SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - The New Mexico Legislature adjourned noon on Saturday by law, closing this year’s 60-day legislative session and leaving unfinished projects until next year.
The arrival of Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to succeed a two-term Republican unleashed a torrent of bills aimed at improving public education, modernizing infrastructure and reforming criminal justice.
Democrats and Republicans clashed on approaches to gun control, abortion, wildlife, climate change and managing the state economy.
The governor will have until April 5 to act on approved bills. The following is a glance at major initiatives and their fates as time ran out.
STATE SPENDING
Democratic legislators have seized on forecasts for billion-dollar budget surpluses this year and next to launch an ambitious overhaul of New Mexico’s troubled public education system and pay for infrastructure improvements.
General fund spending for the coming fiscal year would jump by $700 million - mostly for education - to $7 billion. Infrastructure spending spread across three bills would exceed $1.3 billion in a stimulus package reminiscent of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Pay increases of 6 percent are slated for school staff and at least 4 percent for all state workers.
A 15 percent raise is in store for many statewide elected officials, starting with those who take office in 2020, under another bill passed by lawmakers.
EDUCATION
One sweeping educational reforms bill would boost spending to at-risk students by more than $100 million, extend the school year or teacher training by 10 days at schools statewide and offer most elementary schools the opportunity to add five weeks to the school year. Minimum teacher pay would rise by as much as 12 percent.
Legislators endorsed bills to determine what services for Native American students are needed to close any gaps in academic performance.
TAXES
A bill that would raise taxes and offer a larger family tax credit was approved amid last-minute negotiations with House and Senate Democrats.
The initiative would raise income tax rates on high-income earners unless the state experiences a new surge in other sources of income. An increased tax credit for families with children would offset a tax hike on those households as a result of 2017 federal reforms.
Taxes would increase on auto, cigarette and internet sales.
ELECTIONS
Election-related measures that cleared the Legislature include a Democrat-backed bill for same-day voter registration. New Mexico would join a compact with other states to elect the U.S. president according to the national popular vote, though more allied states still are needed.
HEALTH
Several successful bills would write Affordable Care Act consumer protections into law to ensure insurance coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and provide contraceptive coverage at no cost over premiums.
E-cigarettes were added to the state’s clean indoor air act, limiting where they can be consumed in public.
LABOR
The House and Senate agreed to the state’s first hourly minimum wage increase in a decade - a gradual rise from $7.50 to $9 next year and $12 by 2023. Lujan Grisham campaigned on the $12 minimum wage. The Legislature moved to overrule local governments that enacted right-to-work ordinances that interfere with union fees and membership.
DRUG POLICY
A bipartisan proposal to legalize recreational marijuana that would have created the nation’s first state-operated pots shops won House approval by a narrow 36-34 vote before stalling in the Senate without a floor hearing. The debate redrew the political battle on marijuana along largely generational lines.
Lawmakers instead approved a Democrat-sponsored bill to decriminalize possession of drug paraphernalia and marijuana in quantities of a half-ounce (14 grams) or less. Violations would trigger civil fines akin to traffic citations. A bid to reduce a variety of drug possession offenses from felonies to misdemeanors fell flat.
Prescriptions for opioids beyond four days would be accompanied by an overdose antidote drug and a written warning about the potential for addiction, under another successful bill. Lawmakers endorsed greater immunity for people who may implicate themselves in crimes by seeking overdose treatment for themselves or others.
GREEN NEW DEAL
An ambitious proposal to decommission a major coal-fired power plant, the San Juan Generating Station, and ramp up the production of renewable electricity won legislative approval.
The bill sets aggressive new quotas for renewable energy production, going so far as to require publicly regulated utilities to produce all of their electricity from carbon-free sources by 2045.
Another bill aims to create profit incentives for electrical utilities to pursue conservation and energy efficiency by breaking the link between utility sales and profits.
On the environmental protection front, New Mexico oilfield regulators would recover authority to directly levy civil fines against well operators who fail to properly maintain equipment or spill waste.
GUN CONTROL
Lujan Grisham has signed legislation to expand background checks to private, person-to-person gun sales. That legislation from Sen. Richard Martinez, a former magistrate, exempts transactions between relatives and doesn’t apply when people share weapons at shooting clubs or while hunting.
The Legislature approved another bill designed to ensure that firearms are relinquished by people who have been ordered to stay away from domestic violence victims. Teachers would not be able to carry firearms at schools under a bill that sets gun protocols for contract security employees and campus police.
A bill died that would have made it easier to take guns away from people who may be suicidal or bent on violence.
MORE GOVERNMENT
Lujan Grisham has signed a bill to create a new agency devoted to early childhood education. She plans to sign a bill that creates an outdoor recreation division modeled after Colorado’s.
An initiative faltered that would convert the nation’s only unsalaried Legislature into a professional workforce.
The state will establish an independent state ethics commission for complaints about the conduct of public officials under a bill approved Friday by the House and Senate.
CRIME
Lawmakers have passed several bills to reform the state’s criminal justice system with measures aimed at improving ex-convicts’ chances at obtaining employment, treatment and other services - all of which sponsors argue will make them more productive members of society. Under one measure, private employers would be prohibited from asking on initial job applications about people’s criminal histories, although prior arrests or convictions could be discussed later in the hiring process. Public agencies already cannot ask about a person’s criminal record on applications.
Other proposals would bring vast changes to the state’s probation and parole system. An “expungement” bill would allow people to have certain arrests or convictions removed from their records - with a judge’s approval after a certain period of time passes and depending on the crime.
SOCIAL ISSUES
A bill to legalize medically assisted suicide failed, and the Senate voted down a proposal to remove the state’s dormant ban on abortion.
The Legislature sent a bill to the governor that would ban contests to see who can shoot and kill the most coyotes.
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