New Mexico In Depth (https://nmindepth.com/author/gwynethdoland/page/4/)
There should be a better way of prioritizing and funding public infrastructure projects, but the solution shouldn’t take away lawmakers’ ability to fund some projects in their districts, lawmakers said Wednesday night at an NMID forum in Santa Fe.
Public officials convicted of corruption would face stiffer penalties if a bipartisan bill introduced this week is successful. The proposal would tack on an extra year to the basic sentence for public corruption offenses such as embezzlement, soliciting a kickback or accepting a bribe.
Storefront lenders scored a win Tuesday in Santa Fe when the House Business and Employment Committee unanimously voted to block an effort to ask New Mexicans to vote on whether to cap interest rates on installment loans this November.
New Mexico’s independent voters could be allowed to participate in primary elections if a proposed constitutional amendment is successful.
“We have to be careful how we reform the system, but at the same time we need to be doing this a lot better.”
Just two days after former Secretary of State Dianna Duran was released from county jail, Gov. Susana Martinez used a small part of her fifth State of the State address to support government accountability efforts. The nod from the governor came on the same day that good government group Common Cause released the results of a statewide survey showing broad support for ethics and campaign finance reforms. About 85 percent of New Mexicans want the legislature to create an independent ethics commission, according to the poll, conducted in December by Research and Polling, Inc.
But poll numbers don’t offer reform advocates any assurance that their ideas will translate into votes of support or the governor’s signature. Bills that would create some form of ethics commission have languished in Santa Fe for years. In her hour-long address to state lawmakers, Martinez focused on fighting violent crime, improving education and advancing economic development proposals, but she specifically mentioned the need to improve campaign finance reporting and close the revolving door between lawmakers and lobbyists. She called for changes to the state’s much-maligned capital outlay process, saying: “We need to fix the way we spend infrastructure money, because the way projects are funded now leads to unmet regional and state needs, and a string of projects that haven’t been vetted and can’t be completed.” And she said there should be full disclosure by individual lawmakers of the projects they choose to fund with their personal pots of capital outlay money.
In August came news that Dianna Duran, New Mexico’s secretary of state and in charge of overseeing campaign finance compliance, had taken money from her campaign account, spent it at local casinos and falsified her own reports to hide it. Two months later she pleaded guilty to six criminal charges, including two felony counts of embezzlement. Weeks after her guilty plea, a report comparing campaign finance laws and compliance across all 50 states revealed what many of us in New Mexico already knew: Our state seriously lags when it comes to monitoring and controlling the flow of money into the political system. According to the Center for Public Integrity’s 2015 State Integrity Report, New Mexico ranked 36th,, flunking campaign finance transparency. Those who shrug their shoulders and say, “Oh yes, things are terrible, but what can we do?” might have a look at Massachusetts, the state to score highest in campaign finance transparency in CPI’s report.
Welcome to State Budgeting 101. Class starts when 112 state lawmakers convene in Santa Fe to approve a multi-billion dollar spending plan Gov. Susana Martinez can live with before the session ends Feb. 18. That sounds challenging, but the Martinez administration and the Legislative Finance Committee, the Legislature’s budget arm, already have tilled the ground by drafting competing multi-billion-dollar spending plans. Those documents will act as guides for the New Mexico Legislature over the next 30 days as officials work toward a compromise.
Here are my main takeaways after conducting dozens of interviews, reading reams of news stories and analyzing a pile of independent reports.
Sherrie Cline found herself caught in a cycle of debt thanks to a car title loan for less than $1,000. Cline’s situation isn’t unusual. About 70 percent of storefront lending customers use the money to pay for everyday living expenses like rent, utilities, credit card bills or food.