funding for New Mexico and Focus is provided by viewers like you This week on New Mexico and Focus from the environment to taxes to education a full breakdown of what made it through the 60-day session And let me be clear this incident will not be tolerated in our community We stand united against violence in all its forms US cruises officials want more done on public safety after another mass shooting We explore why many of those legislative measures failed this year New Mexico and Focus starts now Thanks for joining us this week I'm senior producer Lou Devisio Tonight we're going to take a critical look back at this year's 60-day legislative session which came to a close last weekend And although a number of bills still await the governor's final signature Governor Michelle Luhan Gisham is all but promising a special session to address public safety specifically around crimes committed by children The governor says she's frustrated issuing a statement Saturday just one day after a mass shooting in Las Cusus that killed three people and injured more than a dozen others In about 20 minutes you'll hear from the mayor and police chief Both want action from our lawmakers But first after weeks of patrolling the roundhouse during session politics correspondent Gwyneth Doland is back in studio In the next hour two teams of journalists will join her to examine what lawmakers were able to get done and what fell short In their first discussion Gwyneth welcomes Daniel Pro of Source New Mexico Megan Gleason from the Albuquerque Journal and Margaret O'Hara from the Santa Fe New Mexican Here's Gwyneth Ladies this is the first time in my 16 years covering the Roundhouse that I've been able to fill a table with young women reporting on Action in Santa Fe So I am thrilled to have all of you here Thanks Thank you so much Me too Megan you're normally a business reporter but you end up at the roundhouse kind of covering some of those business related things You and some of them were real big What did you cover this session Yeah What Well what didn't I cover this session Um one of the biggest things I think related to business that I covered this session was paid family medical leave And this is something that's come up for years in the roundhouse It's always been a big sticking issue We see a ton of lobbyists coming up to talk about paid family medical leave So this one started as the paid family medical leave act which would um require employees and employers with five or more workers to pay a mandatory contribution or a premium in order to set up a 12week paid parental leave fund and a 9-week paid medical leave fund or military exigency or safety purpose fund Um this is the first time it actually got through the house this year It was interesting because they really reworked the bill after it had passed its first house committee They reworked the bill and they called it the welcome baby and family wellness leave fund It's not quite as sketchy although some argue otherwise Um but this this lowered the mandatory premiums that employees and employers have to pay And it created this welcome baby fund with $3,000 for parents for three months for a new baby and up to 12 weeks unpaid leave protected from their job But the big question here was where is that money going to come from And that was kind of the sticking point when it went over to the Senate is um senators were really concerned that we're taking money from future years allocating it from a future budget to pay for this which is kind of ironic which we'll talk about the tax package Um but ultimately it didn't pass the Senate and senators said it was just a much different bill than it had been in past years And it was interesting because it's passed the Senate before and it's never passed the House So now it's passed the House it didn't pass the Senate Advocates say they're going to come back again But um it was a win for a lot of big business leaders who said that they just can't take on more taxes and this is not a way to go about it especially in a time when the we have such a big surplus of money because of oil and gas I want to jump in there about the vote in the house I think what's crucial there is it didn't pass last year as you watch and a lot of those folks got primar They got they got they the folks that voted against paid family leave were removed from their position Right Um particularly one of the more contentious ones was down closer in uh to Los Cusus was of course uh the um William Madrid's district in in Chaparal and uh so he did not return to his seat Um and that's now being held by Representative Sarah Silva And so and we saw I mean with the exception of Representative Marian Matthews who's been a Democrat strongly in opposition of the bill She's introduced bills in the past kind of slim down version of this bill that uh business leaders are more in agreement with But yeah we had a lot of I mean that it died in the House by two votes last year It was really close and it passed the House by somewhere along the lines of six votes this year So it was kind of a significant passage but we still saw those moderate Democrats really concerned with those taxes on businesses And you brought up two themes we're going to come back to more in the show this week including lobbying uh and primaries right So keep those little nuggets in mind But uh tax package you mentioned um that was also a real kind of moving changeable thing What what happened in the end Yeah So in the final days of the session well in the final week we saw the tax package taking shape and the senators had said we weren't really expecting a tax package this year but here you go So the House presented it and the proposal was to um eliminate or reduce personal income taxes for about 100,000 New Mexicans Um workingclass New Mexicans It depended on how much you made and whether you're filing jointly or single But some how many kids you have how many kids you have Yeah sure But some people would have personal income tax totally eliminated Um and how to pay for that was an oil sir tax that the House proposed A 0.28% 28% sir tax would have generated about 130 million in a year which would have covered that and then some Um and so the house sent it over to the Senate The Senate added a whole bunch of different tax credits foster parents um emer volunteer emergency medical services local news employers um quantum facilities a whole bunch of stuff But they stripped out the search tax So now the conundrum was what is the funding mechanism How are we going to pay for this Um so they sent it back to the House and it's late at night in the final days of the session now and the House said "Nope we there's no way to pay for this We're not we're not going to agree."

They sent it back to the Senate Senate said "We're not backing down."

So what ensued then was what's called a conference committee where I call it a compromise committee That's how it's supposed to work So this is something they have to do it in the public but a lot of it is still behind closed doors where they're trying to figure out how are we going to come to an agreement on this So everybody got together It was like Friday morning I think Thursday or Friday morning and um they had not agreed on much The Senate said "We're not backing down We're not putting that sir tax back in there."

