Bills dealing with chile industry, racketeering signed into law as deadline nears

SANTA FE — New Mexico’s iconic chile industry could get a marketing boost under a bill signed Wednesday by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham that declares August of each year as “red and green chile month” in the state.

The bill, House Bill 172, was one of 10 measures signed into law by the governor, who faces a Friday deadline to act on legislation passed during this year’s 60-day session.

Backers of the chile legislation said during the session the legislation could bolster the state’s agricultural tourism efforts.

New Mexico already has a chile-related state question — “red or green?” — and lawmakers also approved a 2023 bill making roasting green chile the official state aroma. That bill was also signed by the governor and received national media attention.

However, New Mexico’s chile industry has struggled in recent years with a worker shortage, prompting Lujan Grisham in 2021 to use federal relief funds to temporarily boost pay levels for chile field workers.

In addition, the amount of chile acres harvested in New Mexico has dropped from more than 25,000 acres in 1990 to 8,500 acres in 2023, according to New Mexico Chile Association data.

Meanwhile, other bills signed Wednesday by the governor include legislation expanding New Mexico’s anti-racketeering law to include human trafficking, organized dog fighting and cockfighting, among other crimes.

That bill, Senate Bill 70, is one of several crime-related measures that Lujan Grisham urged lawmakers to pass during the legislative session, which ended March 22.

In all, the governor has now signed 135 bills passed by lawmakers this year. Most of those bills will take effect in June, though some are slated to go into effect at a later date.

Lujan Grisham has also vetoed two bills, a measure allowing local school boards to decide the annual number of school days and a bill making changes to New Mexico’s state parole board.

However, 58 bills are still awaiting final action before a Friday bill signing deadline, including a $10.8 billion spending plan for the budget year that starts in July and a proposal to require that lobbyists disclose more information about their activities at the Roundhouse.

The governor is also taking her time studying a $1.2 billion package of public works projects and a tax bill approved on the session’s second-to-last day that would give more than 100,000 New Mexicans a personal income tax break, though it would not take effect for another year.

During a news conference this week, Lujan Grisham said Governor’s Office staffers review approved bills line by line before the governor decides whether to sign them.

“It’s a lot more work than it might seem,” said the governor, who often writes executive messages to lawmakers explaining her final decisions on bills.

Any bills not signed by the governor before the deadline are automatically vetoed under what’s known as a pocket veto.