At the Roundhouse: Business as usual

It looks like the usual mess.

Halfway through their 60-day session, New Mexico lawmakers have introduced roughly 1,300 bills and, as of Monday morning, had passed and sent to Gov. Susana Martinez a grand total of two.

The biggest chore of the session — adoption of a state budget — hasn’t yet been acted on by the House. And the House has to pass it before the Senate can commence its usual surgery.

Some of the hottest issues of the session — including gun control,  illegal immigrant driver’s licenses, third-grade reading retention, pension solvency and public employee pay raises — are still hanging fire.

Nothing really new here.

New Mexico’s 112 part-time lawmakers arrive at this round building on Old Santa Fe Trail on the third Tuesday in January every year and start considering what they need to do for good old New Mexico.

They come for 60 days in odd-numbered years and 30 days in evens.

Our folks started on Jan. 15 this year and must adjourn on March 16. They could return for a special session — and often do — but that’s another column.

They introduce piles of bills, no matter how long they’re going to be at the Roundhouse. And there’s always a pileup at the end — often the heaviest stuff still to be debated, passed or put out to pasture.

Other Legislatures do it. Congress does it. It’s frustrating as heck for people like you and me, but it’s just called the legislative process.

Our folks are not really procrastinators. There’s plenty of advance work going on. Committees are cranking through reams of bills, and leaders are fine-tuning their game plans.

I’ve always thought leaders have lists hidden away somewhere: lists of bills they like and don’t like and where they all are in the process. I’ve always imagined filled-up legal pads crammed away in some first-floor drawers, but it’s probably computers these days.

It takes time to get all this stuff drafted, and putting the budget together in the House is a pretty big undertaking.

Then all these bills have to be herded through committees before breaking into the valleys of votes on the House and Senate floors.

The New Mexico lawmakers, each elected from one of 112 districts around our big state, bring all kinds of concerns to Santa Fe. Here are some clues of what’s on their minds, apart from the big budget.

Looks like the biggest categories for bills are “business and industry” and “health and heath care facilities.”  I count about 150 bills in each of those.

Taxation is another biggie: I see roughly 130 bills falling into that category.

Education is always on the minds of New Mexico legislators. More than half the state budget deals with education funding, and there are more than 100 separate bills on education issues as well.

Here is a rough breakdown of bill subjects as the Legislature plods toward its usual frantic finish. (All counts are approximate):

Alcohol and drugs: roughly 61 bills; children and families, 50; crime and penalties, 75; economic development and tourism, 29; elections, 35; energy and natural resources, 30; environment, 20; licensure, 27; mental health and disabilities; 20; motor vehicles, nearly 100; Native American affairs, 37; water and water rights, 50.

My favorite of the moment is a lonely little bill by Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle, a Portales farmer, to get some cloud-seeding money for the drought-stricken east side of the state.