State Rep. Christine Chandler presents highlights of the 2020 legislative session Tuesday night at the Los Alamos County Council meeting. Photo by Kirsten Laskey/ladailypost.com

By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com

The 2020 New Mexico legislative session recently concluded, and the 30-day session yielded a lot of positive outcomes, according to State Rep. Christine Chandler.

Chandler presented highlights of the session to Los Alamos County Council during its regular meeting Tuesday night.

“I am very proud of the session that we had this past month,” Chandler said. “For a 30-day session the number of the bills that we were able to pass, … I felt, were tremendous. We worked very well with the Governor’s office on her agenda and our agenda and the outcome I think is evident by some of the items I am listing here.”

Chandler explained the session was solely focused on budget, tax bills and bills that receive a Governor’s message.

Chandler reported that 727 bills were introduced along with memorials and resolutions. Of those bills that were introduced, 88 were sent to the Governor. The House sent 55 bills and the Senate sent 33 bills.

She said the final budget passed was $7.6 billion, which is approximately 7.6 percent higher than last year’s expenditures. The budget provides 25 percent for recurring appropriations and nearly $2 billion in reserves.

Included in this final budget was a 4 percent wage increase for state employees including those who work in public schools. Furthermore, Chandler said public education, which represents half of the state’s budget received a 6.7 percent increase. Early childhood education received a $40 million increase and higher education’s budget was increased 4.4 percent, she said.

Regarding higher education, Chandler said after focusing heavily on early childhood education, she feels the state also needs to turn its attention to higher education.

“I feel like we need now to start turning our attention on higher ed in the state,” she said. “For the last two years there has been tremendous effort and focus on pre-K through 12 and now I think the time has come to start working on higher ed as well.”

For the census, Chandler said $8 million was appropriated for the statewide complete count effort, which includes a social media campaign, outreach grants to counties and tribes and the effort to contract with community-based programs.

Regarding health care, Chandler listed several highlights, which included:

• The passage of a bill that caps the cost of insulin at $25;
• Changes made to New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange to broaden its authority to determine which plans are sold and to set up enrollment periods;
• The Wholesale Prescription Importation Act that allows the state to set up a program to import prescription medication from Canada; and
• Amendments to the medical cannabis program to clarify that participants must be New Mexico residents.

“One thing that I was really impressed with the Governor’s office … was the attention she paid to healthcare … we were seeing bills the administration was proposing … that were designed to make changes in the event, at least I interpreted it this way, that the Affordable Health Care Act plunges into oblivion, we’re hedging so our citizens of this state will have health care and that those who can’t afford health care that there are ways to do it,” Chandler said.

The 30-day session did not go without controversy.

Chandler touched on bills that dealt with public safety, including the Extreme Firearm Protection Order Act that allows the removal of firearms based on probable cause that the owner presents an imminent danger to self or others and provides due process.

“There was a lot of consternation over it … I feel comfortable that it protects people’s constitutional rights to due process but also provides some security when we have a sense that a person is a risk to himself or others,” she said.

• Bills that Chandler either sponsored or co-sponsored this session were:
  New Mexico Work and Save Act, which provides access to a voluntary retirement saving program for private and self-employed workers;
• Post-secondary Institution Disclosure, which requires private schools to disclose to prospective students information on average debt load, completion rates, job placement rates, etc.;
• Public Projects Prevailing Wage law, which was amended to allow administrative remedies and penalties; and
• A bill that amends current law to ensure expeditious release of state litigation settlements.

Councilors commended Chandler for her work and Council Chair Sara Scott asked Chandler what she is looking forward to addressing in the future.

Chandler said she is eager to address the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act.

“It’s a huge act and it will have huge ramifications for families and people who are having children,” she said.

Chandler said she plans to talk to stakeholders and the business community on how to make it work. She added she plans to refile the act until it passes.

Additionally, Chandler said she is very concerned about the federal government radically reducing the budget for environmental management at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

“I think long term it is obviously not in the interest of this community or the lab to have such a dramatic cut when we really need to be moving waste off this site,” she said.

Chandler added she is encouraging the New Mexico Environment Department Secretary to use all his available resources to ensure the laboratory’s waste reduction plans are not impeded by activities on the federal level.