Follow 2017 legislative session via NMID’s Ethics Tracker

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Entering the third week of New Mexico’s 2017 legislative session, several ethics and campaign finance reform bills have cleared their first committee hearings. In the interest of reporting on these subjects in a comprehensive way, we’ve decided to share our internal “ethics tracker” publicly. Ethics and campaign finance are issue areas New Mexico In Depth has reported on for years. This year, two bills that would bring significant change to New Mexico seem to have more traction than in years past:

     Creation of an independent ethics commission, or similar entity.      Passage of an omnibus campaign finance reform bill.

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 Legislative Session

Legislature must do more for working families

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Years ago, I had a conversation with a friend about tensions in his relationship. My friend eventually shrugged and said “I don’t know, that’s just the way it is,” resigning himself to accepting the tension rather than find a solution. For a very long time, New Mexicans have been expected to just shrug our shoulders and accept the problems in our state as “that’s just the way it is.”

New Mexico is at a crossroads: with a multi-year budget crisis and some of the low rankings in child well-being (coupled with high levels of unemployment and poverty), we can stay the course of giving tax breaks to big, out-of-state corporations and fix the budget crisis by cutting services for New Mexicans, or we can take bold steps toward creating a brighter future for New Mexico. Several bills are aiming to do just that.  Raising the minimum wage, introducing statewide paid sick leave and a constitutional amendment that will allow New Mexicans to decide whether or not to invest in our most precious resource, our children, are pushing our Legislature to take action.

2017 Legislative Session

Early education and childcare critical to improving child wellbeing

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Early childhood care and education is central to any discussion about improving child wellbeing in New Mexico. Decades of research have shown that the early years of a child’s life are a special time when the brain is developing rapidly, and that providing enriching, stable environments for young children is one of the best investments a society can make. Supporting parents to help them be their children’s first teachers, ensuring all families have access to high-quality child care and pre-kindergarten experiences, and investing in strategies to improve the early school years are all ways New Mexico can support the wellbeing of its youngest children. Though investing in early childhood is sound policy, accountability for early childhood investments is critical in this time of declining state resources and competing needs. Without solid data and accountability systems, it is challenging to know the reach and impact of state investments.

Reform Tax Code, Budget to Grow Economy

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Elections have consequences. And, while Republicans strengthened their standing nationwide, here in New Mexico, Democrats are ascendant with working majorities in both houses of the Legislature. Democrats are undoubtedly chomping at the bit to push through a whole range of policy initiatives, possibly via constitutional amendments which will circumvent Gov. Susana Martinez. But the most pressing issue is the budget situation and the economy as a whole and something needs to be done about it right away. While acknowledging the role of declining oil and gas prices, corporate tax cuts enacted in 2013 (and supported by vast majorities of Democrats) will be targeted.