Former ABQ Dem state Senator Dede Feldman still pays close attention to the Roundhouse and writes frequently of the latest action. She comes with this appraisal of the 2025 session:
The best part of the session was the speed at which both the House and Senate created a plan to reconfigure our failing behavioral health system to organize services for people struggling with addiction and mental health.
The package also included several crime bills. The bipartisan measures came after last year’s catastrophic special session on crime and were passed by mid-session. This is the way it’s supposed to work.
A constitutional amendment to end the “Pocket Veto” will be on the ballot in 2026. This time the Governor rejected 17 items passed by the legislature by simply failing to sign them without explanation. Under the proposed amendment, an unsigned bill would become law and the governor would be required to give reasons for all vetoes.
For the third year in a row, taxes on alcohol escaped a long-overdue hike. HB 417 was turned down in the House Taxation Committee. Then, an overall tax package, which contained an alcohol tax increase, was vetoed by the Governor.
The Governor vetoed $80 million appropriated to build affordable housing in Bernalillo County. The unified city-county plan depended on this funding, particularly in the wake of expensive cuts from Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The veto will have drastic implications, just as the city is beginning to make progress on the issue.
CYFD continues to be a big problem for NM’s kids, and the Governor is resisting help and oversight from the legislature and now the Attorney General. She vetoed the funding and other measures for CYFD oversight.
My biggest disappointment was the veto of the lobbyist disclosure bill. Lobbyists outnumber legislators in Santa Fe by as many as 10 to 1. This year, they spent about half a million to wine and dine legislators, to what end…nobody knows.
Feldman comes with this update:
#1 The Governor did not nix the $80 million in housing funds to come to Albuquerque and Bernalillo County outright. She used her line item veto power to move the badly needed funds away from the local governments (Las Cruces funding was in there too) into the Department of Workforce Solutions, an executive agency under her control. This is part of the dispute between the executive and the legislature, which comes in the wake of the legislature’s failure to let her create her own housing agency.
#2 Subsequent reports from he Secretary of State show that lobbyists spent almost $1 million to wine and dine legislator during the 2025 session, not the mere half a million based on earlier reports.
SATELLITE RESCUE
Recently my friend of over 50 years had a stroke. She is 69. I had gone to her place, knocked on the door and there was no answer. I thought she went shopping. As I was turning away, I saw her silhouette pass by inside. She could not talk, but she could walk. She was unable to unlock the door. I was able to get in touch with central dispatch using WiFi calling on Starlink and they sent an ambulance. Fortunately, she was able to get a window open for me to get inside. The EMTs called for a helicopter because it was a stroke and the T or C Hospital is not equipped for stroke victims. She went to El Paso.
It took hours to track her down. Try to find your loved one in a big city with many hospitals without a decent phone connection. Only because we have Starlink was I able to provide critical medical history quickly and clearly to the hospital staff. It took 3 1/2 hours from the time I called for help until she got to the hospital. Think about how much longer it could have been with no phone service. She has been recovering remarkably well and was moved out of acute care to rehab.
So the next time someone tells me to drop Starlink as a political protest, I will have a good reason why doing so would be stupid.
Thanks, Dan. That's a good look at the communications issues impacting many rural areas and the technology readily available to help--if only the state can shake its obsession for high speed fiber as the sole solution.
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