NM governor adds fire relief, organized crime and fentanyl to special session agenda

Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman, Lt. Gov. Howie Morales, and Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller look on as Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signs the proclamation for the first 2024 special session of the Legislature on July 17, 2024 in her cabinet room in Santa Fe. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source NM)

New Mexico’s governor added three new elements to her agenda for the special session, including disaster relief for wildfire survivors, a crackdown on organized crime and toughening criminal penalties for selling fentanyl.

Flanked by supporters from local and tribal governments on Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a proclamation officially calling lawmakers to the Roundhouse at noon on Thursday.

The New Mexico Constitution requires special sessions only address what the governor lays out in a proclamation. The rules committees in each chamber decide whether a bill is “germane,” and there’s no means to appeal those decisions. Lujan Grisham could also veto any bill introduced and passed at the session that isn’t one she endorsed.

The governor signed the proclamation after she and lawmakers blamed each other for an impasse on her agenda. High-ranking Democrats in both chambers have expressed staunch opposition to her proposals to make it easier for police to involuntarily commit people with psychiatric diagnoses or for courts to hold them in jail, to ban loitering on certain medians across the state and raise penalties for having a gun if someone has a prior felony conviction.

“This is about a Legislature who, the day the last session started, were not willing to discuss these proposals, and they haven’t been willing, and I’m disappointed by that, no doubt,” Lujan Grisham said. “Don’t let them tell you that they don’t have enough time; they’ve had decades. And in fact the failure of our Legislature to take serious these issues, in large part, is exactly how we got to where we are today.”

Asked whether she would call the Legislature back again in the event lawmakers decide not to take up some of her bills, Lujan Grisham said it wouldn’t be the first time a governor called multiple special sessions back-to-back.

“There is precedent for doing just that. The power is not limited to just one,” she said.

Lujan Grisham said she has been “talked out of a special session a time or two dealing with public safety.”

“I regret that,” she said.

Organized crime

The proclamation states New Mexico’s Racketeering Act “needs to be updated to ensure that the state can stem the rise of organized crime by effectively prosecuting those involved in criminal organizations.”

The governor’s office has said Lujan Grisham is seeking a Republican sponsor for one bill cracking down on organized crime.

In a statement Monday to Source New Mexico , spokesperson Jodi McGinnis Porter said the governor’s team had “conversations with Republican leaders about potentially strengthening the state’s RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) laws during the special session.”

In June, Senate Republicans said they would re-introduce legislation to target organized crime and broaden the scope of crimes that would qualify for RICO prosecution. Those crimes include sexual exploitation of children, rape, dogfighting and cockfighting, escaping or helping escape from jail or prison, bringing contraband into prison, tampering with public records, impersonating police and human trafficking.

Fentanyl

The proclamation states that “hundreds of New Mexicans die from drug overdoses every year, many of which are the result of the widespread availability of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin.”

Terri Cole, Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce President and CEO, said at the news conference the Legislature has “routinely avoided passing anti-crime legislation,” including a bill to stop fentanyl trafficking.

In April, Republican lawmakers said they would introduce special session bills to increase the penalty for selling or distributing fentanyl and adding a first-degree murder charge for distribution of fentanyl resulting in death.

Fire relief

There does appear to be at least some common ground between the governor and members of her party on setting aside money to help survivors of recent wildfires. House Speaker Javier Martínez has said lawmakers would support such a bill.

The proclamation states that “communities across the state have been devastated by the South Fork and Salt fires and other natural disasters as noticed in Major Disaster Declaration DR-4795-NM and continue to require aid from the federal government.”

Lujan Grisham said that legislation could look like zero-interest loans to local governments who are dealing with the ongoing disaster. Lawmakers in both chambers unanimously passed and she signed a bill like that for the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fire in the previous regular session.

The quicker the money is available, the easier it is for local governments to clear debris and reroute floodwaters, Lujan Grisham said. The governor said she is eager to sign a bill that would provide needed aid.

“There is no way I would not sign for people in Ruidoso — no matter what happens at the special session — they deserve the same amount of attention and respect that every other New Mexican does,” she said.

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