2017 Legislative Session

Cannabis industry campaign contributions grow

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The nascent cannabis industry donated more than $52,000 to New Mexico candidates and political action committees in 2015 and 2016. The largest donor, Ultra Health, hopes to see lawmakers increase plant limits for medical marijuana providers this session. The Legislature is also considering bills that seek to legalize marijuana. The first, House Bill 89, is scheduled for a committee hearing Saturday. Eight states and the District of Columbia allow adult use of cannabis, while 25 allow medical use of the drug, which is still illegal under federal law.

2017 Legislative Session

Capital outlay reform bill gives power to lawmaker committee

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Forty years of pork-barrel infrastructure funding would end under a bill introduced Monday. Instead of individual legislators handing out small sums of bond money for everything from musical instruments and zoo animals to public buildings and water projects, Senate Bill 262 would create an 18-member legislative committee to vet, rank and recommend projects for funding. Critics say that, currently, projects often aren’t fully funded or even requested by local officials. New Mexico is the only state in the nation that allows individual lawmakers to earmark infrastructure projects for funding. If SB 262 prevails, local governments would be required to request funding by July 1 each year, and the interim public works committee would then work through the requests.

2017 Legislative Session

Lobbyist spending nears $68,000 as week 2 of session concludes

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From fancy dinners to ski passes, lobbyists and their employers reported spending more than $68,000 during the first two weeks of the legislative session. Topping the list are $27,500 worth of ski passes for lawmakers from Ski New Mexico Director George Brooks. Presbyterian Health Plan spent $10,873 on a dinner for elected officials at La Posada on Jan. 18. Lobbyists and their employers must report all expenses of $500 or more within 48 hours during the legislative session.

2017 Legislative Session

Capital outlay funding transparency passes first test

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A bill requiring disclosure of legislative earmarks for infrastructure projects took its first step Monday. The Senate Rules Committee approved Senate Bill 25 in a 7-1 vote. It would require individual lawmakers’ allocations for capital outlay projects to be posted on the internet 30 days after the session ends. The Legislature typically divvies up a portion of the available infrastructure bond money among individual lawmakers. The House and Senate get equal amounts of money, with those amounts divided equally among members of each chamber.

2017 Legislative Session

Campaign finance reform bill increases lawmaker contribution limits

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Campaign donors would be able to double their contributions to state lawmakers under a campaign finance reform measure approved by the Senate Rules Committee Friday. Senate Bill 96 also would increase disclosure for super PACs and nonprofits that get involved in campaigning. The Senate Rules Committee approved the measure, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, in an 8-1 vote. Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, said he couldn’t support the bill with the increased campaign limits for lawmakers. “I think adding on to the limits is the wrong way to go,” Steinborn said.

2017 Legislative Session

House Republicans benefit most from lobbyist campaign cash

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Registered lobbyists and their employer campaign donations made up about 25 percent of what legislative candidates spent during the 2016 election. And most of that money went to House Republicans. Despite that lobbyist largesse, the GOP lost control of the House to Democrats, while Senate Democrats increased their margin. Lobbyists and their employers reported donating more than $2.8 million to candidates and political action committees in 2016. That brings their total for the 2015-16 elections cycle to nearly $4 million, with more than 90 percent of that money going to legislative candidates or partisan PACs.

Datatable: 2016 lobbyist and employers detailed campaign contributions

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New Mexico In Depth downloaded data on campaign contributions reported by individual lobbyists, and extracted employer contributions from PDFs of their filings to analyze 2016 donations. In this detailed table, candidate or committee names were standardized. Note that information on a few donations could not be discerned. More Info
House Republicans benefit the most from lobbyist campaign cash

2015 lobbyist and employer detailed contributions

Get a full Google spreadsheet of the data from 2015 and 2016 here. [table id=47 /]

2017 Legislative Session

Four ethics bills clear first House committee

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Four bills aimed at improving governmental ethics cleared their first House committee Thursday. Here’s a look at the bills approved by the House State Government, Indian and Veterans’ Affairs Committee:

House Bill 10 would create a public accountability board to consider complaints against members of state and local government. But complaints against sitting lawmakers would still be considered by a legislative ethics committee.  The measure passed on a 6-3 vote, and next goes to the House Judiciary Committee. Representatives of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government and the Rio Grande Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists objected to the measure, saying it isn’t transparent enough and removes enforcement of the open meetings act from the attorney general’s office.

2017 Leg

New Mexicans don’t want cuts, but lukewarm on tax hikes

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New Mexicans overwhelmingly oppose spending cuts on education and health care for the poor. But they also don’t want to see taxes on gasoline or internet purchases. They are willing to raise taxes on booze or tobacco and on those earning $200,000 or more a year, however. That’s according to a new poll commissioned by the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty. “I think if you look at the percentage of folks who oppose education or Medicaid cuts, that percentage far outweighs the percentage of opposition there might be to any of the revenue measures,” said Edward Tabet-Cubero, executive director of the center.

2016 New Mexico lobbyist expense details

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Below are details for New Mexico lobbyists’ expenses from lobbyists reports filed during the 2016 legislative session, May 2016, October 2016, and Jan. 17. Names of lawmakers have not been standardized. Search by lobbyist or lawmakers, or sort by dates, amounts, etc. A copy of the data in a Google spreadsheet is available here. [table id=45 /]