The Roundhouse a comforting cocoon for the 112 lawmakers replete with fawning staffers, lobbyists and citizens kissing up to them as their favorite legislation hangs in the balance. 

But outside of that comfort zone fresh polling shows a political storm rages over governance of New Mexico as well as the nation, results that should shrink those oversized egos that grow with the nourishment provided within the Roundhouse bubble.

The latest polling reveals much more public skepticism of Santa Fe's political actors than years past. The Garrity Perception Survey, conducted during the current legislative session (Feb. 3-16) by state polling firm Research and Polling, shows only 19 percent of the public "trust" state government officials

From Tom Garrity, whose PR firm commissions the annual survey: 

The findings show that trust of state and federal government officials is at a record low and distrust is at an all-time high. Only 17 percent of New Mexico residents trust federal government officials and 19 percent trust state government officials. Trust in Federal government has been low since the inaugural 2011 survey, ranging from 14 percent in 2013 to 29 percent in 2020. The current sentiment about the federal government (17 percent trust) is likely driven by the fallout from the presidential leadership transition, DOGE and mass layoffs at federal agencies. The percentage of residents who distrust state government has risen from 35% in 2020 to 51% currently. The impacts of the legislative session may be a reason why residents feel this way.

The marked decline in trust in state government leaders since 2020 comes in the aftermath of the lengthy COVID shutdown, a continued rise in crime and homelessness, sensational child abuse cases, disappointment in the performance of public schools and a significant escalation in the the cost of living.

More recently the legislature and governor have taken hits over their inability to craft legislation to address violent and juvenile crime.

ANOTHER REASON

The low trust in both state and federal government officials is a sign of the times but for state government to be hitting such lows absent any major scandal and a Governor who is off her peak approval ratings but not dramatically, is a bit surprising.

There could be another reason for the crash in trust in Santa Fe. Garrity says:

Knowing that government is the largest employer in the state, it was surprising that 51 percent of residents feel that government is trying to do too many things.

Doing too many things and not doing enough of them right. 

Now those fawning staffers and lobbyists will need to double down on their stroking of lawmakers as they prepare them for a return to the real world after 60 days in the comfort zone.

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The Roundhouse Twirl (Moore, Journal)

About the 2025 legislative session set to close the books Saturday. . .

That bill legalizing medical psilocybin passed the Senate and late yesterday the House did the same. The hallucinogenic is touted as a breakthrough therapy for depression but we remember it from the 70's as a sister to LSD, taken mostly to evoke kaleidoscopic images while listening to Bob Dylan lyrics or something.

Besides being unnecessary when there are already many legal pharmaceuticals available to treat depression, look at the past mismanagement of the state's medical marijuana program and now the bureaucratic bungling of legalized pot. The bill's sponsors say, don't worry, only limited use of psilocybin will be allowed. Okay, but the bottom line and our decidedly minority opinion is this: the last thing this drug-riddled state needs is more mind-altering drugs.

The bill establishing a Child Advocate to oversee the troubled Children, Youth and Families Department has been mostly de-fanged by lawmakers but a milquetoast version has reached the Governor who has been adamantly opposed to the measure but did support a late amendment. Clearly, she should sign it after erroneously claiming the bill is aimed at her and not at fixing CYFD. Sign the bill, Guv. It's not personal--just business. 

Whatever happened to those sweeping bills that would give legislators full-time salaries and have the legislature meet year round? Nothing. Thankfully. (With apologies to Santa Fe legal mastermind Cliff Rees.)

Are they going to raise the royalty rate on oil pumped out of state lands from 20 to 25 percent to match the rate in Texas? Here's the broken record on that deal: Raising taxes on anything in this environment of economic challenges and immense surpluses should be a nonstarter--even for an industry as dreaded as oil is by the far left. 

Missed at this session: For the umpteenth year in a row no legislator got up on the floor of either chamber and gave a rousing speech about the state's poor national rankings in education performance, violent crime rates, drug addiction etc. Local Chambers of Commerce are popping the prosecco in celebration. (Can Senate Leader Wirth let us do that speech and we promise to leave right after?)

Not missed at this session: Abortion arguments. Finally, they're over. 

During the session there were no drunk driving arrests of legislators, no fights in bar parking lots and no senators introducing their out-of-wedlock child whose mother is a legislative staffer. In other words there was no scandal du jour in the 60 day session. Well, there's still a few days for someone to go off the rails. If not, we'll have to relive memories of Senator Pirtle.

FRED'S BENCH  

Here's a memorial that legendary New Mexican and former US Senator Fred Harris, who died last year at 94, would appreciate. His friend Al Stotts does the honors:

Friends of former U.S. Senator Fred Harris of Corrales have created a unique memorial to him at the Barelas Coffee House in Albuquerque's South Valley. It is a Spanish Colonial style banco crafted by Rik Gonzales, Edward Lujan, Juanito Jimenez and Ted Martinez. Lujan, Jimenez and Martinez studied Spanish Colonial arts at El Rito with Gonzales. 

The plate on the back of the bench reads: 

In memory of Fred Harris -- Senator, Professor and Friend of the people. 

The plaque with Fred's photo explains that Fred met regularly at the restaurant with friends who called themselves the Barelas Athletic Club. Barelas Coffee House owner Mike Gonzales took a political science course with Fred in 1978 and welcomed the idea of the memorial at his business. 

