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Crunchtime gets close for Gov. Richardson's bills

By Kate Nash
Tuesday, March 6, 2007

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SANTA FE — The Legislature wraps up work in 11 days. So how much of building a budget, cutting taxes, raising the minimum wage and banning cockfighting is done? Not as much as Gov. Bill Richardson would like.

Committee hearings are hopping at the Roundhouse and halls are bustling, but as of Monday, Richardson had signed just four bills - only two of which were part of a package he wanted done at the 60-day session's halfway point.

A compromise remains to be made on a minimum wage bill.

A $5.7 billion budget has yet to reach his desk.

Some Senate leaders are questioning a $250 million road construction package the governor has asked for two years in a row.

Ethics reform is stuck in the Senate.

And the running-for-president Richardson is starting to get itchy.

"I'm a little concerned because we've only got a few days to go," he said at a renewable-energy bill-signing ceremony Monday.

"I'm urging very quick action on the ethics package, predatory lending. I want that cockfighting bill, I want medical marijuana."

The last two bills, which would ban cockfighting in the state and allow chronically ill patients to use marijuana for medical purposes, have seen progress. Both were approved by Senate and House committees early in the session. But they have been languishing on the House calendar for about a week.

By law, the session ends at noon on March 17.

House Speaker Ben Lujan, a Democrat from Nambé, said he's waiting for the Senate to move some House bills before the House will move some Senate bills - an annual spat between the two chambers.

"We move bills pretty fast over here. We're hoping we can get the same action on the other side," Lujan said Monday.

The speaker said 183 House bills await action in the Senate Rules Committee alone.

While medical patients and animal rights advocates wait on the bills on the House calendar, Richardson is waiting for an increase in the state's minimum wage.

Richardson, who has trumpeted that increase on the campaign trail, said he wants action in the next few days. Time ran out last year before an increase could be approved.

The House last week passed a wage hike that started in the Senate, but amended it to rise with inflation. A conference committee is set to work on a compromise.

"This is enough dilly-dallying over whether should it be a House or Senate bill, whether it should have indexing or pre-emptions," the governor said.

The measure approved by the House would automatically adjust each year. The increase to $7.50 an hour also would allow local governments to approve their own wage.

So which of those elements does Richardson want?

"I want a bill passed," he said. "These technicalities are of little concern. I want a strong bill passed and we're going to get that done."

How soon is the question.

Some lawmakers are aiming to clear the decks this week with big bills like the budget and capital outlay.

"Optimistically, if we could get it (the capital outlay bill) up to the governor this week, next week could be a pretty smooth week," said Senate Minority Whip Leonard Lee Rawson, a Las Cruces Republican.

"Then we're just focusing on non-budget issues," he said. "That would make next week a whole lot smoother, relieve a lot of tension and we'd get a lot accomplished."

Already, the House and Senate have passed about 500 bills, Rawson said, though some are duplicates - proposals that are introduced in both the House and Senate.

That's a trend that would be reduced under a measure by Rep. Henry "Kiki" Saavedra, an Albuquerque Democrat.

His bill would mean measures proposed by government agencies or bills crafted by interim committees could only be introduced in one chamber.

Already, House Majority Leader Ken Martinez is a fan.

"We're hearing 40 bills a day over here on the floor and it still feels like we're behind the clock. But I think that's more of a function of the amount of bills that are introduced," said Martinez, a Grants Democrat.

"There's just too much. If we're going to stay in 60 and 30 days, we have to figure out a way to streamline the process."

The 112-person Legislature alternates 30- and 60-day sessions each year.

Lujan, too, is a fan of reducing the number of bills introduced. He said duplicate bills cost $43 a page, because of all the copies that have to be made.

"It gets pretty expensive," he said.

Nixing duplicate bills, however, won't help measures move any faster when there is disagreement over policy.

On the roads issue, Rawson said it's possible the Senate will consider a smaller construction package than what Richardson wants.

"We might reduce it, but I think it's still poor policy. We need to step up to the plate to what we've obligated ourselves for," he said.

Richardson wants a $250 million package to pay for roads around the state, called GRIP II - Gov. Richardson's Investment Partnership. But Rawson said the state is $300 million short on GRIP I.

"We're beginning to bond too much and I'd rather see us pay as we go," Rawson said, noting the trend started under former Gov. Gary Johnson.

Not all is gridlocked at the Capitol, however.

Members of the House on Monday passed 22 tax-related measures.

The Senate Rules Committee passed one ethics reform bill, a measure to limit campaign contributions to $2,300 per cycle per contributor.

Still, work - and the calendar - loom.

"Now is crunchtime," Lujan said. "Now is the time bills start moving."