Lawmakers should keep non-budget issues on tight track
As N.M. lawmakers kick it into high gear today, the first full day of their emergency special session originally dedicated to balancing the beleaguered state budget, they have more to do than fill a $2 billion hole caused by the oil bust and pandemic shutdown.
The Journal Editorial board supported limiting the session to budget and economic relief items. But since the governor decided to add several important issues to the agenda, here’s where we stand on some of those:
Requiring police to wear body cameras, banning chokehold restraints and making officers’ disciplinary history a matter of public record under the state’s Inspection of Public Records Act. We have long supported lapel cameras, and given the national call for police reform and the Albuquerque Police Department’s dealings with the Department of Justice, we would hope lawmakers will make them mandatory, as well as ban chokehold restraints and make disciplinary actions public.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham also wants lawmakers to establish a commission to evaluate ending qualified immunity for police officers, a legal doctrine that helps protect officers from civil lawsuits. This is a complex issue, and lawmakers would be correct to follow the governor’s suggestion of creating a group of stakeholders who can examine the value vs. potential unintended consequences. It’s important the group includes not only lawyers and community activists, but someone from law enforcement tasked with recruiting and retaining sworn officers.
Authorizing county clerks, during a public health emergency, to mail ballots to registered voters without requiring the voter to fill out an application first. Given the mobile nature of our society, that’s a recipe for too many ballots mailed to a wrong address.
New Mexico is already among states with the most lenient absentee ballot policy, allowing voters to use them for any reason. The N.M. Supreme Court found the sweet spot for voter access during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing clerks to automatically mail out applications for absentee ballots to registered voters at their last known address. That saves voters from having to ask for an application, and it keeps ballots from hitting the dead-letter bin or falling into the hands of someone bent on shenanigans.
Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel months before a presidential election, lawmakers and elected officials should smooth the road New Mexico is already on. With an estimated 3,000 primary ballots uncounted because they arrived too late, state lawmakers and/or elected officials should consider adjusting deadlines to request, send out and return absentee ballots, put that return-by deadline in big, bold type on the ballot along with where to drop them off in person, and revisit state law to allow feeding them into tabulators before Election Day.
Aiding small businesses (and individuals) hit hard by the pandemic by waiving late penalties and interest on property and gross receipts taxes, allowing services such as liquor delivery or electronic notarization, and providing loans. Three months into government orders that shuttered many businesses, these moves are welcome and needed.
Meanwhile, lawmakers have finally released copies of actual legislation. There should be no additional late arrivals, as the public deserves to see what is being done on its behalf and needs at least 24 hours before a floor vote to digest it. A positive sign is that they are halting committee/floor debate when the webcast goes down, ensuring that during this pandemic the public, the real boss, has eyes and ears on the session.
These are unprecedented times, and members of our citizen Legislature are clearly tasked with doing a huge amount of work in a short amount of time. Here’s to a safe and productive session.