Fewer blighted areas expected, but not a special session

RIO RANCHO – Two veteran lobbyists provided updates on the recently concluded 30-day legislative session Thursday morning at the monthly NAIOP Rio Rancho Roundtable at Presbyterian Rust Medical Center.

Seventy-two bills were passed by the legislature, lobbyist Marla Shoats began, with 70 signed and two vetoed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

“It was actually kind of a slow session,” she said. “The main focus was the budget … two-thirds of the session was dominated by money issues.”

The $10.2 billion budget, said Shoats, amounted to a 6.5% increase over the previous year. “It included $1.25 billion in non-recurring and supplemental appropriations; in addition, $150 million from the General Fund for major infrastructure. … Again, there was a lot of money on Capital Outlay.”

The state needs to use surpluses “in ways that are going to become more self-sustaining; they are non-recurring funds, so you have to be careful where you use them,” she explained, and not “investing necessarily in programs that need to be taken away.

“They kind of rebranded House Bill 2, those surplus monies, into ‘grow money.’ Each legislator got a certain amount; senators have $200,000 that they were allowed to allocate … per project. … And the goal is to try and make these into self-sustaining pilot projects that incentivize different areas of growth in New Mexico.”

Horan said that’s a good idea because cities and counties can try to turn blighted areas into new commercial and residential development, “good for cities,” because it ultimately improves their influx of gross receipts taxes. He touted Rio Rancho Rep. Josh Hernandez for doing work behind the scenes on that boost for economic development.

“Our city and county government are really good about spending money,” Hernandez added, hoping entities in the metro area can work jointly on some new projects.

Shoats and Horan agreed that there wasn’t any compromise in three potential controversial family leave bills, deemed “too broad,” and defining who would qualify to take care of somebody, “whether it was a neighbor … or was it a family member?

“It failed by one or two votes in the House,” she added. “That bill will be back up again, so we’ll see it again. The business community will coalesce, and really encourage the business community to continue to do that — your voices matter. It’s a prime example of your advocacy and your willingness to go up there and let them know how this will impact your businesses really did have a strong effect.”

“A form of it will be back,” Horan agreed. “We’re gonna see it again and again.”

Horan, acknowledging he’s been an opponent of Shoats at times, said, “We always see less in a 30-day (session),” which is limited to revenue matters, appropriations, messages from the governor and bills previously vetoed.

“We know that oil is a cyclical revenue stream,” he said. “I think (in) this new budget, they’re anticipating at least over 30% in revenue ($3.5 billion from oil and gas), so we have these big swings. The challenge is you have a whole bunch of legislators who’ve come in over the past couple of years who’ve never been through any of those swings.

“So, if they think $3.5 billion is new money … they’ve never been at the point where we’ve had to cut education; we’ve had to cut Medicaid; we’ve had to cut higher ed,” he said.

More new legislators are to be expected.

“All 112 legislators are up for re-election, so just to point out in the Senate, we know for sure 11 aren’t coming back — so you’re at 25% of the (40-member) Senate not coming back,” Horan explained. “The House isn’t quite as big a swing this year. There are 70 members of the House; eight members are not coming back for sure — I think five of those members are running for the Senate, so there’s going to be a lot of significant change and turnover come November, so we’re going to have a whole slew of new legislators who are also going to think, ‘Hey, we may be dealing with this revenue going forward,’ and making it a habit.

That said, “How do we diversify the economy so we’re not so dependent upon oil & gas? How do we bring in new businesses? How do we improve our budgets, so those swings don’t hurt us that bad?” Horan said. “So, that’s what those legislators have to deal with.”

What about a special session, which Lujan Grisham was said to be considering, Horan was asked.

Don’t expect one, he said.

“As soon as the proclamation (for a special session) is issued, they can no longer take contributions — until the end of the special session,” he said. “So, since they’re in an election cycle, they don’t like the blackout period because they’re all running, so they’re not gonna necessarily want to come back. In a 30-day session, right before an election, that’s on all of their minds.”