Both Dan Boyd at the ABQJournal.com and Andrew Oxford at the SantaFeNewMexican.com have coverage of the House passing its version of the state budget and the next steps for the $7 billion budget plan that is headed to the Senate. There is a lot of stuff in that bill, it shold be interesting to see what makes it through “Dr. No” Senator John Arthur Smith who heads the Senate Finance Committee and eventually to the Governor on the fourth floor.

One bill that seems to be getting a lot of play in print and broadcast circles are two proposals to put New Mexico on either Daylight Savings Time or Standard Time.  Milan Simonich’s article “Legislators divided on what time it should be in New Mexico” provides a good overview, find it at santafenewmexican.com. The Albuquerque Journal’s Dan McKay also provides some insight on this topic over at the Albuquerque Journal.

There seem to be a few general themes of coverage in both papers.  One is on the driver and the other on the car.

First the driver – Check out Dan McKay’s story “Senate Oks Proposed changes to drivers license system.” It is on page A-4 of the Albuquerque Journal.

Now the car –on Page A-8 of the Santa Fe New Mexican, Daniel Chacon has an interesting take on HB231 that would require license plates on both the front and back of the vehicle in his story: Front-end plate bill advances.”

On the Education Beat… one focus is on the teacher and the other on the classroom…

Over at ABQJournal.com, Dan McKay has a story about some legislation that has bipartisan support in his story “Senate moves to revise teacher evaluations”

Dillon Mullan provides coverage on the Public Education Department’s  quest to comply with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act in his article School Rating System to be overhauled.  See the story on Page A-9 or online at SantaFeNewMexican.com

On the topic of Energy… 

The headline reads “Bill would allow oil field regulators to levy fines”… The Associated Press’ Morgan Lee shares some insight on a proposal to streamline a process to pursue sanctions for oilfield spills and other violations.  The legislation sponsored by Senator Richard Martinez of Espanola.  Kevin Robinson Avila also has a story on this topic over at ABQJournal.com … also of note, Speaker of the House Brian Egolf has a guest column in the Santa Fe Mew Mexican on the topic of renewable energy.

Staying  On the opinion pages, the Albuquerque Journal weighs in on minimum wage proposals in a piece titled “Senate’s minimum-wage plan makes sense, HB 31 doesn’t”  Meanwhile the Santa Fe New Mexican opines “A charter school moratorium makes sense”.

Finally, a preview for this evening’s New Mexico in Focus.  Gene Grant hosts Giovanna Rossi, former Representative Stephanie Maez, former House Minority Whip Dan Foley and yours truly.  We will be discussing

· Public Education Funding proposals in the legislature as they relate to the Yazzie/Martinez, case and impact aid… which, interestingly was, a focal point in the Zuni Lawsuit from many years ago.

· Also, we weigh in on the State’s decision to join a lawsuit over the Trump administration’s emergency declaration to build a border wall.

· And we discuss Governor MLG plans to reverse Medicaid charges to reduce barriers to healthcare.  

That’s a wrap on stories related to the Legislative session on this Friday, February 22nd. We will check back in on Monday to catch up with the blogs and weekend happenings… Links to the news sources are in the show notes, this is Tom Garrity have a great weekend.

https://www.abqjournal.com

http://www.santafenewmexican.com

https://joemonahansnewmexico.blogspot.com

https://nmindepth.com

https://SFReporter.com