that while the crimes Busfield is accused of inherently are dangerous and involve children, prosecutors didn’t prove the public wouldn’t be safe if he’s released.
Busfield is best known for appearances on “The West Wing,” “Field of Dreams” and “Thirtysomething.”
Native leaders say New Mexico GOP misled them into appearing on partisan event flyer – Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
Several Native American leaders say they were misled into appearing in an advertisement for an event held by the Republican Party of New Mexico.
In a letter, seven of the eight people pictured on the flyer — rapper Def-i, fashion designer Loren Aragon, filmmakers Goldie Tom and Ryan Begay, businesswoman Nicole Johnny, museum director Patsy Phillips and Miss Indian New Mexico Jolene Tsinnijinnie — say they were approached to appear at what they thought was a nonpartisan event celebrating American Indian Day at the state Legislature.
The flyer, posted to the New Mexico GOP Instagram account, advertised an event called “The Red Rise of Native New Mexico,” to be held at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe on Friday morning. The seven people who signed the letter are listed as “special guests.”
The group said in the letter they “did not consent on the use of our names, images, or affiliations in connection with any partisan activity, political endorsement, or party-sponsored event.”
New Mexico GOP officials said the situation was a misunderstanding.
“The event information was shared with me with a specific request that it be shared broadly. It was my understanding at the time that the same request had been made to both major political parties, and that the event was being promoted in connection with American Indian Day activities at the Roundhouse,” New Mexico GOP Chairwoman Amy Barela said in an email.
Barela said she removed the posts after she was informed of the mistake.
“I respect the concerns raised and acted promptly once they were brought to my attention,” Barela said.
Phillips, director of the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, said she was approached by IAIA President Shelly Lowe to attend the event — what they both thought was a brunch recognizing Native leaders — on her behalf, since Lowe would be out of town.
Phillips said she learned her name and photo appeared on the post from a professor friend at UCLA.
“She said her students came to her and said, ‘Isn’t this your friend?’ And so she called me last night and said, ‘What’s going on with you in politics?’ I’m like, ‘What?’ I had no idea,” Phillips said.
Appearing on the flyer without her consent felt “terrible,” said Phillips, who said she tries to stay politically neutral as a representative of IAIA.
The arts college nearly had a majority of its budget slashed by the Trump administration last summer, when the federal government attempted to cut 90% of funding for the country’s 37 tribal colleges and universities, including IAIA — part of a broader push by the administration to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion-focused programs. The school ended up retaining its federal grants after an appropriation by Congress last month.
“We got a call from somebody yesterday who said, ‘When did you all become MAGAs at the museum?’” Phillips said.
One of the organizers called Phillips to apologize and told her it was unintentional, she said, and that “red rise” referred to missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
“But if everybody on that flyer did not know — that was an issue,” Phillips said. “And none of us knew what it was.”
Phillips and the other Native leaders will not be appearing at Friday’s meet-and-greet, she said, and will instead hold their own event that day in the Capitol Rotunda.
Subdivision off N.M. 14 served by Santa Fe County sees nearly a week without water – Cormac Dodd, Santa Fe New Mexican
Nearly a week has gone by without running water for residents in a Santa Fe subdivision, after an easement dispute prevented city workers from fixing a broken water main.
Cormac Dodd reports for the Santa Fe New Mexican, South of Santa Fe in Valle Vista subdivision, a broken water main affected residents beginning January 30th. Contractors tried to access the easement the same day but were denied access by the property Owner Nick Vargas.
Upon arrival, Vargas attempted to have contractors sign paperwork regarding issues with his water billing in exchange for letting them access his property, which contractors refused. City spokesperson Stephanie Stancil says the city negotiated with Vargas all weekend over email, but found no resolution. Yesterday, a judge granted a temporary restraining order against Vargas so city contractors could access the broken main.
In an interview, Vargas says that city workers were welcome, he only needed them to sign his paperwork.
Meanwhile, Some residents in Valle Vista were frustrated by what they felt was a lack of communication regarding their loss of water. Community Member Nichole Sandoval says “If we were Rancho Viejo or someone else, this would have been taken care of right away.”
Overall, 282 customers experienced a partial or total loss of water, and as of Thursday, county officials were handing out jugs of water and pamphlets regarding a water boil advisory.