It really is time for a stop at Barelas. Once the wind dies down, we'll have to get Sen. Campos and Valley politico Dan Serrano to join us for lunch and a look at Fred's Bench (and not because they usually pick up the tab.)

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Job losses at Los Alamos Labs? Isn't that sacrosanct territory, especially for a Republican administration?

We and others have dismissed the possibility of widespread budget cuts under Trump for the state's nuclear outposts--Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs--and that probably will hold true. But the NYT now reports that National Nuclear Security Administration employees have been paid off after their positions were targeted in cuts recommended by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

At Los Alamos the number of employees leaving is modest but does signal that under DOGE  nothing is off limits. That will keep the Labs on their tippy toes as they look out for any further cuts. From the NYT:

The field office that oversees the NNSA's laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M., where plutonium pits are made, lost nine staff members, according to the documents reviewed by The Times. Budgeted for 97 employees in the fiscal year ending last September, it is now operating with 76. Among those who left was the deputy facility operations manager, a top job. 

Terry C. Wallace Jr., who ran the laboratory in 2018, said that it carried out some of the agency’s most high-risk operations. The government is ultimately responsible both for ensuring the public’s safety and for authorizing work to proceed, he said.  He is “quite certain” that fewer government staff members “will have a negative impact on the operation,” he added. A spokeswoman for the Energy Department said in a statement, “N.N.S.A is committed to continuing its critical national security mission through the development, modernization and stewardship of America’s nuclear deterrent and nonproliferation and counterterrorism efforts.”

Employment levels have skyrocketed at Los Alamos in recent years as work continues on nuclear weapons modernization, so much so that the lab had to open up office space in nearby Santa Fe.

Senators Lujan and Heinrich are the state's DC watchdogs for the national labs' budgets. With this development, they have something to bark at.

VOTE FALLOUT

More on the vote that rocked the Roundhouse--the defeat in the Senate Finance Committee Saturday of the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act on an 8-3 vote. We blogged of the surprise yesterday. Today we get this from from a Senior Alligator at the capitol:

Joe HB 11 was dead from the start because local advocates became lobbyists for out of state special interest groups that go state by state passing the same template for the PFML. They wanted no changes and did not fight Senate Finance. 

House Speaker Javier Martinez had the bill cut in half, giving a victory to business by taking employee leave from 12 weeks to 6 weeks and providing free maternity leave of $9,000 per newborn.  That cash assistance was in lieu of a paycheck for either parent who had a job and who would have qualified for PFML. This would not have been overly expensive because it would not cover all 22,000 births per year. That is a different issue for a different session. The expense could have been covered by the huge growth in surplus revenue. This amended version of HB 11 passed the House on a vote of 38-31 and would have not gone into effect until 2028. Senate Finance Chair Muñoz was mistaken. This was not a bill “wanting it all" but a reasonable compromise. 

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Progressive Democrats spent major league dollars and countless campaign hours to defeat the conservative coalition in the state House in the June 2024 primary only to be ambushed by the resurrection of a coalition in the state senate Saturday. 

The surprise attack spelled the end of their cherished paid family and medical leave plan as it was firmly rejected by the Senate Finance Committee, led by unapologetic Chairman George Muñoz.

The stunning turn of events over (HB 11), which was defeated when the House was peppered with those now defeated conservative Democrats but approved by the Senate, finally sailed through the House this year. Then Saturday in Senate Finance sudden death struck on an 8 to 3 vote, leaving Roundhouse progressives grieving their loss, like this one:

Joe, we cut off the head of the snake in the House only to see it grow back in the Senate. The shock is like an earthquake in the middle of the night.

Indeed. Tremors were felt across La Politica:

Three Democrats who voted for the bill in past years voted against it Saturday: Sens. Pete Campos of Las Vegas, Benny Shendo of Jemez Pueblo and Roberto “Bobby” Gonzales of Ranchos de Taos.

Sen. Muñoz has long opposed the plan as have GOP committee members. With the new Dem votes they killed the bill and delivered a body blow to the dominant left wing of the Democratic party. 

The measure, always controversial, was complicated this time by progressive overreach. 

It included a new provision that would have the state give the family of every newborn a $9,000 cash payment estimated to cost nearly $200 million a year. The giveaway arose out of thin air like one of those Oklahoma tornadoes. 

While groundwork may have been laid for it in solid progressive states, it didn't sell in low-paying New Mexico where small businesses often struggle to make a profit. 

IRONY GALORE

There was irony galore as Dem Rep. Christine Chandler was the chief House sponsor. She hails from Los Alamos, not only the wealthiest county in the state but one of the richest in the the entire USA. The main employer is Los Alamos Labs with some of the highest salaries in the state and plenty of perks, including paid leave. 

TAX RESENTMENT

The small tax increase in the measure to finance up to six weeks of paid medical leave for employees (12 weeks for family leave) provided more ammo for the ambush squad.

Never mind that the increases were only a fraction of a percent. They were the equivalent of a kick in the you-know-what for employees and employers in the face of billions in oil surplus funds that Santa Fe is struggling to deploy effectively. 

It didn't help progressives that the '24 general election results revealed an emerging conservative streak among economically impacted voters, with Trump losing here by a respectable six percent.

Could it be that those handful of conservative House Dems taken out by the left at the '24 primary fell because of the red-hot abortion issue and not because of their economics? (Yes, it could.) 

UNCOMPROMISING PROGRESSIVES

Senator Muñoz

Senator Muñoz was confident enough to offer a compromise but the progressives would not deal. Appraising the battlefield in the aftermath, he declared: