Gov. nixes open-records legislation
Martinez signs update for crane operator safety rules, litter control council
Gov. Susana Martinez vetoed a bill Friday that would have stopped state agencies from denying members of the public copies of government databases on the grounds that they might use the information for political purposes, a practice the bill’s backers argue is unconstitutional.
The governor acted on three other bills as the week ended, nixing a measure that would have made it easier for school districts to fund professional development for teachers in vocational programs and signing an update to safety rules for crane operators. She also signed a bill replacing the state’s 32-member litter control council with a seven-member board and saving the state $30,000 a year on trash bags.
The public-records bill, House Bill 227, would have cut a few words from a New Mexico law that now allows the state to require anyone requesting a copy of a public database to promise they will not use the information for “political purposes.”
The law does not define “political purposes,” however, and critics argue that state officials can construe it to block activists from getting public information.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Matthew
McQueen, D-Galisteo, said the provision was outright unconstitutional.
McQueen’s proposal to simply cut the words “political purposes” out of the state’s records law passed the House of Representatives without opposition and won bipartisan support in the Senate.
In her veto message, Martinez argued House Bill 227 could leave New Mexicans’ privacy unprotected.
“I have consistently prioritized open government and transparency throughout my tenure as governor … ,” she wrote. “However, I cannot support a bill that would allow political organizations to take personal information — such as addresses and phone numbers — from private citizens in an attempt to push their political agendas.”
McQueen called the argument a red herring. The case that prompted him to file the bill involved a private citizen’s search for water data, not personal information.
“Her statement about prioritizing open government and transparency is, at this point, laughable,” he said Friday, which happened to be the last day of a state District Court trial over allegations that the Governor’s Office stonewalled a Santa Fe newspaper.
Also on Friday, the governor vetoed a bill that would have required training for teachers and assistants in technical and vocational programs, a measure that backers argued would have ensured more funding for school districts to provide professional development.
House Bill 307 was relatively arcane, and Martinez wrote in her veto message that it was unnecessary because state law already provides for professional development for all teachers, regardless of the subject they teach.
But supporters argued the bill would have helped school districts tap more federal funding to pay for training career-technical education teachers and assistants.
The bill’s sponsor, House Majority Leader Sheryl Williams Stapleton, told a committee in February that it would in turn improve career readiness programs in public schools.
In that same committee hearing, Rep. Dennis Roch, R-Logan, offered an example from the school district where he is a superintendent. The district sent an agriculture teacher to a conference and requested the state pay with a particular stream of funding, he said. The state declined, Roch said, and told it to use a different stream of funding that the district is not eligible to receive.
The bill passed the Legislature without opposition.
Meanwhile, the governor signed a bill abolishing the state’s 32-member litter control council and creating in its place a seven-member “New Mexico clean and beautiful advisory committee.”
Sponsored by Rep. Rebecca Dow, R-Truth or Consequences, the bill also discontinues the “Dusty Roadrunner” litter bags distributed at driver’s license and Department of Game and Fish offices around the state. The move is expected to save the state about $30,000 a year.
And the governor signed House Bill 257, the Crane Operators Safety Act sponsored by Rep. Linda Trujillo, D-Santa Fe. According to an analysis of the bill by the Regulation and Licensing Department, the measure would bring current state laws on cranes in line with new federal safety regulations and provide a path for operators seeking to upgrade their licenses.
The governor has until noon next Friday to act on legislation from the session that ended in mid-March, though some of the most important bills only reached her desk last week. And Martinez has already vowed to reject the budget passed by lawmakers along with all tax increases and call legislators back to Santa Fe to draft a new spending plan.