By Matthew Reichbach
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham vetoed 16 bills on Friday, the deadline for making decisions on legislation passed during the final days of this year’s legislative session, and used her veto messages to express her frustration with the legislature.
She also signed three major bills on the final day, with line-item vetoes: The state budget, a bill to fund capital outlay bills and a bill for capital outlay reauthorizations. The governor has line-item veto authority on any legislation that contains an appropriation.
“These appropriations bills represent significant investments in New Mexico’s future, from education and healthcare to critical infrastructure,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement Friday. “The targeted line-item vetoes were necessary to maintain fiscal responsibility while ensuring that we fund our highest-priority projects and initiatives.”
But the vetoes were a fitting cap to a legislative session that featured harsh back-and-forth from the governor and legislature over a number of efforts, primarily on public safety legislation. The governor repeatedly slammed the legislature for, in her eyes, not doing enough to pass public safety bills. This extended into the veto messages she issued Friday.
Tax omnibus
The most significant veto was HB 14, a tax omnibus bill passed in March during the last gasp of the legislative session. She slammed the way the bill passed, saying she vetoed the bill “because New Mexicans deserve thoughtful, forward-looking policy—not last-minute dealmaking that delays relief, ignores economic opportunity, and undermines fiscal responsibility.”
She said she supported certain portions of the bill, such as the liquor excise tax increase, GRT reductions for doctors and “meaningful relief for low- and middle-income families.” But, she said, “the vast majority of the changes do not even take effect for two years.” Because of this, she said the legislature could do better in a future session.
She noted that the state budget included 30% in reserves and that this year, the state had $3 billion in one-time money.
“That is not prudence—it’s paralysis,” she wrote.
The Legislature has prioritized a conservative amount of budget reserves in recent years to avoid the need to make cuts during an economic downturn, which has happened a number of times over the last few decades.
The debate over differences between the House and Senate versions of the tax omnibus bill extended into the final hours of the session. A conference committee of House and Senate members came to an agreement that included a tax credit for foster parents and guardians caring for children, an Earned Income Tax Credit for lower-income residents and more. Tax credits for newspaper printers, quantum facilities and a 0.28% tax on oil ended up on the cutting room floor.
Ultimately, all of them ended up not becoming law because of the governor’s veto pen.
Lujan Grisham vetoed a separate bill to enable veterans to claim a property tax exemption, which she said actually made things more difficult for veterans “by changing the current one-year window to apply to a mere 30 days.”
Governor expresses frustration with legislative priorities
In vetoing three less-consequential bills, Lujan Grisham said the legislature passed them even as more important legislation languished.
One would have designated tortilla as New Mexico’s state bread, the other two would have created new state license plates (one for declaring New Mexico the low-rider capital of the world and another to support New Mexico United, the professional soccer team based in Albuquerque).
She cited the failure to pass legislation to regulate synthetic cannabinoidsand legislation she said would help build more housing in the state. She also invoked the mass shooting in Las Cruces the night before the end of the legislative session, saying it “went unacknowledged by House leadership.”
“The question should not be how many more symbols we can collect—but whether we are meeting the moment with the gravity it demands,” she wrote. “We are living in perilous and unprecedented times. The stakes for our State have never been higher. We need a Legislature that rises to the occasion and focuses on the work that truly matters to the people of New Mexico.”
Monday, Lujan Grisham signed a bill to create a “look twice for motorcycles” special license plate.
Lobbying bill falls
Other bills, she vetoed just because she did not agree with the way they were written.
One was HB 143, a lobbyist transparency bill.
New Mexico In Depth called the bill “simple, even while requiring more effort from lobbyists.” The bill would have required lobbyists and those who hired the lobbyists to file a report within 48 hours of beginning work on pushing for or against a bill, and another report within 48 hours if their position on the bill changed.
State Rep. Sarah Silva, one of the bill’s sponsors, responded to the veto.
“It’s ironic that HB143 would have given us information about who lobbied the governor to veto this bill – and without it, we have no way to know,” the Las Cruces Democrats said. “In other words, her veto demonstrates the need for the very legislation she killed today.”
Lujan Grisham called the requirements “onerous,” as the time period was “irrespective of weekends and holidays.”
She also said some portions were vague.
“It is also unclear how this requirement applies to lobbying activity that commences on legislation after the adjournment of a legislative session since another subsection of HB 143 simply proves that these reports need to be filed ‘prior to the end of the time period in which the governor may act on legislation.’”
Still, she said she would work with the legislature in the next session on a bill to increase transparency and accountability.
Other bills
A bill that would seek to create a roadmap for electric grid modernization also fell victim to the governor’s veto pen. She said she supported the effort but that it “duplicates efforts that are already underway to achieve this goal.”
Lujan Grisham also vetoed a bill to create two permanent funds for wildfire suppression. She said the legislature “did not provide any money for it” and that requiring federal wildfire fighting funds to go into the fund would not work “given the snail’s pace of federal reimbursements.”
The post-wildfire fund had a $12 million appropriation, which Lujan Grisham called “not nearly enough money to even put a dent in post-fire recovery operations.”
A bill to create Slot Canyon Riverlands State Park in Doña Ana County failed to get the governor’s approval because “our state parks are already woefully understaffed and undermaintained.”
Legislators can override a governor’s veto with a two-thirds vote in each chamber. However, this is incredibly rare; the last such override took place in 2002 when the legislature voted to override the veto of the state budget by Gov. Gary Johnson.
The House voted to override a veto by the governor earlier this session on a bill to put into legislation that school districts have the authority to set the amount of instructional days for their schools, but the Senate never took up the veto override attempt.
Those interested can see what actions the governor took on all legislation the Legislature sent to her desk at the Secretary of State’s website.
Update: Added quote from Rep. Sarah Silva.
