Your New Mexico Government

This is episode 13 of this year’s #YNMG, and it’s a wrap-up show. We hosted a reporters’ roundtable earlier this week on Facebook Live and put the video up on the KUNM and New Mexico In Focus Facebook pages, but we realize not everyone engages with Facebook so we’re giving you the audio here as a podcast episode.We recorded ten days after the session ended. The break gave us a chance to reflect on what lawmakers accomplished this year and to think about topics that we’re likely to see again through the year in special sessions, interim committee meetings, and even in the 2023 legislative session.

The session ended about a week ago. Now that we’ve had some time to catch our breath, take a nap, and really assess what was accomplished, we’re going to do a live wrap-up show. And you’re invited to join us and to contribute comments or questions.On Monday, February 28th, join #YNMG for a Facebook Live event where we’ll ask journalists who spent the last month focused on the lawmaking process what they saw, what surprised them, and which issues we’re likely to revisit either in a special session this year or in 2023.

On this #YNMG we’re dedicating the entire episode to one piece of legislation that is now on Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s desk waiting for her signature. House Bill 52 is an amendment to the Harm Reduction Act. Overdoses from Fentanyl are the top killer of young adults in New Mexico, but HB52 will give drug users a new tool that will make them a little safer – fentanyl test strips.

Though it may not always be front of mind for many of us anymore, we are still living in a pandemic where many people are still getting sick, being hospitalized, and sometimes dying. That has put an incredible strain on our healthcare and public health systems - and the people who work in those fields. Today on #YNMG we discuss the many nursing and public health bills still in front of lawmakers with only about a day left before this session’s end.

There are only a few days left in this 30-day legislative session and it’s starting to feel like a lot is getting done. We are close to a final budget, education and voting bills are moving forward and there has been a lot of movement on anti-crime bills. Crime is up nationwide and we are certainly feeling it in New Mexico. Today on #YNMG we’ll take a look at some of the criminal justice measures considered by the legislature that have broad goals like easing sentencing on minors and increasing penalties for gun crimes, to name just a couple.

Our state is home to quite a few under-served and underrepresented communities, like our 23 Indigenous tribes and our sizable immigrant communities. Their neighborhoods tend to not get the resources they need to keep up with infrastructure, or to fund the public services most of us take for granted. Perhaps the most basic need is the ability to communicate what our needs are. Today on #YNMG we’ll talk about language access. New Mexico does an OK job with Spanish speakers, but that leaves out so many people who need help and can’t overcome the communication barriers that keep them from aid.

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has been selling a plan for the last several months to make New Mexico into a hydrogen energy hub. Her idea is that we can transform our economy, based primarily on natural resource extraction, into one that is more renewable – but there is some controversy. On this #YNMG we’ll get into some details of how to make energy from hydrogen and why it may not be environmentally friendly. We’ll also talk about some of the hydrogen bills that have been in front of the legislature this year, whether the legislation is in fact dead for now, and where it might go from here. Then, we’ll touch on some of the other energy and environmental bills that have been introduced this session.

We have ten days left in this legislative session. This is the point where everything starts moving very quickly - almost frantically - so lawmakers can get to all of the bills they care about before time runs out. On today's #YNMG we’re going to focus on House Bill 132, a bill that would limit interest rates on storefront loans - you know, the kinds of loans given in strip malls that sometimes require a car title as collateral. They’re problematic for the way they tend to cluster in less affluent parts of town and for the exceptionally high interest rates that often keep borrowers trapped in a cycle of debt that’s difficult to escape.

This week we felt the action at the Roundhouse pick up speed, and there were some shake-ups that threw journalists and the public off balance. So #YNMG is taking the opportunity to focus on access and transparency. Monday, was supposed to have a hearing for Senate Bill 8, but that got pushed to Wednesday, then extended to Friday. There was another Senate bill aimed at making sure farmworkers would get some extra pay this year. That passed through a committee without the public getting a chance to look it over first. And, away from the legislature, the state’s Department of Health has been making changes over the last couple weeks to how it engages with journalists and the public in the weekly COVID-19 updates.

Amid a national conversation about voting rights, we’ve seen efforts to restrict access to the ballot in other states and two federal voting rights bills stalled in the United States Congress. On this episode of #YNMG we'll cover New Mexico's Senate Bill 8, the New Mexico Voting Rights Act, which has the backing of Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. It's aimed at expanding voting access by making it easier to vote and even allowing new classes of people a chance to cast ballots.