El Rito Media News Services
With less than two weeks left in the 60-day legislative session, House Republicans sounded the alarm Monday on what they characterized as Democrats’ inaction on crimefighting bills and other legislation New Mexicans have been demanding.
“It’s really unfortunate that we’re asking you to be with us here today when we’re 48 days into a legislative session,” Rep. Rebecca Dow, R-Truth or Consequences, told a group of reporters at a news conference hosted by the House GOP caucus.
“We have 12 days left to deliver on the promises we made to New Mexico citizens,” she said. “These are promises that the House and Senate Democrat Party said they would deliver on. Citizens demanded us to take action on crime, on health care and on affordability, yet here we are, 12 days left in the session, and very little effective policies have been passed.”
House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, said he respectfully disagreed. He pointed to multiple bills the House has passed to improve affordability and health care in New Mexico, both in the current session and in the past.
“I think we’ve done a lot, and we will continue to do more,” he said. “We have a big tax bill coming that should be on the floor of the House over the next few days that will essentially eliminate personal income tax for middle-income families [who earn] roughly $60,000, $65,000 and below — no income tax through the expansion of credits. That’s huge.”
‘Reforming CYFD’
More than anything, House Republicans focused on crime, including the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee’s vote last week to table House Bill 134 to implement harsher penalties for juvenile offenders.
“Juvenile crime has to be attacked through different strategies,” Martínez said. “One of them is reforming [the state Children, Youth and Families Department]. Kids committing crimes are in households and families that are broken, that are struggling. Where is CYFD to intervene before the child becomes a criminal or that child commits a crime?”
Martínez noted the House unanimously approved three CYFD reform bills, though it’s unclear whether Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will veto the bills if they pass the Senate.
“The notion that there’s been inactivity on that front is baseless,” Martínez said. “Now, there might be a difference of opinion. The other side may want to just lock kids up and throw away the key, and that’s fair. That’s for them to decide. But our caucus will continue to be thoughtful to ensure that every kid in every community is protected and kept safe.”
In an interview with The New Mexican last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said he wasn’t seeing enough movement on the crimefighting front.
“I don’t know why we’re inviting more victims as a result of not doing right in the public safety area,” she said. “I don’t understand it.”
Dow asserted Republicans came to Santa Fe with “real solutions.”
“Progressives have blocked us at every turn,” she said, adding many GOP-sponsored bills haven’t received a committee hearing.
“We do not want to leave here with our health care continuing to be in shambles. We do not want crime and criminals to have free reign in our streets, and we have to address the affordability,” she said.
Dow blasted the administration of former President Joe Biden, a Democrat, saying, “four years of bad leadership at the federal level” has caused skyrocketing prices.
“Yet,” she said, “the Democrats are falling short.”
‘Homicide scholarship’?
Rep. Nicole Chavez, R-Albuquerque, whose teen son was killed in a drive-by shooting in Albuquerque in 2015, said the Legislature “can’t afford to make any more excuses, not just with health care but especially for crime.”
“It’s unfortunate that we’re still standing here today waiting for actions to take place when it involves juvenile crime,” she said.
“We have to do something about juvenile crime,” she said. “New Mexicans have been demanding change.”
Rep. Andrea Reeb, R-Clovis, sponsor of HB 134, said the Legislature keeps “kicking this crime problem down the road.”
“As you heard, I believe it was Saturday, we now have what we’re calling the ‘homicide scholarship,’ “ she said, referring to House Bill 255.
“We’re actually rewarding delinquent offenders, violent delinquent offenders, by giving them $2,000 a month for utilities and housing and free school,” said Reeb, a former prosecutor.
“It’s ridiculous,” she added. “I mean, we are encouraging, actually, people to be delinquent offenders and serious violent offenders.”
Reeb said she “prefiled” HB 134, or filed it ahead of the start of the session, to give it the “best chance” of passing out of its committee assignments. She said she doesn’t have “much hope” the committee that tabled the bill will revive it before the end of the session.
Reeb said the bill was aimed at the “worst of the worst,” and there was a mistaken belief it would “take away all the rehabilitative processes for them.”
“The bill addressed the ones that are killing people, that are robbing people, that are raping people,” she said. “It blows my mind that the Democrats don’t see that these offenders need to be treated differently and instead of coddling these kids, we need to actually hold them accountable.”
Martínez said the House passed HB 255, which he said holds juvenile offenders accountable by ensuring the clock on their sentencing no longer stops when they abscond from probation, among other provisions.
“But it also ensures that they’re getting the services that they need,” he said. “They’re not being provided with an education. I’ve heard in some cases they’re not even provided with a fresh change of underwear, and these are children. What makes us think that they’re being provided with the actual behavioral health and restorative and rehabilitative programs that they need to get better?”
Stopping ‘bad bills’
Chavez noted a public safety package has already been signed into law by the governor, but she said lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agreed it was just a start to tackling crime in New Mexico.
“Now, nothing’s been done, so was that all talk or are we ready to work on real solutions?” she asked.
Although other public safety legislation is under consideration, Reeb and other Republicans said the GOP is willing to work with Democrats on doing more.
“It’s so frustrating, and it makes me so angry that we are still here [with] 12 days left and nothing significant has passed that is going to keep our New Mexicans safer,” she said.
Asked whether Republicans’ strategy is to stop Democratic bills from advancing, Minority Leader Gail Armstrong, R-Magdalena, said the strategy is to stop “bad bills” from moving forward. She said time is the only tool Republicans have on their side because they’re in the minority. The House has a three-hour time limit on floor debates, and Republicans have been taking up the full three hours of late.
“We stand here as a team ready to bring solutions, ready to fight against so-called solutions that we don’t agree with and protecting New Mexican citizens as much as we possibly can,” Armstrong said.
