Idalia Lechuga-Tena has alleged incumbent Mayor Richard Berry’s campaign violated city campaign finance rules when it collected donations from business owners who have contracts with the administration.

New Mexico Telegram received a copy of the letter sent to the mayor yesterday by City Clerk Amy Bailey.  In the correspondence, Bailey notifies Berry the board will not hear oral arguments nor consider the accuracy of the facts. Instead, members simply need to determine if the complaint shows sufficient cause for an evidentiary hearing for a later date.

At least one board member may have a conflict of interest hearing the case. NM Telegram has learned Board of Ethics member Rex Throckmorton donated $1,000 to Berry’s re-election campaign earlier this year. It’s not immediately clear if Throckmorton plans to recuse himself from hearing the Dinelli campaign complaint. Throckmorton is a city council appointed member of the board. His term expires in 2016.

Earlier this month, the board dismissed six similar complaints and on May 7, three donors with city contracts, and one potential donor, filed a lawsuit in federal district court. They say the city’s ban on contractor donation violates their First Amendment Rights to free speech.

The 4 p.m. meeting is slated for the Vincent Griego City Council Chambers.

Update:

This piece was updated for clarity. A copy of the complaint was added below.

Ethics Hearing Date Set by Peter St. Cyr

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On to the Word:

• The New Mexico Superintendent of Insurance sent a letter to the federal government asking for the feds to pay the full tab for critically ill New Mexicans. There are 1,500 in the program that was supposed to be at no cost to states but now is a burden shared by both state and federal governments.
• The Mescalero Apache Tribal President and Vice President were placed on paid administrative leave by the tribal council, the Ruidoso News reports.
  

  The action was taken to facilitate an operational and programmatic review of the tribe’s activities over the next month, according to information from Acting President Alfred La Paz, who is a member of the tribal council and was serving as council secretary.

  “While the vote to place the president and vice president on leave was not unanimous, the tribal council will be working unanimously over the next month to ensure the smooth operation of tribal government,” LaPaz stated. “It is my understanding that a number of council members had concerns about the level of communication that existed between the president and the council.”

• Gov. Susana Martinez was named to the National Governors Association task force on health care.
• Leslie Linthicum wonders about the effect of oil and gas drilling just outside of Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
• Carlsbad Democrat Roxanne Lara is considering a run at Congress against Steve Pearce. Lara was most recently in the public eye when running for the position of Democratic Party of New Mexico chair.
• New Mexico got a “C” on economic security.
• The transgender student who St. Pius officials were forcing to wear the robes of a female graduate despite self-identifying as a male. His family petitioned to be allowed to wear the same robes as other males who graduated, but St. Pius denied the request.
• Another black eye for the Public Education Department. An error related to, of all things, alphabetization means that funding for the schools was off. In some cases, some school districts and charter schools received $2.5 million in extra funds while others received hundreds of thousands of dollars less in funding.
  

  “We have a school district in New Mexico, West Las Vegas, that falls in the ‘Ws’ ” he said. “The way we received the data from the federal government is they coded it as ‘Las Vegas West.’ ”

• Sequestration hitting those lower on the financial totem pole again. Those receiving unemployment checks will see their payments reduced by 25 percent.
• The Research Director at the Southwest Research and Information Center, Paul Robinson, sat down with V.B. Price for this week’s edition of New Mexico Mercury’s Insight New Mexico video series. Robinson is talking about a hot-button topic in New Mexico: Uranium mining.
• The Farmington city council approved a preliminary budget for the city. It includes a two percent across-the-board raise for city employees.
• The Weekly Alibi covers the horse slaughter plant issue.
  

  Furor over the nation’s first domestic horse slaughterhouse—since the practice was banned six years ago—has intensified as the likelihood the government will honor Valley Meat’s application for equine inspection increases. Opponents of the project include animal rights activists and politicians.

  Lisa Jennings, of Animal Protection New Mexico, says horses are naturally skittish, which makes it nearly impossible to transport and slaughter the animals humanely. After the horse survives the long journey to the plant, it is loaded into a chute where a fixed bolt gun shoots a bolt into the horse’s brain to render it unconscious. “There is no-way that this captive bolt gun is going to shoot them in the right place in the brain to render them unconscious. So the horse is going to have to be shot with this captive bolt over and over again,” said Jennings.

