New Mexico Senate approves 8% spending increase

SANTA FE - New Mexico’s Democrat-led Legislature is haggling over annual spending priorities while racing to lock in significant policy initiatives on public safety, education funding, tobacco regulation, and incentives for infrastructure investments, as a 30-day annual legislative session winds down.

The state Senate on Wednesday approved a $7.6 billion budget plan that would increase general fund spending by nearly 8% for the fiscal year starting July 1. It passed on a 35-7 vote.

The budget plan hikes spending on public schools by $216 million and increases salaries for most teachers and state employees by 4%. A surge in oil production has provided an $800 million increase in state general fund income.

The Senate-approved budget bill requires approval from the House, where negotiators have bristled over delays and revisions to funding for Native American school districts. Rejection by the House would prompt the appointment of a conference committee to negotiate a compromise.

The Legislature has until noon Thursday to send an approved budget to Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who can veto any portion of the bill. The governor is pursuing “cradle-to-career” investments in public education with the creation of a $320 million endowment for early childhood education and a pitch for tuition-free public college educations for in-state students.

Senate budget revisions allocate an initial $17 million toward Lujan Grisham’s proposal to provide tuition-free public college, starting in the fall with in-state students who pursue a two-year certificate and associate degrees.

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Lead Senate budget negotiator John Arthur Smith, a Democrat from Deming, lined up funding to boost existing lottery-based scholarships to cover more than 80% of tuition for four-year college students in the fall. Lujan Grisham wants the state to provide tuition-free four-year educations starting in 2021.

The session marks a second consecutive year of unified Democratic control of the governor’s office and both chambers in the Legislature. A sweeping overhaul of the state’s collective bargaining laws was approved Wednesday by the Legislature that could reduce delays on petitions to unionize workplaces.

On public safety, the Legislature has approved a law that can compel people considered dangerous to surrender guns temporarily. A Senate vote was still pending on a counter-terrorism bill that would give authorities new tools to investigate and sanction credible threats or acts of mass violence. Increased penalties for firearms were in limbo Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the House voted 51-19 to reinstate a solar tax credit. The bill now heads to the governor, who has said she will sign it. The measure provides a 10% tax credit toward the purchase of a solar energy system for homes and businesses with a $6,000 annual cap per taxpayer.

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The state Senate unanimously approved a bill that combines penalty enhancements for felonies involving firearms with helping emergency first-responders cope with job stress and funding local law enforcement to pursue community policing strategies.

The House also was scheduled Wednesday to vote on a measure that would reverse requirements that police destroy seized electronic evidence obtained through a search warrant when the evidence wasn’t targeted by the investigation.

A bill is awaiting the governor’s signature that would license vaping shops and other retail tobacco stores to enforce a new nationwide prohibition on selling tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and vaping cartridges, to youths under 21. Legislators also approved a bill allowing the state to pursue potential imports of prescription drugs from Canada on a wholesale basis in search of savings.

In efforts to wean the transportation sector of gasoline and diesel engines, the Senate on Tuesday endorsed a tax credit of up to $5,000 toward the purchase of plug-in electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

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Other pending bills with support from the governor are aimed at spurring new investments and consumer spending on neighborhood-level electrical grid improvements and would defer some local taxes to encourage construction of industrial-scale utility lines that can open up new terrain to solar and wind development.

Follow Morgan Lee on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MLeeAP and Russell Contreras at http://twitter.com/russcontreras