From voter ID to taxes: County approves 2026 legislative priorities

Editor’s note: Not all priorities were shared due to space constraints. The county resolution on this item has all priorities and details.

BERNALILLO — Sandoval County has approved legislative priorities for next year.

With the exception of one objection, commissioners passed the priorities unanimously at their Nov. 12 meeting without any major problems to address.

The one objection came from commissioner Josh Jones, who had a problem with voter ID being a priority.

“Many of the residents in my district, within District 5, would be thoroughly disenfranchised and unnecessarily burdened,” he said.

Commissioner Jordan Juarez asked Jones to specify how those constituents would be “disenfranchised.”

Jones explained he knows of some constituents that have had difficulties getting birth certificates and other documents because of things like post office box addresses.

Juarez also asked Jones which government level is responsible for those difficulties but Jones couldn’t provide an answer.

The ID issue is listed as just one of the “improvements” to the voting system in the resolution. It also lists efficient removal of inactive voters, prohibiting the use of unsupervised ballot drop boxes and absentee ballot chain of custody.

One priority that stuck out was changes to the Inspection of Public Records Act.

“To exclude certain law enforcement records so as to not interfere with on-going investigations; removal of personal information in released documents; to provide that commercial and bulk requesters pay for their own research costs instead of placing them on the taxpayer, to discourage abusive and serial requests; to prevent attorneys from using IPRA as a substitute for discovery; to extend the timelines for responding to requests; and to allow fees to be charged for the cost of labor in responding to broad and burdensome requests,” the resolution stated, in part.

Other priorities include funding requests aimed at helping law enforcement, mental health and crisis intervention, including initiatives to enhance the availability of services for behavioral health and substance abuse.

The county also lists legislation providing for private public partnerships, funding to support medical costs associated with counties operating animal care shelters, and more.

Other priorities involve local elections as well. The county would like to see legislation that would permit school elections to be held at the same time as partisan elections. On the flip side, they would like to see the requirement for commissions to certify elections removed.

An interesting priority is legislation that allows all class A counties to eliminate the requirement that the county commission, every two years, conduct both a public hearing and a vote on the low-income tax credit.

For more information and other priorities visit the Nov. 12 agenda on sandovalcountynm.gov.