Some big wins, some losses in session

Last week ended with big New Mexico news, several times over.

The governor surprised the state by lifting the mask mandate. The speaker of the House announced he is voluntarily stepping down. And the 30-day legislative session ended with a mixed bag in the 11th hour of legislative wrangling at the Roundhouse.

All in an election year that is still stacked to favor of the Democratic Party of New Mexico.

In historic terms, you can’t call it an overly productive legislative session that adjourned last week. The Albuquerque Journal tallied up 64 bills and two proposed constitutional amendments passed, out of more than 500 filed — the lowest single regular-session output in at least a decade, The Journal’s Dan Boyd reported.

COVID must have contributed to that, as traditional politicking was inhibited by remote meetings and other limitations brought on by the continuing pandemic. And of course, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s lifting of the mask mandate didn’t help, since she waited until the last day of the session to do it. It’s curious timing, to say the least, in that it outshined the immediate post-session coverage, as if she wanted to tamp down the so-so results of this session.

And so-so it was for the governor’s agenda. She had some big wins: big raises for the state’s public school teachers and State Police officers; tax breaks in the form of a gross-receipts tax cut, cutting out the state tax on Social Security for nearly all the state’s recipients, and a state tax credit for children; an expansion of free college through the state’s Opportunity Scholarship program; and a record-breaking budget, made possible by strong-but-volatile oil-and-gas revenues and a federal spending spree making its way into state coffers.

Meanwhile, the governor’s crimefighting agenda got mixed results. Her push for tougher penalties for violent offenders failed, while recruitment and retention bonuses for law enforcement passed.

As for her failures, the two most obvious came in her election and environmental initiatives. Her voting rights bill fell to a Republican’s filibuster in Senate, and her push to impose clean fuel standards deadlocked in the House.

The governor will be judged on her successes and failures — and if you ask me, her legislative failures in this session might benefit rather than hurt her in the upcoming election.

The voter bill she lost was problematic in some of its details, while the new fuel standards would have been enormously unpopular in rural areas of the state. These were bills that would have pleased her Democratic Party base more than the general public, so the fact that they didn’t pass might actually help Lujan Grisham’s second term re-election chances.

Nevertheless, she could still call a special session in an attempt to muscle through such matters. Or maybe she’ll let them go dormant as she touts other accomplishments. Given the Republican Party of New Mexico’s weakened standing in the state, she’s clearly a frontrunner with history on her side (New Mexico voters generally give their governors a second term). So it’s hers to lose.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

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