New Mexico legislative roundup: Jan. 21, 2022
Days remaining in session: 28
Keeping the lights on: The so-called feed bill, which funds the operations of the Legislature during a session, received unanimous approval from the Senate.
"This is the bill that feeds the paychecks and takes care of agencies and our interim travel and everything that we do within the Legislature," Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, told his colleagues before the vote.
The $5.96 million legislation, House Bill 1, includes $217,980 and $363,300 in per diem for the Senate and the state House of Representatives, respectively.
Crime bill on agenda: Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham sent a message to the House on Thursday to put House Bill 5 on the docket for consideration. The much-talked-about measure would change the way courts determine whether defendants in violent crimes will remain detained while they await trial.
HB 5 would require the defendant to prove they are not a risk to society if they are released from jail. Currently, the onus is on prosecutors to provide evidence showing a defendant poses too great a risk to the community to be released.
More:N.M. Governor says she wants tax cuts, crackdown on crime in State of the State address
Critics of HB 5 say there is little proof defendants who are freed before their trial commit additional violent crimes. But advocates point to the case of Darian Bashir, who recently was found guilty of fatally shooting UNM baseball player Jackson Weller in 2019. Bashir had a history of criminal violence. At the time of Weller's death, he was on a supervisory release plan while awaiting trial on a charge of shooting an assault weapon from a car at another vehicle.
The bill, which the governor has been touting as part of her "tough-on-crime" agenda, will first be heard in the House Rules and Order of Business Committee.
The committee will hold its first meeting virtually at 9:30 a.m. Friday. To tune in, visit nmlegis.gov and click on the "webcast" link.
Ethics complaint: The Rio Grande Foundation filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Dayan Hochman-Vigil, D-Albuquerque, alleging conflicts of interest at Spaceport America.
"She has a number of conflicts, we believe, with her being a sitting legislator and being very intimately involved in aspects of Spaceport America, including being chief counsel for (an aerospace company that receives state funding), as well as passing legislation and also getting projects that she's working on, paid projects, through the spaceport," said Paul Gessing, president of the Albuquerque-based free-market think tank that filed the complaint.
Efforts to reach Hochman-Vigil for comment were unsuccessful.
Gessing said the foundation received a tip that prompted the complaint, which was filed in the Legislature.
More:Spaceport America's former CFO alleges retaliation, conspiracy in lawsuit over 2020 investigation
"Basically, somebody said Hochman-Vigil was intimately involved in the spaceport, was doing things that seem to be questionable with regard to being a legislator and also being so deeply involved with the spaceport itself and some of the clients that work down there," he said.
Memorial to Anaya: State Rep. Patti Lundstrom, D-Gallup, introduced a memorial Thursday honoring the late Elaine Anaya, a former first lady of New Mexico. She was married to former Gov. Toney Anaya, who served in the 1980s. She died of cancer at 78 on Nov. 9 in her Santa Fe home.
"She was very quiet, very calm. She had a certain demeanor about her that was disarming, but she set the rules down, and I followed them," Toney Anaya said of his wife for a story in The New Mexican late last year.
Cheesy: Thursday was National Cheese Lover's Day, and Rep. Kelly Fajardo, D-Las Lunas, didn't disappoint. Fajardo is known for ending floor sessions with a joke.
Fajardo said she didn't have a joke for National Cheese Lover's day because she "couldn't find one gouda-nuff."
Friday, by the way, is National Squirrel Appreciation day, so Fajardo's joke may be a bit nutty.
Quote of the day: "I know that sometimes we get a little — scatological may be the right word here — but I do want to thank all of y'all for your near-unanimous commitment yesterday to oil and gas. And what I mean by that is, all of the masks that we're wearing, unless you have a pretty cotton one like mine, are made of synthetics, which means that they're made from oil and gas." — Sen. Bill Sharer, R-Farmington, poking fun at progressives who often criticize the industry.