2021 Municipal Day Legislation HOUSE BILLS HB 4 NM CIVIL RIGHTS ACT (Georgene Louis, Brian Egolf, Joseph Cervantes & Patricia Roybal Caballero) The House passed the House Judiciary Committee Substitute as amended on the House Floor this week, yet it still remains a chiefly-punitive measure without effect as to the behavior giving rise to risk, and as a result leaves significant gaps in our state for law enforcement training. The language in the substitute introduces a $2M cap, but limits the cap to each claim, allowing for multiple plaintiffs to leverage a shared event to stack the caps, or a singular plaintiff to use an individual occurrence to accomplish the same result via alleging multiple claims therein. [1] HSEIC/HJC-HSEIC [2] DP-HJC- DNP-CS/DP [4] fl/a- PASSED/H (39-29) [6] SHPAC/SJC-SHPAC HB 11 GRT & PERMANENT FUND FOR LEDA PROJECTS (Christine Chandler & Brian Egolf) The House Taxation and Revenue Committee substitute for House Bill 11 expands the Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) in two ways and makes a $200 million one- time appropriation from the general fund to the renamed “local economic development recovery act fund” (the “LEDA fund,” previously the “local and regional economic development support fund”) for grants to certain businesses, to be administered by the Economic Development Department (EDD) and the New Mexico Finance Authority (NMFA). The Senate Finance Committee amendment to the House Taxation and Revenue Committee substitute for House Bill 11 makes significant changes to the bill. These changes include: • Removes the bill’s permanent changes to the Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) that would have allowed for state and gross receipts tax sharing for certain projects with construction costs greater than $350 million. By removing the permanent GRT-sharing provisions for certain LEDA projects, the SFC amendment address LFC’s concern that changes to tax expenditures should be fully vetted before approved. • Requires the economic decline for eligibility of the bill’s recovery grants be measured on a quarterly basis rather than an annual basis. • Provides for NMFA to issue recovery grants in multiple application rounds and requires the authority to prioritize applications demonstrating the largest revenue decline. • Requires businesses to demonstrate a net increase in the number of full-time employees relative to the immediately preceding quarter to qualify for recovery grants. • Eliminates the original bill’s exception to the Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) for recovery grants awarded. [2] HCEDC/HTRC-HCEDC- DP/a-HTRC- HTRC- DNP-CS/DP - ref HAFC-HAFC [3] w/drn - PASSED/H (51-16) [5] SFC-SFC [6] DP/a [8] fl/a- PASSED/S (41-1) [6] h/cncrd 1 HB 50 PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION FOR CERTAIN STATUTES (Georgene Louis) HB50 proposes to create a private right of action for individuals pursuing enforcement of the Oil and Gas Act, Air Quality Control Act, Hazardous ®Waste Act, Solid Waste Act, and the Water Quality Act (acts). Persons who are injured or imminently threatened with injury, economically or otherwise, would be able to commence a civil action against another person alleging a past or present violation pursuant to those acts. The suits could not be filed until the plaintiff has given 60-days’ notice to the appropriate regulatory entity, the attorney general and the alleged violator, unless the alleged violation constitutes an immediate threat to the health, safety or legal interest of the plaintiff. The respective regulatory agencies and the attorney general would be able to intervene as a matter of right in such actions. Likewise, if a regulatory agency is already prosecuting a civil. Once an action is brought, the plaintiff must serve a copy of the complaint on the appropriate regulatory agency and attorney general. The bill states that no decree or judgment may be entered in the action unless the agency is a party, or the plaintiff has provided a copy of the proposed decree or judgment to the agency who has 45 days to comment on the proposed settlement or decree. The House Judiciary Committee amended the bill to clarify that any person who is injured may bring an action against another person who is subject to the Oil and Gas Act, Air Quality Control Act, Hazardous Waste Act, Solid Waste Act, and the Water Quality Act HPREF [1] HENRC/HJC-HENRC [2] DP/a-HJC. HB 65 INCREASE CERTAIN PERA CONTRIBUTIONS (William Rehm) HB 65 provides for continued employee contribution increases over what was passed in 2020. House Bill 65 (HB 65) amends the PERA Act’s statutory employee contribution rates, allows members who work in excess of 90 percent of final average salary at a reduced pension multiplier and lowers eligibility for and changes cost-of-living adjustments. The increases are made on the employee and will thus not have a direct impact on state expenditures. However, local governments, counties and municipalities, often