With halfway point of session nearing, lawmakers advance key crime, behavioral health bills

SANTA FE — With the midway point of the 60-day session approaching, a package of crime and behavioral health bills is accelerating toward final approval at the Roundhouse.

Lawmakers on Wednesday advanced several of the high-profile bills, including a proposal to overhaul New Mexico’s system for providing mental health and substance abuse treatment programs.

A key Senate committee also voted 7-1 to send a package of six crime bills on to the Senate floor, despite criticism from some that the bill does not go far enough — and objections from others that it goes too far.

“This is just the appetizer, I hope, of a public safety session,” said Sen. Crystal Brantley, R-Elephant Butte, during Wednesday’s meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, the committee’s chairman, said other crime-related bills will also be debated during the final weeks of this year’s session.

“We’re not even at the midpoint of the session,” he said. “We’re just getting warmed up.”

The bills dealing with crime and behavioral health are expected to be voted on by the full House and Senate by this weekend, top Democratic lawmakers indicated.

If that happens, it would mean leading legislators just narrowly missed a self-imposed goal of getting the bills to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s desk by the halfway point of the session, which began last month.

Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, credited Lujan Grisham with prompting lawmakers to prioritize public safety issues.

A special session called by the governor last summer ended with the Democratic-controlled Legislature largely rejecting Lujan Grisham’s crime-focused agenda, but Stewart said it steeled lawmakers’ resolve to craft well-vetted legislation.

“In the middle of the summer we said we will work on this, we will come back and pass it halfway through (the session) and that’s what we’re doing,” she told the Journal.

Lujan Grisham has expressed support for the crime package advancing at the Roundhouse, but has also urged lawmakers to approve a slew of other public safety proposals.

A bill dealing with felons convicted of being in possession of a firearm could end up being a sticking point with the Governor’s Office, Stewart said, pointing out lawmakers have already increased the criminal penalty for such cases in recent years.

Meanwhile, numerous law enforcement officers attended Wednesday’s hearing in support of the crime package.

Sen. Antonio “Moe” Maestas, D-Albuquerque, cast the lone committee vote against the proposal, expressing particular opposition to a provision that could lead to longer prison sentences for individuals convicted of possessing large amounts of fentanyl.

“The war on drugs didn’t work in the 1990s, and it’s not going to work now,” Maestas said.

Other bills in the crime package, House Bill 8, include changes to how New Mexico handles defendants deemed incompetent to stand trial and tougher sentences for individuals convicted of auto theft and making school shooting threats.

Behavioral health bill draws broad support

While the Senate focused on crime legislation, a House committee took up a Senate-approved bill to reshape New Mexico’s behavioral health system by enacting a region-based approach.

The state’s court system would take on a larger oversight role under the plan, which would task each region with identifying key funding priorities such as crisis triage centers or mobile response units.

Senate Minority Leader William Sharer, R-Farmington, who is a sponsor of the measure, said New Mexico’s prison system is currently the state’s primary behavioral health provider.

“It probably ought not to be that way,” Sharer quipped.

The proposal drew support from the state’s Health Care Authority, tribal officials and disability advocates.

It also drew praise from Michael Richards, the executive vice president of University of New Mexico Health Sciences and CEO of the UNM Health System, who said it could improve overall health care for all New Mexicans.

“We believe the benefits of this framework are far-reaching,” Richards said during Wednesday’s hearing.

The bill, Senate Bill 3, was approved on an 8-0 vote by the House Health and Human Services Committee, and now moves on to the House floor.

Two other behavioral health bills, Senate Bills 1 and 2, were heard but not voted on Wednesday in a separate House committee.