Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Revenue spike has lawmakers optimistic

Local state legislators will join others from across New Mexico at the state capitol on Tuesday, with 30 days of mostly budget-related lawmaking and assurances state tax revenues will be high due to increased oil and gas severance tax revenues and continued federal COVID-19 relief.

According to a report from the Legislative Finance Committee, a Legislature committee that meets between sessions, recurring revenues for fiscal year 2023, which began on July 1, are estimated at $9 billion, about $1.6 billion, or 21.5% higher than recurring revenues for fiscal 2022, which ended June 30.

State Sen. Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, said that after several lean years, state coffers contain “more than we've ever had.”

That will mean pay raises for public employees, including teachers, he said, but he struck a note of caution.

With the raises, he said, will come increases in retirement benefits that future budgets will have to accommodate.

While there is substantially more money available to spend this year than in previous years, Ingle said, “we have to make sure we keep reserves and state permanent funds strong.”

Capital outlays, he said, should be allocated to projects where the money will be used within a year. In the recent past, he said, some of the capital outlay allocated has not been used within two years.

He said, however, he would advocate for road repairs in Clovis and on the campus of Eastern New Mexico University in Portales - primarily Avenue K and University Drive.

State Rep. Martin Zamora, R-Clovis, said he was encouraged that Democrats have presented bills that “will make criminals be responsible for their crimes.”

Democrat-proposed bills would make it harder to grant bail to persons accused of murder, gun crimes, rape or other sex crimes, and increase penalties for second-degree murder, gun crimes and fleeing law enforcement.

Zamora said he will again introduce a bill to place more weather stations in rural areas of the state. He introduced weather station bills in the 2021 Legislature, but they did not get to a final vote.

Zamora also said he will sponsor a “memorial” to ask U.S. Congressional representatives to “look at New Mexico a little differently because we are so arid.”

The state needs agricultural policies that will help conserve water, he said.

State Sen. Pat Woods is eyeing enhancements in public education as the best place for the state's apparent windfall of new tax money.

Teacher salary raises of about 7%, he said, would help the state retain teachers at a time when the state is noting shortages of educators, but he said he is considering some new “outside the box” ways to increase the state's teacher ranks.

One would be partnerships between four-year colleges and two-year community colleges that would allow students to earn four-year degrees, particularly in education, through community colleges without having to leave their communities.

Another would be to offer full scholarships, tuition and books, for students who seek education degrees and agree to spend a minimum number of years teaching in New Mexico.

Another alternative would be education programs that allow students to work in education while they attain education degrees. Such programs, Woods said, could give substitute teachers incentives to go into full-time teaching.

With New Mexico graduating only 70% of its high school students and only 20% of graduates going on to college, he said, the state should consider more generous scholarship programs and more opportunities to make college free of charge.

New Mexico colleges are seeing declining enrollment, he said, and the average age of college students has risen to the mid-20s.

Aside from education, Woods said he will sponsor legislation that would further programs to plant drought-resistant trees compatible with climate conditions in deforested areas of the state.

The idea would be to correct deforestation using more trees more likely to do well in adverse conditions.

Only one legislator representing Curry or Roosevelt county has pre-filed legislation before the beginning of the session.

District 66 Rep. Phelps Anderson of Roswell, who declines to state his party affiliation, is a cosponsor with Rep. George Munoz, D-Gallup, of a bill that would change the make-up of the state's Public Employee Retirement Association's board.

Anderson is the sole sponsor of another bill that would set conditions under which a retired public employee could return to the public payroll.

Attempts to reach Anderson, state representatives Jack Chatfield and Randal Crowder were unsuccessful late last week.

In a news release Friday, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham stated her priorities center on “investing in policies and programs that will benefit students, workers, families, businesses and communities large and small across the state.”

Specifically, the governor is seeking legislation in education, criminal justice reform, economic development, the environment, and health, well-being and quality of life

Under education, the governor is seeking raises for educators and expanded opportunities for free college education for New Mexico students.

In criminal justice, the governor is hoping the Legislature will create a fund to hire and train more public safety officers, keep violent criminals off the streets, and increase penalties for violent crimes.

To enhance economic development, the governor is proposing cuts in gross receipts taxes for all New Mexicans, expand the Buy New Mexico Initiative that encourages governments in the state to give preference to New Mexico contractors in purchasing goods and services, establish the state as the hub of a hydrogen energy industry, establish a state media academy to help students enter the film and media industry, and expand job training and economic development programs.

The governor is also seeking environmental legislation that would create a $50 million Land of Enchantment Bond to fund environmental programs, reach net-zero emissions by 2050, and set a clean fuel standard for transportation to reduce vehicular carbon emissions.