Legislators look back at 2024 session: Josh Hernandez

Representative Josh Hernandez had a good session according to him. In one word, he described the session as ambitious.

“At the end of the day, I think a good session is one where neither side of the aisle leaves completely happy. It means we did our job right and the people of New Mexico were represented in a fair way. But there’s still a lot of things that we need to work on,” he said.

He added the important parts of the session were taken care of.

“30 day sessions are always a different beast than a 60 day session. There were a lot of people, myself included, who tried to get a lot of things done,” he continued.

His two focusses this session were on charter schools and a tax package.

The Charter school bill would have required the chartering authority to provide an oversight and expenditure plan for the money retained from a charter school’s state equalization guarantee distribution.

The tax package would have extended the sunset for the angel investment tax credit.

“We have several hundred startups here in New Mexico that take advantage of that. In the past we have tried to make changes to it, to grow it and be able to bring outside money. This did not do that, but this extends the sunset on it, if we wouldn’t have done it the angel investment tax credit would have ceased to exist at the end of the year,” he said.

Hernandez says he was disappointed there wasn’t more focus on crime this session. He and Representative Alan Martinez did cosponsor funding for domestic violence training for Sandoval County. The domestic violence funding did pass so the $160,000 will pay for advanced training for law enforcement, court personnel, and tribal agencies. The funding will be available July 1 if its not vetoed.

“Constituents made very little progress in that,” Hernandez said.

He added that addiction is a “big thing” that should be focused on.

“There were some goals this year to figure out how we can put funding towards that. Get Medicaid match towards that,” he said.

Another bill he was disappointed in was the penalty increase for felons in possession of firearms bill.

“A friend of mine, her son was murdered by someone who was out on pre-trial release for another serious crime,” he said.

He added that the “catch and release”, especially in Sandoval County, is “appalling”.

“If someone commits a serious crime and violent crimes, we need to keep them in custody while they await trial. It’s a public safety issue,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez disagreed with the Paid Family Medical Leave Act saying it would be detrimental to businesses.

“I think the more and more regulations that we put on them and the more that we require them to pay out, it’s going to continue to hurt our economy and it’s going to put a strain on these businesses, that business especially in this recovery phase can only handle so much,” he added.

For Hernandez, COVID is still impacting the business community to this day.

“It’s easier said than done but we need to figure out the middle area of what’s best for employees and what’s best for the business. We need to make it so that business can thrive and employees can thrive,” he said.