Governor signs loan, body camera bills into law

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed two bills into law last week that offers low-interest loans for businesses affected by COVID-19 and requiring all police officers to wear body cameras.

The bills had advanced through a June special session of the New Mexico Legislature.

The Small Business Recovery Act of 2020 allocates $400 million from the state’s Severance Tax Permanent Fund for loans to businesses and nonprofit groups and $50 million in loans to small governments affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Eligible businesses and nonprofits may borrow two times their average monthly expenses up to a maximum of $75,000. The measure sets the interest rate at one-half the prime rate the day the loan is made. The initial loan period is three years.

The loan program is limited to businesses and nonprofits with 2019 annual gross revenue of less than $5 million and whose April or May income dropped 30% or more compared to the same month in 2019.

For a local government to be eligible, it must have experienced at least a 10% decline in operating revenue in fiscal year 2020 due to the economic effects of the pandemic.

The New Mexico Finance Authority will administer the program.

The legislation also freezes employer contribution rates to the unemployment compensation trust fund through Dec. 31, 2021, stopping expected increases that would have taken effect next year.

The legislation passed the Senate 26-11 and the House 59-5.

The body-camera requirement applies to city police, sheriff’s agencies and state police. Such agencies must keep body-camera footage for 120 days. Officers who interfere with the devices or flout the requirement to wear them could face penalties for withholding evidence.

Tucumcari and Logan police and Quay County sheriff’s deputies already wear body cameras.

The same bill requires the Law Enforcement Academy Board to permanently revoke the certification of any officer found guilty or pleads no contest to a crime involving unlawful use or threatened use of force in the line of duty, or if he or she failed to intervene in a police action involving unlawful use of force.

The items were contained in Senate Bill 8, which passed the Senate 31-11 and the House 44-26.