• The Weekly Word podcast will record today with freelance reporter Laura Paskus. So look for the podcast to post Friday morning.
• The city of Rio Rancho will vote on cutting the higher education tax in half. The Albuquerque Journal:
  

  Voters approved a 20-year tax in 2008 to help the University of New Mexico build the UNM West campus in the city center. It currently brings in about $2 million annually. The city agreed in 2009 to provide about $870,000 toward infrastructure for the campus and $1.5 million annually through 2015 for construction of the building. Budget figures for fiscal year 2014 show the city will have nearly $1.4 million more than it needs to meet its obligation to UNM, the memo said.

• Milan Simonich has some harsh words for former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici related to his affair that resulted in a child more than thirty years ago.
• Four people want the district judge post for Curry and Roosevelt counties.
• The mess in Sunland Park has cost taxpayers $250,000, Capitol Report New Mexico found.
• Right now, New Mexico is the only state in the nation with a facility that the Federal Aviation Administration has approved to test drones. The FAA is set to approve more airfields to test dronesbecause of new rules, giving New Mexico competition.
• The Daily Drought and Fire Digest (Yes, slightly new name):

  Elephant Butte has extremely low levels.
  

  The lake is slightly below last year’s water levels, at roughly 11 percent full, according to estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

  Last year, the lake was 15 percent full.

  The Taos News reports on the start of Taos fire season.
  

  At the start of a season that promises to keep firefighters on their toes, officials are keeping a close eye on ever-changing conditions in the field. Current moisture levels aren’t yet cause for serious concern, but they are trending downward and could get worse if this summer proves to be a dry one.

  The bosque is closed in three counties — Bernalillo, Sandoval and Valencia Counties due to fire danger.

• Media news:

  KOB is losing reporter Antoinette Antonio and videographer Jeremy Fine to Boston.

  I will be part of a Society of Professional Journalists panel on covering breaking news.

• Kirtland Air Force Base escaped the biggest amount of budget cuts but will still feel the hit of sequestration, Air Force Maj. Gen. Sandy Finan said at a meeting of the Economic Forum of Albuquerque.
• Leadership New Mexico named Tony Atkinson as a distinguished alum.
• The New Mexico Game Commission will meet in Roswell. The AP:
  

  The New Mexico Game Commission will be meeting in Roswell to consider revising the hunting season for squirrels and grouse and the renewal of a lease that would allow access to state trust land.

• Wind ripped the roof off of an elementary school in Los Alamos.
• What the hell?
  

  The Clovis Police Department asks that the public and local businesses be aware of a new phone scam in the area in which businesses seem to be the main focus of a bomb threat extortion scam in which a person calls saying that there are bombs planted in the business and they will detonate them unless several thousand dollars are wired to a location and if they contact law enforcement they will detonate the bombs immediately.

The poll showed that 51 percent of voters say that same-sex marriage between same-sex couples should be made illegal versus 44 percent who said they support legalization.

However, as with other nationwide polls and from other states, the younger generation is more in favor of same-sex marriage.

KOB wrote, “Younger New Mexicans voted in favor of legalization at an even higher rate with 63 percent of them supporting LGBT marriage.”

There are efforts to make same-sex marriage legal in New Mexico, but the mostly focus on a judicial effort. Legislative efforts involving same-sex marriage have mainly gone nowhere on either side of the debate.

A poll by SurveyUSA in 2011 said that a plurality of likely voters supported same-sex marriage.

The difference could be the question that was asked (KOB did not disclose the wording of the question) or the samples used.

Already, 11 states have legalized same-sex marriage. New Mexico’s law does not say anything one way or the other on same-sex marriage.

Gadi Schwartz of KOB and Astrid Galvin of the Albuquerque Journal are on the ground.

Other news outlets are reporting on the tornado, but localizing it. For example, KRQE reported a story about a former New Mexican who survived the tornado. So did the Deming Headlight.

But KOB and the Albuquerque Journal sending two experienced reporters to cover the aftermath shows how big of a story this is — and how it is become a national story. It is something the newsrooms feel is a big enough story to spend resources of increasingly-financially-strapped news outlets to cover the story.

A University of New Mexico Hospital team also headed to Oklahoma. And Gov.

On to the Word:

• Want to get the Morning Word each morning in your inbox? Just sign up here and it will be sent at 8:00 am each morning.

