Ready, set ... file: State lawmakers introduce first 2025 Legislature bills

The first list of bills with the potential to become law in 2025 includes increasing the penalty for a shooting threat, barring state funds from public libraries that won’t hold banned books and not allowing extreme ticket resale prices for more than just athletic events.

Legislators could start prefiling bills on Thursday for the 2025 Legislature, which starts Jan. 21 and goes for 60 days. Representatives introduced 12 bills and two resolutions. Senators filed four bills and one joint resolution.

Rep. Joy Garratt, D-Albuquerque, filed a crime-related bill that intends to make more progress than its counterpart did in the 2024 session, where it died. House Bill 31 would increase the penalty for making a shooting threat from a misdemeanor to a fourth-degree felony, with up to 18 months in prison and a maximum $5,000 fine.

Following a five-hour-long special session this past summer, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the Legislature should’ve been embarrassed by its failure to pass her priority crime-related legislation.

Education- and youth-related bills also made the list on Thursday.

Sen. Benny Shendo, D-Jemez Pueblo, filed a bill that would allow the Public Education Department to enter state-tribal education contracts, and Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, introduced legislation that would expand eligibility for a foster connections program.

Another bill, filed by Rep. Kathleen Cates, D-Corrales, would discourage book bans at public libraries. It would not allow the state to fund public libraries that don’t adopt the 2019 American Library Association Library Bill of Rights or adopt a written policy against book banning “on the basis of partisan or doctrinal disapproval or the author’s race, nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation or political or religious views,” according to the Legislature.

And Rep. Debra Sariñana, D-Albuquerque, introduced legislation that would allow school districts to replace school buses with electric or zero-emission alternative fuel buses.

Other environmental-related filings include bills that would affect land grants, including creating new land grant funds.

Some familiar joint resolutions also made the filing list Thursday. Rep. Matthew McQueen, D-Santa Fe, introduced two joint resolutions: one that would extend legislative sessions to 45 days every year with no bill topic limits and one that would eliminate a governor’s ability to pocket veto legislation, ensuring all vetoed legislation has an explanation. Similar efforts have died in past sessions.

And should collector’s item motorcycles get special license plates? Rep. Art de la Cruz, D-Albuquerque, thinks yes and introduced a bill that would allow motorcycles that are at least 35 years old and are owned as collector’s items to acquire an “iron horse” registration plate.

Cates also thinks it’s time to put a foot down on ticket scalping, something that made national headlines over the summer in instances like Taylor Swift’s Eras tour. The representative introduced legislation that would amend the definition of ticket scalping, which is limited to athletic events in New Mexico, to include events presented by the state, a political subdivision or a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation. It would bar ticket resales at prices greater than that charged at admission or printed on the ticket.

Other bills would ensure off-site fabricators are added to the Public Works Minimum Wage Act and require employer contributions to apprentice and training programs.