I've heard rumblings that that was kind of a call by the governor of I don't want that sir tax in this package She could veto the entire thing Um she even did come down u from her office on the fourth floor in the evening to to chat about what was going on behind closed doors while the floors were in session that they said "We're going to come back at 400 p.m We're going to figure out what to do."

They did not come back at 400 p.m Um they said "We're going to come back at the call of the chair," which means whenever I was lying in bed texting you saying "What's going on?"

Yes But but in the end uh they had a pretty small tax package this year and that was the highlight of it was those tax breaks Margaret I want to come to you Um one of the things that caught my attention this year was a medical Zilla Cybin bill and we were kind of talking about this earlier It came out of nowhere I had a student one of my students reporting on it and I said "Listen between you and me this isn't going to happen."

Uh and he was like "Okay I get it."

And then I was I wrong right So that ended up happening Um there was emotional testimony on the floor A lot of evidence presented about how helpful it can be especially for PTSD things like that Um we're only the third state to do it but a lot of lawmakers came to Santa Fe um having gotten an earful about the healthcare worker shortage People can't get doctor's appointments dentist appointments all sort of providers There not enough of them here There were a lot of bills looking at that problem in a number of different ways Uh medical malpractice was one of them What happened there Well to be honest not much Um essentially you know lawmakers like a lot of us have really been getting an earful like you said on New Mexico's medical provider shortage Um and so we saw several bills aimed at reforming the state's medical malpractice system sort of come to the surface this year And that system is essentially what provides injured patients with a civil remedy through um a jury award or a settlement The biggie uh in terms of medical malpractice was Senate Bill 176 which ended up with a couple dozen bipartisan sponsors Um and it would have been done mainly three things Um it would have capped attorneys fees created a different reimbursement system and siphoned off some punitive damages for a patient health improvement fund patient safety improvement fund Um and there were a lot of big feelings on this bill Uh you can take the girl out of education reporting but you cannot take the education lingo out of the girl I hear you Big feelings Yes That's a great way to describe especially the end of this session Big feelings Yeah Um and so a lot of folks were against it We saw quite a few um trial attorneys as well as injured patients come forward against compelling stories Absolutely Um and at the same time we heard from a lot of a lot of medical providers saying this is just untenable for us Um now all that to say you know Senate Bill 176 didn't get its first committee vote until March 14th Um so a little bit before a week before the end of the session and it failed at that point Um so we didn't see much movement there One other thing that came forward during this session were interstate medical compacts Um that's another big health care thing that didn't go anywhere this session and that would have allowed me to see a provider in another state via teleaalth That's right Or alternatively bring that provider here and ease their arrival in this state to start practicing Make it make it easier for them to get licensed in the state Yes And we saw nine of those bills um covering everything from speech and language pathologists to doctors to social workers and none of them made it across the finish line Um of course there were a couple things that did get done uh in terms of healthc care this session We saw the passage of House Bill uh 586 which extended some state oversight into hospital mergers and acquisitions And going back to that tax package that Megan mentioned um after all of that drama uh the final version included a gross receipts tax deduction for healthcare providers And we're one of the few states that where the doctors uh do have to pay that tax but they can't pass it on to us So it just cuts down their the amount of money they make It's another unattractive feature of of working here Exactly Yeah And I would add that that doesn't go into effect until July 2026 because the tax package the compromise was largely pushing it off until next year Yeah Danny I want to get to you for a minute here This governor has talked a big game on climate change Uh she really wrankled Republicans um and some members from oil and gas producing districts Uh there were some controversial proposals this year A plastic bag ban statewide Uh that didn't happen More electric school buses Uh people love that idea some of them but it didn't happen No it didn't Yeah Uh a law cottifying uh MLG's greenhouse gas emissions That didn't happen And a green amendment that would have also put some of her moves into the in the constitution What did happen Yeah So that crucially uh Senate prom Mimi Stewart brought forward a package of bills this year and the biggest one the lynchpin bill did not pass That was said it before It would have cottified the emissions reduction goals of New Mexico that we're operating under from a 2019 executive order into law It's an effort that she's done multiple times It hasn't made it it didn't make it uh across its second committee vote this year and died on the Senate side So um however other packages that she did put forward which would particularly um offer grant funding or also uh bolster the government's support of that grant funding uh to communities It's about $240 million in the budget Um most of it for grant funding for and it's the community benefit fund for projects that sort of are aimed at um taking some of the pain out of climate change Yeah that's a great way of describing it It's a ability for small municipalities tribal governments uh that were feeling the brunt of climate change Uh look at 2024 We had massive flooding in Riadoso Roswell the burn scar in Hermit's Peak We had fires in Riadoso It was a really rough year for small communities and they're feeling the brunt of climate change So this would offer the ability to fund projects for mitigation It would offer emissions reductions um and another $10 million in the innovation and government fund which was a a second little bill um goes split between seven agencies but mostly to the New Mexico Environment Department and the Energy Minerals and Natural Resources Department to either help communities apply for these funds um to put out these plans to better understand how these funds might be spent and to also offer the governments the ability to reduce their emissions Maybe they need a little bit of money for purchasing an electric vehicle or adding solar That fund will be more flexible for the state government to be able to do that sort of work So those two things uh passed Some other things when it game