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• KOB continues the slow release of polling by SurveyUSA, this one on the question of same-sex marriage. The poll finds 51 percent support legislation to make same-sex marriage illegal and 44 percent support legalization of same-sex marriage. But among younger New Mexicans, the support is flipped.
  

  Younger New Mexicans voted in favor of legalization at an even higher rate with 63 percent of them supporting LGBT marriage, democrats support with the same percentage at 63 percent.

• KRQE says the state suppressed an investigation into an $11 million fraud case involving a luxury home builder.
• A proposal to limit gun magazines to 10 bullets moved forward in Santa Fe.
• New Mexico’s spending on education is below the national average according to numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau. Albuquerque Business First:
  

  The 50 states and the District of Columbia spent an average of $10,560 per student in 2011, down 0.4 percent from the previous year.

  The top spending states were New York, $19,076; the District of Columbia, $18,475; Alaska, $16,674; New Jersey, $15,968; and Vermont, $15,925.

  New Mexico’s spending per student was between $8,000 and $9,999, the Census Bureau said. The state spent $3.7 billion on public schools during the year.

• The Santa Fe Reporter examines the effort to “gut” the New Mexico Finance Authority. The paper speaks to former NMFA head Rick May:
  

  In May’s view, severely curtailing NMFA’s authority is a dangerous prospect—and would favor private investment banks over local communities in need of sewers, public buildings and other infrastructure projects.

  “They want the Finance Authority to be this sleepy little entity that only gives small loans to small communities, and…that these local communities should go through these private entities and pay higher interest rates,” May says. “These other private entities are going to charge a lot higher fees than the Finance Authority ever did. They view the Finance Authority, I guess, as unfair competition.”

• Richard Branson, head of Virgin Galactic, is aiming for a Christmas Day launch from the New Mexico Spaceport.
• Oil production in the state increased 46 percent according to the Associated Press.
• The Taos News reports that the State Land Office made $45.4 million in revenue in April, the bulk of which goes to public school funding.
• Gov. Susana Martinez will speak to the Republican Party dinner in Ohio.
• Democratic Party of New Mexico chairman Sam Bregman took exception to the head of the Ohio Republican Party calling Martinez a “job creator.” He wrote an open letter to the head of the Ohio Republican Party:
  

  If you believe the above stats deserve the term ‘job creator’ then there is even a bigger difference between the Democratic and Republican parties than was thought. Republicans in Ohio have a bizarre definition for ‘job creator.’ When you meet Gov. Martinez on June 29, ask her if she can name one, single job she has created in two and a half years in office. Other than the one for her political consultant.

• Investigative reporter Mike Gallagher says White House efforts to investigate leaks put a damper on investigations everywhere.
• Protesters showed their opposition to uranium mining near Mount Taylor.
  

  “This uranium mine, which is the first one to be actually brought to New Mexico, when Obama banned uranium mining, a lot of these uranium mines are starting to pop up under real fast circumstances and processes,” Curley said. “This Roca Honda Mine has been under wraps when it comes to Native communities.”

• The Daily Drought Digest:

  More increased restrictions on fires. This one in the bosque and Sandia Foothills in Albuquerque and the bosque in unincorporated Bernalillo County land.

• The Las Cruces school board renewed an underperforming charter school’s license. Las Montañas Charter High School has had financial and academic problems according to the Las Cruces Sun-News.
• Attorney General Gary King is distancing himself from the Animal Cruelty Task Force that he created.
  

  “If I had ever been aware that Ms. Ferguson had represented herself as having any authority flowing from the attorney general’s office or the task force I would have immediately demanded that she cease such representations, and I would have informed any relevant law enforcement agencies of same,” King wrote in his affidavit.

  “I did not have any knowledge at the time of the alleged raid on the Marins’ ranch that Ms. Ferguson or the task force had violated or were violating anyone’s constitutional rights.”

• Public News Service examines challenges to fracking on a local and national level.
• Documents into an investigation that forced a San Miguel County probate judge to resign were unsealed and the Santa Fe New Mexican has the details.
• New Mexico Mercury looks at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a private contractor that does work for Sandia National Labs.
  

  Indeed, SAIC is one of the least recognized, yet most pervasive forces in the government’s shadow intelligence and security state. With current annual revenue of $11.2 billion and an $18 billion backlog of government business, it boasts 42 government contracts worth more than $100 million each.