cover a portion of employee contributions required by statute. Section 10-11-5 NMSA 1978 allows municipal affiliated employers to pay up to 75 percent of employees’ member contributions. Should HB65 be enacted, local government employers will likely face increased costs as they pick up a portion of the increased employee contribution. Increasing employee contributions will reduce employee take home pay and may be a disincentive to government employment. Additionally, municipalities which offer pension “pickups” will need to evaluate the compensation package and determine if they will continue paying employee contributions at the same rate. [1] HLVMC/HAFC-HLVMC (Bill has been tabled in HLVMC) HB 92 SAFE DRINKING WATER TESTING FUND (Doreen Gallegos & Susan Herrera) House Bill 92 changes the fee amount charged on public water supply systems from $0.03 per thousand gallons of water produced to $0.05 per thousand gallons of water produced. The bill changes the name of the fee to the safe drinking water testing fee and changes the name of the fund in which the fee revenue is deposited to the safe drinking water testing fund (previously the water conservation fee and water conservation fund, respectively). 2 • Money in the safe drinking water testing fund is to be used by the Environment Department (NMED) to test public water supplies for drinking water contaminants as identified by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and rules promulgated by the department. • Prohibits NMED from using these funds for any required increase in sampling and analysis services resulting from SDWA or state rule violations. In such cases, HB92 stipulates the public water system in violation is responsible for the collection, analysis, and expenses of those samples and must provide the results of the analysis to NMED. • NMED estimates the fee increase required by HB92 would generate an additional $1.4 million per year, which would support the agency’s drinking water testing program that provides sampling and analysis services to public water systems. • The additional revenue generated by HB92’s enactment would support the testing services that ensure New Mexicans have access to safe drinking water. HPREF [1] HAWC/HTRC-HAWC [2] DP-HTRC [3] DP [6] PASSED/H (49-17) [8] SCONC/STBTC-SCONC HB 97 LOCAL GOVERNMENT TOBACCO PRODUCTS SALES ORDINANCES (Joanne Ferrary & Elizabeth Thomson) SB 95 House Bill 97 amends the Tobacco Products Act (Section 61-37-24 NMSA 1978) to include a provision that would allow counties and municipalities to enact ordinances, charter amendments, or other tobacco regulations that are stricter than, but not in conflict with, the provisions of the Tobacco Products Act. • The significant issue in this bill is that it specifically addresses the issue of state preemption of local ability to act in the arena of tobacco regulation. Current law specifically mandates that if municipalities, including home rule municipalities enact any measure concerning the sale tobacco products that the measure enacted by the municipality be consistent with the state Tobacco Products Act. Enactment of this bill will remove the consistency requirement and put in its place a prohibition that any enactment not be in conflict with state law. • The bill would allow local communities to develop tobacco ordinances and regulations that address unique characteristics of tobacco use in that community. HPREF [1] HHHC/HLLC-HHHC [2] DP-HLLC HB 268 CORONAVIRUS & WORKERS’ COMP (Dayan Hochman-Vigil, Christine Chandler, Meredith Dixon and Daymon Ely) House Bill 268 (HB 268) amends Section 52-1-19 NMSA 1978 of the Workers’ Compensation Act to create the rebuttable presumption that contraction of Covid-19 by an essential employee is an injury arising by accident out of and in the course of employment, provided the employee can establish that the employer has not strictly complied with the existing public health orders. An essential worker is defined as any public safety employee or school employee or an employee declared to be an essential employee pursuant to a public health order of the governor or the Secretary of Health. The employer may rebut the presumption by a preponderance of the evidence that the worker substantially violated a public health order related to Covid-19. Section 2 prohibits insurers from using Covid-19 claims arising in the course of employment in developing rating plans. [2] HLVMC/HSEIC-HLVMC [6] DP/a-HSEIC 3 SENATE BILLS SB 20 TRANSPORTATION PROJECT FUND (Roberto Gonzales) Senate Bill 20 changes the distribution of 18.75 percent of the motor vehicle excise tax revenue collected from the local government road fund to the transportation project fund. The bill does not make any other changes to the amount or distribution of motor vehicle excise tax revenue. The bill will create a recurring source of revenue to the transportation project fund. TRD estimates this revenue stream to be $41.1 million in FY22, growing to $42.5 million in FY22.