and fish now we have a new name for game and fish Is it just a new name What is what's the difference Yeah Um game and fish is uh overhauled now We're calling it the Department of Wildlife Um there was a big bill uh broadening game and fish's responsibilities increasing its budget allowing um allowing it the raise of fees that funded it but also allowing more general fund money to go to this agency that oversees all of the wildlife in New Mexico But it used to be really about like making sure there elk tags there's enough elk tags out there and enough trout in the streams Yeah Um sponsors were saying this is a modernization right is bringing it into the 21st century Um you had a lot of sponsors from all different kinds of ideological viewpoints on this Everyone from houndsmen to uh to conservation groups who sometimes often don't get along on a lot of other bills Interesting I want to ask you about water too because there was actually kind of a lot of movement on water Uh strategic water supply got changed Yes The provision that the governor introduced only a year ago um was was wildly changed Um the previously it was half a billion dollars last year That that measure failed in the final days of the legislature It was brought back this year with a smaller amount of money but still looking to finance the development of treatment of oil and gas waste water and water held deep underground It's called brackish water It's often really salty It's not allocated through the the water allocation system that we currently have And it's um it's difficult to reach and difficult to um and difficult to maybe understand And there was also movement on PAS and some surface water protections which were really interesting But you mentioned to me something I missed about mapping the aquafers Tell me about that Yeah So New Mexico doesn't have the best understanding of what our water sources beneath our feet look like We don't know maybe the shape or or size of them New Mexico has a really unique geology We have a lot of interesting geological features but it also makes it difficult to best understand how water is collecting and being used under there We know we're using more water right now because of the strain on the Rio Grand uh from climate change There's less snow less water in the river Uh farmers are having to pump more from underground Cities are having to rely more on underground water sources So we know that we're using more but we don't have the entire picture of how much water there is completely underneath I'm super interested to see that Now I want to do a little bit of clean up on a couple more things Education it's a huge part of the budget budget but there weren't um huge fights The dust up that caught my eye was of course lawmakers pushing back on the governor about her plan to have all schools have 180 days Uh they she vetoed it and they override for the first time a veto on that So they they they won on the on the 180day School districts get flexibility side not the Senate That's right That's right So yeah we ve we were very close to a full veto override but ultimately um you know in their final news conference at the end of the session Senate leadership just sort of said "Yeah we ran out of time to to override that veto."

But yeah I think that's kind of the fight that never ends We have about two minutes left Cell phones in schools What happened So we don't have a ban Um but we do have Senate Bill 11 which requires school districts and charter schools to adopt and implement policies for wireless communication policy They got to come up with something And teacher raises what are they going to make now Yeah So they are they got a uh bump by about $5,000 Um that was a an increase You know we've seen their their salaries base salaries increasing in that three- tiered system depending on experience It's a lot Starts at 55 now That's right Minimum wage did not happen No Right It's uh $12 an hour is it in the state And what did they want to move it to Was 14 I believe Right Yeah It's it's a it's a big difference for small businesses Make a big difference in people's lives though That's right Uh the there was a bid to replace the public education committ public education commission with a state school board That did not happen That did not happen Mhm And we talked about the regents a lot There were several proposals In the end what did we end up with Ultimately we just increased training for regents So they have a new training requirements to ensure that they are uh doing their job properly And we have a lot more eyeballs on them now That is correct It can be a sleepy beat but now everyone's paying attention to the re uh the regents Uh immigration We saw a few things Megan green uh people with green cards can work as law enforcement officers now That was a loophole uh that I didn't know about before this Um uh and a ban on sharing data with immigration officials uh that's collected in other ways but no ban on um detention centers in the state That took up a lot of civil federal detention centers are going to keep going Mhm Um what else did we not mention just now that you guys reported on I'm going to just say that the most important provision in the in overhauling the Department of Game and Fish may have been the politization of its governing board formerly the state game commission The bill passed and we will still be calling it the Department of Wildlife because 98% of the bill made it across the finish line However the governor line item vetoed uh a provision that would have removed her ability to terminate members of the commission at at will This has been a problem on the game commission for a long time It's been decades of advocates saying that when a governor disagrees with uh provisions that they're making at the game commission when it comes to wildlife or stream access that the governor has the ability to fire them And it's uh and it's made it so the commission can't always do its work So the sponsor isn't fighting the line item veto but he said he will be bringing an additional provision in future legislation He says it's important for me to be able to get rid of a bad actor quickly This was a this was a problem across multiple boards right This was a this is a fight across multiple boards this year and it's something that she's stated over any governor's authority right now Just just MLG any governor in the future Yeah that's right Ladies thank you so much If we have a special session I hope you'll come back and talk to us about that You mean when If when Thank you for being here Thank you The big corporations that give money to legislators don't do it uh as a hobby They do it for a reason because it earns them contact with and goodwill from those legislators And I guarantee the alcohol industry is not spending hundreds of thousand dollars a year in New Mexico as a form of welfare payment Um and when we look at the no votes on this bill it coincides with a group of lawmakers who have at the very least an apparent conflict of interest Now just one little item to clean up from Gwyn's first