Roundhouse Roundup
The Santa Fe New Mexican Staff
Budget awaits final committee vote: The state budget bill — the only thing lawmakers truly have to pass before the session ends on Thursday — is moving along but still needs to be heard in the Senate Finance Committee before it reaches the Senate floor.
The committee voted unanimously Saturday afternoon to make some amendments to House Bill 2. Chairman Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, said the panel may hear the bill on Sunday; as of Saturday evening it was on the committee’s Sunday agenda.
The only debate focused on the Environment Department’s budget, which Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, worried was inadequate. Deputy Cabinet Secretary Danielle Gilliam said the budget would cut the department’s Resource Management Division by $1.4 million.
“Without those funds we face a potential layoff of 12% of our program support staff,” Gilliam said. “We’re talking about attorneys. These are individuals who are critical to our compliance and enforcement activities.”
Muñoz said the state is picking up $6 million in departmental pay that used to be covered by federal dollars, among other concessions.
“If the Environment Department doesn’t like a 126% increase over the last four years, somebody else will take their money,” Muñoz said.
Steinborn said he was still disappointed.
“Personally, I want a robust Environment Department to protect our air, water [and] land, and I don’t think there’s any malicious intent here, I just think they’re trying to get fully funded to do their job,” Steinborn said.
“At the end of every session there’s malicious intent from the Environment Department,” Muñoz said. “We’ve worked with them harder than we’ve ever worked before.”
Water project funding: Sixty-five water projects statewide, including in Northern New Mexico, will get state funding if a bill that passed the House on a 64-0 vote Friday evening makes it across the finish line.
Contained within House Bill 148, which authorizes the New Mexico Finance Authority to make loans or grants from the water project fund to the projects in the bill, is authorization to fund the city of Santa Fe “for two water conservation, treatment, recycling or reuse projects and one water storage, conveyance and delivery project.”
The bill passed the Senate Conservation Committee unanimously on Saturday morning, setting it up for a Senate floor vote in the coming days.
It also contains money for flood prevention projects in the Santa Fe-Pojoaque Soil and Water Conservation District and the Upper Rio Grande Watershed District and “water storage, conveyance and delivery project[s]” for the city of Española, the village of Chama and several local water associations in Santa Fe and Rio Arriba counties. It would also fund numerous water projects in Taos County.
The Water Trust Board will have almost $116 million available to distribute, according to a legislative staff analysis of the bill. It passed without any debate in opposition, although Rep. Candy Spence Ezzell, R-Roswell, made a point of saying the oil and gas industry is the only reason the state can afford such largesse.
“Through their work that they’re doing in the southeastern part of the state and the northwestern part of the state, we’re flush this year,” she said.
Oil, gas setbacks: Setbacks for oil and gas facilities aren’t going to pass this year, but the state would continue to study the issue for future action if Senate Memorial 8 passes.
The memorial, which advanced on a 4-3 party-line vote in the Senate Conservation Committee on Saturday morning, would require the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department to “evaluate the risks to humans and the environment from proximity to oil and gas facilities” in consultation with the “relevant stakeholders” and make recommendations to the Legislature.
House Bill 133, an update to the Oil and Gas Act that has passed committee in the House and is awaiting a floor vote, originally included new setback requirements but these ended up getting removed from the bill. Supporters of Senate Memorial 8 pointed to the health risks of living near oil and gas facilities, while industry representatives and Republican senators from oil-producing areas said municipalities should be able to decide on setbacks without state preemption.
“The language in this memorial is based on the premise that the state must establish statewide setbacks,” said Jim Winchester with the Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico.
Sen. Steven McCutcheon II, R-Carlsbad, who was one of the no votes, said he instead supports Senate Memorial 14, which calls for a similar analysis but includes more pro-oil and gas language and also calls for study of the fiscal impact of setbacks. That measure could get a hearing in the committee on Tuesday, said Chairwoman Sen. Liz Stefanics, D-Cerrillos.
Drug price transparency advances: The Prescription Drug Price Transparency Act, which already passed the House unanimously, cleared the Senate Health and Public Affairs committee on a 7-0 vote Saturday.
House Bill 33 would require prescription drug manufacturers, pharmacy services administrative organizations, health insurers and pharmacy benefits managers to report drug price data to the state Superintendent of Insurance. For example, drug manufactures would need to report wholesale acquisition costs of some drugs, their profits from the drugs and price comparisons of those drugs in European countries.
The Superintendent of Insurance would keep the data confidential but publicly report aggregate information on drug price trends.
Supporters of the bill said transparency would help deter price hikes. If passed, New Mexico would join 22 states that have already passed prescription drug pricing transparency legislation.
Quote of the day: “It is not a bribe. I also provided Ashley Wagner a little counseling, saying you’re not always going to win, but environmentalists are not always going to win either.” —Senate Conservation Committee Chairwoman Liz Stefanics, D-Cerrillos, talking about her committee’s breakfast Saturday morning, which was sponsored by the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association. Wagner is the association’s vice president of government affairs.
