Group threatens to sue if gun control laws pass: The National Foundation for Gun Rights wrote to legislative leadership Friday threatening to sue if bills to limit magazine capacity or ban certain AR- and AK-style rifles become law.

“Our legal foundation is currently engaged in litigation aimed at overturning state and local laws banning these weapons and magazines, and we are prepared to add New Mexico to that list,” Dudley Brown, the foundation’s president, said in a statement. “We’re not going to sit by and watch more politicians infringe on the God-given rights of their constituents — and we’ll sue if we have to, our letter makes that crystal clear.”

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham came out in favor of an assault weapons ban in her State of the State address last month. The bills in question have made it out of committee in the House but haven’t been brought to the floor for a vote. A bill to penalize adults whose guns end up in the hands of children passed the House last week.

The letter was addressed to House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque; Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque;  Rep. Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos and Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, the chairs of the House and Senate Judiciary committees.

New school board regs move forward: A bill to put new requirements on school boards that supporters hope will increase transparency passed out of the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee on a 7-1 vote Saturday.

House Bill 325 would expand campaign finance reporting requirements to school board candidates in all districts, regardless of size. Under current law, only school board candidates in districts with more than 12,000 students have to file campaign finance reports. Only four of New Mexico’s 89 school districts — Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Rio Rancho and Gadsden — fall into this category. 

“They should have the same laws apply to them that apply to us,” said Rep. Susan Herrera, D-Embudo, one of the bill’s co-sponsors. “People need to know where they get their money.”

The bill also would require all school districts to broadcast meetings online and add training requirements for school board members. And it would beef up the existing anti-nepotism law by adding a penalty for violation, requiring a school board member to resign if a district hires a relative without seeking a waiver first.

Representatives of a couple of groups representing school board members raised concerns with the bill, saying they agreed with parts of it but objected to adding a penalty for nepotism violations and to the campaign finance reporting requirements, which they said would be overly burdensome for school board candidates in small towns.

Dymorie Maker, president of the New Mexico School Boards Association and a Lovington school board member, noted almost 60% of New Mexico’s school districts have fewer than 1,000 students.

“This is a punitive measure in these small communities,” Maker said.

One renewable energy bill moves, another tabled: Two bills meant to advance the use of renewable energy sparked heated debate Saturday.

One passed after an amendment; the other failed to advance after a tied vote to table it.

The Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee voted 5-1 to approve Senate Bill 77, which would require all new residential homes to be built with photovoltaic systems that would allow them to be connected to solar energy and at least one electrical receptacle for charging electric vehicles.

After pushback on how this could affect home prices, the bill was amended to let construction companies offer the installment of photovoltaic systems without requiring them. Electric car charging receptacles would still be required.

Senate Bill 74 would require all new utility-level generating facilities built in New Mexico to use only “clean energy” generated from solar, wind, geothermal reservoirs, biomass or hydropower.

“What this bill does is, and it very much aligns with the Energy Transition Act, is it indicates that the electric-producing companies within New Mexico shall not produce with fossil fuel any longer,” said Sen. Bill Soules, D-Las Cruces, the sponsor of both bills. “It’s not needed. We are on track to meet all of the goals without that. It does not require anyone to shut down any gas plants, coal plants, oil fired plants, anything else. It just says, moving forward, that there shall be no new fossil fuel generation in the state of New Mexico.”

The bill’s opponents feared it could force utilities to abandon any current plans to construct fossil fuel-powered generation, leaving the utility on the hook to pay the costs of the project, which would be passed along to ratepayers. SB 74 stalled when the committee deadlocked 3-3 on a motion to table the bill.

Quotes of the day: “It’s like we forgot the other half of the sentence.” –Rep. Natalie Figueroa, D-Albuquerque, noting New Mexico is one of 13 states that has a legal prohibition on nepotism in school district hires but doesn’t have a penalty for violating the policy.

“Mr. Chair, it’s certainly better, and not terribly objecting to the idea, but I still just hate mandates. You know, I think if people want that, they can tell their contractor before they built the house, ‘Put that in for me.’” –Sen. Gay Kernan, R-Hobbs, arguing against SB 77.