round table The proposal to raise the minimum wage was for $17 an hour not 14 My conversation with journalist Ted Alhorn on another failed attempt at a meaningful alcohol tax increase is coming up in just a few minutes And we'll hear from Gwyneth again with a final segment wrapping session in about 20 minutes Leaders in Los Cusus are calling on the legislature for action on public safety The city's mayor and police chief along with other city leaders spoke to the media and public earlier this week They gave details on the investigation into last Friday night's mass shooting that left three teenagers dead and 15 other people injured It happened at what police are calling an unsanctioned car show at Young Park sharing this image of the event during their news conference Police have since arrested two 17-year-olds a 15year-old and a 20-year-old Each of them faces three open counts of murder Mayor Eric Enriquez says he'll work with the governor and the legislature to create policy aimed at preventing incidents like this from happening again Let me be clear this incident will not be tolerated in our community We will work with the governor and our state legislators for changes in our laws and policies to make sure that our city is safe We are committed to that We are committed to the safety of our community Police Chief Jeremy Story also called on state lawmakers to pass stricter laws for children who commit violent crimes and brought up the struggle of staffing saying it's limiting his department He says he'd support any legislative measure that helps departments like his attract and keep officers on staff But he says that money isn't the main problem The city funds and has budgeted for 220 police officer positions I have about 188 officers right now And so it's not that I don't have the positions or even the the money in the budget It's I have a difficult time filling them because people want to be police officers less than they used to Saturday the last day of the 60-day session and one day after the mass shooting in Los Cusus the governor issued a statement calling lawmakers in action in the aftermath of the incident quote appalling and unacceptable She says the legislature should expect a special session to address what she calls the state's ongoing public safety crisis you know the juvenile changes to the children's code and the punishments um obviously would have possibly had an impact on this If you get some kind of um stiffer punishments maybe there's some kind of deterrence but I think the problem with that is you know how do you study deterrence There's not a study out there saying like how afraid are you of punishments to teenagers You know all we have is data Gwyneth's second roundt conversation about this year's legislative session is coming up in less than 15 minutes Saturday in Las Vegas New Mexico community leaders are hosting an event for people impacted by the Hermits Peak Calf Canyon Fire The 2022 wildfire is the largest in state history incinerating nearly 350,000 acres in northern New Mexico More than 900 structures burned conditions deteriorated even more in the weeks that followed when monsoon rains fell on the burn scar causing devastating flooding Saturday's event is meant to give people who were impacted by the disaster a chance to share the problems they're still experiencing while also connecting them to resources to help them recover It runs from 10:00 a.m to 3 p.m Saturday at Luna Community College in Las Vegas Alcohol kills people in New Mexico at a higher rate than any other state in the country For years journalist Ted Alhorn has shed light on the problem and has reported on the numerous failed efforts at the roundhouse to increase the state's alcohol tax rate It's a datadriven change that experts say could help lower the number of alcohol-related deaths in New Mexico There was momentum in that direction early on in this year's legislative session House Bill 417 would have increased the alcohol tax rate and raised tens of millions of dollars for a prevention and treatment program But after early optimism from the advocates who backed it it ended up dying in committee Earlier this week I spoke with Ted about the failed measure and asked why the bill seemed to abruptly run out of traction Ted Alhorn welcome back to New Mexico and Focus Thanks for having me Yeah thanks Now you've covered New Mexico's nationleading alcohol-related mortality rate and the lack of movement on significant alcohol tax increases for years now In 2022 you wrote a series called Blind Drunk detailing its impacts on the state and the failed efforts to increase taxes Why is this situation around alcohol so dire in our state in particular Alcohol has killed thousands of New Mexicans a year for the last few years Um and it sets our state above and beyond anywhere else in the country Our alcohol-related death rate is is double the national rate Um and it's due to a variety of causes but most uh importantly it's due to excessive drinking And uh people who drink too heavily uh during their lifetimes can cause all sorts of damage to their bodies that uh that reducing that drinking could really help prevent Um and that's focused lawmakers a lot on what to do about it And and the most basic is how can we deter people who are drinking too heavily from doing so And the tool that is most adept for attacking this that public health scientists recommend is raising the price of alcohol Uh everybody from a basic anyone who's taken a basic economics course can appreciate that when prices go uh demand meets them at a lower point And uh so a lot of the discussion in the legislature has been can we raise the state's alcohol taxes in a way that would marginally reduce heavy drinking and and save some of those lives And right now alcohol taxes in the state are at the lowest they've been in 30 years They're 4 cents per drink for beer 7 cents per drink for wine and liquor Um and inflation eats them away each year So for the last 30 years when they haven't been updated they've they've meant less and less compared to the relative size of size of alcohol Okay So now that we understand the problem here in New Mexico can you explain what happened this session Well um it's there's been a longtime effort to increase alcohol to the state going back to 2017 Uh and in the past year members of the Democratic caucus have really focused on trying to raise alcohol taxes as they exist now by as much as a quarter per drink which would be a big relative increase The challenge that they've run into has not been with Republican lawmakers It's been within their own car caucus because pro progressive lawmakers including the vice chair committee Michaela Lara Kadena have been focused over the last decade and making the tax code as a whole more progressive that is to shift the costs shift shift taxes away from people who are the poorest in the state uh and towards those who have more ability to pay They've been very successful on their terms in this state's tax code has become marketkedly more progressive and there's been some impacts on poverty as a result But they um have looked at alcohol taxes through that same lens and although alcohol taxes that scientists would say have a really progressive impact and that they have beneficial health impacts particularly on poor parts of the population um they're a consumption tax and but and technically they are regressive because they look bigger who has a smaller income So what was interesting this session is that these two groups of lawmakers who had been bitterly contesting this issue last year um in the interim under the opaces of or with the support of speaker Javier Martinez had had come together met for hours and negotiated a hybrid approach one that they could both get behind Um it was essentially instead of increasing alcohol taxes as they are by 25 cents a drink they were going to impose a new alcohol sales tax on drinks Um and a sales tax that's calculated by price means that more expensive alcohol gets raised the t the price raised more and and cheaper alcohol gets raised less So this is sort of a way of increasing alcohol taxes but with a progressive sort of bent to it Okay Now in that original tax increase proposed and backed by advocates during this year's session money raised would have gone directly to tribal governments to help in alcohol prevention and treatment Now people we spoke to weeks ago in the roundhouse said that that would be huge for those tribes in PBLO who right now don't have the authority to spend that alcohol tax revenue as they please Last month our Gwennneth Dolan spoke with Cindy Sackleman who's the co-founder of the New Mexico Tribal Behavioral Health Providers Association Here's what she had to say about the impact that the money generated from that original proposal would have had for tribal communities It would give communities hope to not only address their local needs because Pueblo's Navajo Nation um Apache tribes they all look different their practices are different their approaches are different their land is different right So what can what they can actually implement um in their community looks very different um for for all of the tribal communities So this would mean being able to provide prevention services Currently our state does have prevention um but for over 20 years prevention programs have received about 100,000 for an entire county for 20 years So the amount of impact that has right now is limited because of the limited funding But that means that tribes could then create prevention programs that work for them treatment programs that work for them a residential treatment program for tribal community members with cultural healing um with medicine man with um cultural people always talk about culture being prevention with cultural activities and reintegration into culture There's such loss of language such loss of cultural practices This would allow for all of that to come back in Right So all indications at the time that Gwyn had spoke with Cindy were that this was headed for success What happened after that that turned this on its head so quickly Well the bill looked good in the first part of the session It passed the health committee It went to the tax committee Um you know an alcohol tax fundamentally pits a couple of interest groups against each other People who are going to benefit from it are people who are drinking excessively and who are going to see their consumption reduced But that also has an impact on people who make their business by selling alcohol or making it And keep in mind in in New Mexico about a billion dollars of alcohol gets sold each year That's not an inconsiderable sum of money And you could see this in the lineup of the speakers that are speaking in support and opposition to the bill People who opposed the bill were entirely lobbyists for restaurants uh who were going to be particularly uh see particularly large tax increases under a 6% new sales tax on alcohol but big international brewers like Annheiser Bush um the local brew brewers guild The supporters for the bill are people who speak for their patients mostly clinicians behavioral health providers like Cindy um who seen the catastrophe that alcohol can play out on on victims Um so the committee listening to those who were in more support passed the bill and it looked like it was headed towards the House floor when all of a sudden it was re-referred back to the same committee Um and that's a little bit unusual and it also posed a problem for this bill because on its first passage through a couple of Democrats had been conspicuously absent Uh Patty Lundstöm who is uh represents parts of McKinley County which is very alcohol affected but who has also uh been more of a moderate or even a conservative voice when it comes to uh policies in the Democratic caucus and Dorene Gyos who has voiced skepticism about alcohol taxes before and when the bill back uh they were going to get to vote on it and so it was discussed for an amendment in the second hearing there and when they called the votes Dorene and Patty both voted against the bill joining the Republicans uh and when every vote was called it was 66 which meant under the rules there that it is tabled and dead Um but our reporting into why it got those no votes I think is also revealing because Speaker Martinez has always been very protective of his caucus Uh he says financial contributions to legislators should never be considered as um you know in in determining their votes He doesn't think that they're relevant But when we look at the amount of money that the alcohol industry spends lobbying uh whining and dining legislators in New Mexico it's concentrated on this committee And specifically the three House members who have received the most money from the alcohol industry in the last four years are on this committee And they were Addie Lundstöm Dorian Gyos and Speaker Martinez And in total they together have taken more than $100,000 from the alcohol industry in the last four years And Dorin Gyos is married to a lobbyist who was lobbying against this bill in front of that very committee Let me cut in real quick though Speaking of House Speaker Martinez um receiving the most money from the alcohol industry he did vote for the bill that advocates had backed originally and his quote that you referenced in your story um is your vote on this bill or any other bill should not be equated to some sort of ulterior motive I have zero patience for that and I don't care who does it So how how should voters interpret this The fact that he voted for the bill that the lobby was opposed to but then may have brought this back How how can voters read the influence of lobbyists and whether or not these lawmakers are truly representing the interests of voters Well I'm not one to interpret or or offer an interpretation of other people's intentions but we just look at the facts And I think um the big corporations that give money to legislators don't do it uh as a hobby They do it for a reason because it earns them contact with and goodwill from those legislators And I guarantee the alcohol industry is not spending hundreds of thousand dollars uh a year in New Mexico as a formal welfare payment Um and when we look at the no votes on this bill it coincides with a group of lawmakers who have at the very least an apparent conflict of interest And you don't have to take my my my word for it either the vice chair of the committee uh Representative Michaela Lara Kadena was so incensed after this uh loss that exactly one hour later she left that tax hearing room and she stepped into a hearing room on the Senate side where a bill was being heard about lobbying transparency and she gave public comment and said that today in her uh in her committee room a bill had been voted down with two people who had a financial stake in the outcome of that bill and she thought that at the very least they should disclose that if not recuse themselves from it Um so certainly it's not a sent sentiment um that is you know is is something that we've come up of It's a sentiment that is shared amongst colleagues there Thanks again to Ted Alcorn for that interview After House Bill 417's failure the legislature ended up including a very small tax increase on alcohol in its larger tax package The change amounts to just about a penny per drink Now I'm going to send things back over to politics correspondent Gwyneth Dolan for a final wrap of the legislative session This time she's joined by a group of journalists who followed the legislature for years Jerry Redern of Capital and Maine Marjgerie Childress with New Mexico In-Depth and Matt Ryzen from the Albuquerque Journal Their byines can be found on stories about oil and gas lobbying influence campaign finance law and public safety Here's Gwyneith Marjorie we've just heard from one of your contributors Ted Alhorn about the policy response to New Mexico's problem with alcohol This session I reported on a plan that would have raised taxes on alcohol significantly in a new way um and put that money into communities most affected Something much smaller ended up happening Is there a way to know how much the alcohol lobby had to do with killing that larger tax I mean I think that we can um we can just surmise based on the fact that they have a really large presence up there Um as do a lot of industries but the alcohol industry is is established It's a they have a established presence at the roundhouse distributors big producers They hire veteran contract lobbyists who actively develop relationships up there and work work the roundhouse And there's also um and also part of that is the restaurants and breweries They have their association and they are very active working on issues like the alcohol tax which we saw this year We saw them mobilizing against an increase tax Yeah that's right And Jerry we just talked with Danny Pro about some of the big environmental bills that failed Obviously New Mexico is the the second largest oil producing state in the country right now We're somewhere like number five on gas How does the oil and gas industry influence what happens in Santa Fe Oh money I don't think there's any question about that They both do it through the taxes that they pay and that actually pay for roughly a third of what's going to happen in uh the upcoming budget Um they also influence what happens in Santa Fe through lobbying Um as you were just talking about here through um alcohol issues Um on the oil and gas side there's a lot of people They talk to a lot of people They talk to a lot of politicians They spread around a lot of money Um and you can tell at a certain level the influence they're having by how clearly various legislators language matches between different committee hearings and you can hear the same arguments sort of coming up and you start to put together well who who's talking about these sorts of things So that's another way Um and then there's like really blatant amounts of money that go out too During the session the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association spent $126,000 on an internet uh essentially lobbying campaign to kill bills that would have increased taxes or possibly uh affected the way production happens in New Mexico $126,000 Did they get their money's worth out of that They certainly did Right The bills they the bills that they advertised against tied Yeah millions and millions of dollars we're talking about in terms of well they paid 126 to save millions elsewhere well maybe um I think one of the things that gets lost in talking about oil and gas in New Mexico is that there's been very little that's actually happened to give any indication that um moderate sort of changes in the way oil and gas production happens will actually affect oil and gas production um New Mexico is a special case in the way that oil and gas production happens here We have as the industry says the best rock It's the most productive It's the most lucrative place in the United States at this point So I don't know what I think you mentioned that uh in your reporting that the independent petroleum petroleum producers uh spent money uh on House Speaker Javier Martinez and also the lieutenant governor giving each of them $5,000 in December It was like a Christmas gift came right before Christmas Well I is it are they spending on on Democrats and Republicans or more or leadership or how are they putting that money around Oh well that's really interesting I think New Mexico is pretty much the only place in the nation where the big oil companies are spending more on Democrats than they are on Republicans overall If you take everybody together in the state and the donations that happen the Republicans sort of ek out ahead But um yeah uh our most important Democratic legislators here in the state um are some of the biggest recipients of oil and gas money Yeah Um they did raise royalty rates on extraction in the perian but one state lawmaker that uh we talked to said that it's they're hardly going to feel it It's not that much money and they didn't f they didn't fend it off Right Um I'm going to come back to you later on some federal developments Uh but and let me stay for a minute on lobbying Uh we do see law enforcement up at the Capitol quite often We see uh law enforcement officers coming up to testify about gun bills One of the things we did see happen was an expansion of the red flag law Did you follow that at all Matt Yeah and I mean I've written about um red flag petitions and how it's kind of been uh developing in the state over the years And I know that um law enforcement has wanted there to be an expansion where officers can actually apply for petitions because previously it had to be um social work therapist a family member This way you know should someone be in a situation where they might be a danger to others but they don't have family they're not going to therapy there isn't someone who can report that but they do have an encounter with law enforcement law enforcement can then take it upon themselves to petition for that red flag which obviously opens um the door for you know possible public safety Um yeah more public safety and and we saw a lot of movement you know the earlier fights about the red flag law we saw a lot more opposition but I think law we saw law enforcement kind of come around um in the in the intervening time to support it a little more We saw more of that up there But back to lobbying mal medical malpractice reform we just talked about this with the other team Um folks up in the roundhouse were howling about the trial lawyers killing any caps on money that they can make suing doctors Um but you know how how can we actually put this this down on paper I mean you you said earlier we have to surmise that the trial lawyers were up there killing it How could we possibly know Marjorie Well I mean you could either have real dogged shoe leather journalism where you're interviewing all everyone up there right Um but they don't have to tell you They don't have to tell you But there was a bill that was passed uh this year and if the governor signs it then going forward lobbyists will be required to report to the secretary of state publicly public reports available to everybody the bills that they have lobbied on I was kind of shocked to see that happen I did not predict that that would make it through I was surprised too because it's it's been a bill that has been lingering up there for years now What changed I think um they started in a different chamber It's always started in the Senate before and uh started in the House this year some new folks are up there and Representative Sarah Silva from law Yeah she joined she joined the effort and she really pushed it forward in the House and Jeff Steinborn picked it up in the Senate and um you know there's also other new new lawmakers and I I think maybe there's been enough education over the past decade that this has been a conversation up there around why it would be a good idea to have more transparency around you know the special interests what they're up to Yeah And so if the governor signs it um I think there will be a lot more sunshine on what lobbyists are are doing And they'll have to they'll have to report within 48 hours of beginning their lobbying what they're opposed supportive or if they're neutral and then if they change their positions on a bill because of an amendment or whatnot um they then will have to report that within 48 hours And you know we we talked to for a a report we did a few years back um to folks in Colorado who have this the same kind of 15 other states do this Yeah So we're not like paving any new ground And lobbyists up in Colorado said you know actually it's it's really helpful because they're able to see all the different positions out there and they can start like talking to people and negotiating and really um working to make a bill that that will pass maybe quicker than they do now Yeah Speaking of pocket veto that also came out of kind of left field for me but the governor is going to have to tell lawmakers now why she is Well it's a it will go on the ballot in 2026 because it's a constitutional issue I think that's going to pass Well I mean I don't know why it wouldn't I mean it's So right now she can just not choose not to sign a bill and it will just go away because in the in the Constitution it says she has to sign the bill This is just a simple flip of that It says if she if she doesn't sign a bill it becomes law That's what it will say Yeah So right now she can it will just go away and she doesn't have to tell lawmakers why she didn't sign it So some good moves on transparency We also um we also So I'm going to come back to you in a minute on two exciting ones Okay Um Matt but I want to start on Public Safety for a minute here Um this was by far the biggest focus of the governor's state of the state speech A lot of her energy coming in a huge part of her agenda A lot of this has to do with Albuquerque Um but other cities in New Mexico are seeing more problems with crime drugs uh people on the street Um Governor Luhan Gisham demanded bills addressing crime mental health and substance abuse and lawmakers delivered She didn't get everything she wanted especially on dealing with serious crimes committed by teenagers kids Uh and on the last day of the session we had some really dramatic uh news that kind of reminded everyone of why this is such a big deal And the journal covered this this shooting in Los Cru's Yeah So um you know last day of the session well I guess the night before the last day of the session obviously news started trickling in that morning to the greater public but yeah there was a shooting at Young Park involving two 17year-olds a 15year-old um I believe a 20 21 year old and um juvenile young men were killed in that incident And um you know obviously the bills that failed you know there was an assault assault rifle ban Um they didn't have assault rifles they had handguns you know but they the gas powered Well yeah Yeah So assault rifles um are most often gas operated semi-automatic as opposed to handguns which operate a different way But these were handguns Yes these were handguns And um but the juvenile you know the juvenile changes to the children's code and the punishments um obviously would have possibly had an impact on this If you get some kind of um stiffer punishments maybe there's some kind of deterrence But I think the problem with that is you know how do you study deterrence There's not a study out there saying like how afraid are you of punishments to teenagers You know all we have is data And um so whether it would have prevented it you know had it been done you know get some deterrence there I don't know but it was definitely a reminder We talked to the governor early in the session and she said "I just want these kids off the street We have all these young people who have been accused of really serious crimes and if they're out there shooting guns at people killing people doing violent crimes she just wants them off the street But we also talked to the speaker House Speaker Javier Martinez who spoke at length about how he thought prevention and support were a better strategy I was interested to read uh in the journal this week that the Los Cusus police chief says he doesn't have enough cops We've heard that before But he also said this city needs more stuff for kids to do Yeah I mean I think I've covered juvenile crime the last eight years I've seen it It's happened every year It's been happening It's not a new problem Um I also want to say that uh the the cases that have been filed against juveniles in Bringley County It makes up less than 1% of the juveniles in this county I want to make it clear that it is a smaller group of people that are committing these It's not that every you know half the kids out there are bad that's not um what's happening But I think um yeah they a lot of people lawmakers especially that were against this they were say like they say you know studies show that juveniles respond better to rehabilitation than adults Once you get an adult in the system it is much more difficult for them to get out of the system And so I think that's a big part of the argument um with juvenile crime and how to address it It's a difficult issue and I think a lot of what goes into it are but it's underlying causes that are not exactly tied to crime as much is what kind of pushes kids into these places where they're on Telegram they're buying guns they're hanging out with the wrong people you know they're out at night stealing cars Like there's a lot of issues that play into that and um there is no silver bullet in my opinion Lawmakers did um add stiffer penalties for fentinel trafficking They did some work on criminal competency coming down harder on people who threatened to shoot a school shoot up a school giving cops more ability to take away guns the red flag we just talked about and a turquoise alert for missing native people Um but Matt a scholarship pro program to help juvenile offenders got uh backfired Yes the uh so-called homicide scholarship That was a deaf political maneuvering on the Republicans's part Yeah So I think I mean it's it's difficult when you have people committing crimes and you're telling the public that we are going to rehabilitate them We are going to you know what people see are handouts They see that as a handout and I think it's a tough conversation and I think you you know lawmakers I think say you have to have kind of both And I think the lawmakers who didn't want to go along with the juvenile crime and many of the advocates feel that um there's not enough of the carrot and too much stick in that maybe and they're worried about what the long-standing effects of that could be Right Um we're all watching what's happening in Washington and there are there are a lot of federal laws that impact public safety here too but I want to go back to energy and oil and gas for a minute here President Trump um has really roared into his uh second term here Um also promising to roll back a lot of environmental uh protections How well did this democ Democratcontrolled legislature and Democrat governor set the state up to keep their uh more liberal environmental agenda uh protected Uh well I would argue that they did pretty much nothing during this session to actually address what was going on in Washington at the time Um I spoke with a representative who said you know our heads are down We're just trying to plow through the session which is a reflection of you know volunteer legislators very short time period uh the huge number of bills that came up Um I am very interested to see what's going to happen in the next year or so as these roll backs at the federal level start taking effect in New Mexico Um the EPA in particular has been a key partner with New Mexico's environment department in patrolling in the Perian Basin in particular Um at the same time for the last six years air quality in the Peran Basin has exceeded um ozone standards And the EPA had the chance all that time to say um we're going to implement some things to bring those ozone levels down That's very harmful for people It's very bad for your lungs particularly bad for kids but the APA didn't do it Um so it's hard to see that anything like that's actually going to happen going forward Mhm And it may be hard to catch up in the 30-day session coming up So it might be two years before we see anything else You know I think it might even be longer than that Yeah So the next session is going to be particularly generally strictly to the budget Um the other thing is that the governor leaves or curtam's going to be gone after that So it's going to be up to a new governor to come in decide what's going to happen and how they want to um play with these issues I guess we are going to see more political changes Uh Marjorie because one of the things that did happen was semi-open primaries Yes Yes Yes That's a I think of that under the democracy umbrella Yeah So basically if you're an independent voter you're not a member of you're registered to vote but you're not a member of any party you're going to be able to go to if the governor signs the bill uh she has till April 11th Um you're going to be able to go to the pime a primary election and request a ballot and vote you're not going to have to reregister as a Democrat or a Republican or a Libertarian You're going to be able to just go vote in the primary of your choice which you know is um I think probably you know it will expand the number of people who are engaged in the primary because in this state especially young people young people I so in in New Mexico we've seen a gradual increase about 25% of the electorate in New Mexico is in this category and that has grown We've seen it growing over the years National studies have shown that almost 50% of people under 25 when they register to vote do not affiliate with either party So you know when you have over I think this year in 2024 over 20 of the primary winners in the primary elections went on and didn't have any um challenger in the general election So the primary is where it happens The primary is where it happens It's where the decision is made about who's going to represent these areas And so really if you don't vote in the in primaries um in some of these districts you're not getting a say in who represents you And then if you look at the voter registration you know voter registration stats compared to the turnout um I think in 2024 only around 23% of New Mexicans voted in the primary Now what we didn't see happen was in independent redistricting they have more time for that But some of these other modernization things didn't happen We're not having longer sessions no salary for lawmakers Do you expect those things to come back next year I think they'll come back in two years during the long session Um because we have this every other year Um but yeah those are um those are those are issues that continue to percolate There's there's groups of people who feel strongly about them They're going to continue pushing forward trying to modernize the legislature Um what are you let me get around the table real quick because we only have one more minute Matt um what are you hearing from your sources about what didn't happen that they're really disappointed about Um the district attorney in Berno County is very disappointed about the uh juvenile crime bills changes amendments to the children's code all that going nowhere uh they feel that you know it's a big mistake to not do anything and they even you know I mean Sam Bregman has kind of he's very upset that like nothing really got through and the governor says she wants a special session Jerry what are you expecting to see coming back next time around Yeah we I don't know I really don't know Again the next session is all about money Um it I I can't say at this point the big issues in the oil and gas industry deal with production Yeah Thank you all so much for uh helping us kind of digest what just happened here Thanks for having us Thanks to Jerry Redford Marjgerie Childress Matt Ryzen and Gwynneth of course And thanks to everyone else who contributed to the show Thank you for watching We'll see you next week [Music] Funding for New Mexico and Focus is provided by viewers like you