• Lincoln County may issue a moratorium on new subdivisions over new regulations on water rights.
• Local solar energy company Emcore won a contract to build solar panels for a NASA satellite that is set to launch in 2015.
  

  The satellite is designed to demonstrate , a new propellant called AF-M315E that’s designed to be high-performance and environmentally sensitive, according to a news release. Emcore did not release an amount for the contract.

• Members of local tea Party groups gathered for a protest at an IRS building in Albuquerque. The Albuquerque Tea Party says it was targeted by the IRS over its tax-exempt status.
• La Jicarita writes about another Albuquerque Police Department officer who was exonerated for a shooting.
• Media News:

  The Society for Professional Journalists held its annual “Top of the Rockies” competition for newspapers from Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. A word document of all the winners (including way too many from New Mexico to list) is available here.

• Los Alamos National Labs director Charles McMillan spoke about cybersecurity.
• Carlsbad schools hope they can continue bilingual education since many students int eh district do not speak English as their first language.
• New Mexico Highlands University and the State Land Office signed a collaboration agreement.

• Governor Susana Martinez continues to be very popular in New Mexico, with 66 percent of New Mexicans approving of the job Martinez is doing to just 29 percent disapproving of the way she is doing her job. The numbers come from a KOB poll by SurveyUSA.
• Attorney General Gary King defended the release of emails as part of the Inspection of Public Records Act. Republicans have criticized the release of the emails, saying they were stolen and involved non-public materials.
• New Mexico In Depth says 1,500 critically ill New Mexicans face an uncertain future as the state and federal governments decide who will fund their health care.
• Las Cruces’ city commission approved strengthened campaign policies for municipal elections.
• The Santa Fe New Mexican looks at the possible electoral effects of annexation of areas of Santa Fe County into Santa Fe’s city limits.
• A state district court judge will rule that taxpayer funds can go to fund textbooks for private schools, the Santa Fe New Mexican reports.
• New Mexico’s Economic Development Department approved a small grant to train workers for a solar company in Northern New Mexico.
• Taos internet was affected by hackers looking to manipulate the internet currency known as Bitcoin.
• The Daily Drought Digest:

  A forest fire that flared up Friday afternoon was quickly contained.

  There are large brush fires in southern New Mexico the Las Cruces Sun-News reports.

The aquifer under Albuquerque is actually growing despite the drought.

The Los Alamos Reservoir is filling up again after a dam was rebuilt. But it is happening slowly.


The run off from winter snows has been disappointing this year and the reservoir is filling very slowly. Currently there are about three acre feet of water in the reservoir that has a capacity of approximately 25 acre feet.

• The oil and gas industry doesn’t like the new rules on fracking.
• A former inspector has reservations about a proposed horse slaughterhouse.
  

  Among his concerns is whether the horses can be humanely killed in the manner described by De Los Santos. De Los Santos took a Journal reporter on a tour of the plant recently and described the process, which involved shooting a retractable 8-inch-long bolt into the animal’s skull to destroy its brain. The horse would then be hung up, stabbed and drained of blood.

  Friedlander also said that because horses are skittish and have longer necks, it is more difficult for slaughterhouse workers to effectively stun the animals with a bolt gun used on cattle.

• I haven’t seen it since I read my news online, but the Deming Headlight announced a change in looks.
• Panelists at a hearing of commercial real estate leaders said that education is the key to a better workforce in New Mexico.
• The city of Rio Rancho was told to expect even bigger losses out of the Santa Ana Star Center next year. The arena has been a money pit for the city since it opened.
• The Town of Taos is really bracing for a Mumford and Sons concert.
  

  Town Manager Oscar Rodríguez went over a draft map detailing closures, parking areas and shuttle routes with the council. He said once it has been finalized it will be widely distributed, including as an email to ticketholders, as an insert in The Taos News and at taosnews.com.

• Former Aztec mayor Michael Arnold died in a plane crash.
• Mayor Richard Berry’s plan to improve Albuquerque received $3 million in funding.
• Labor will rally in favor of Northern New Mexico College after “mass firings” and a large increase in student fees.
• A ban on expanding an Army site in the Raton area was extended for another year.
• LULAC is not happy about what they say is a “disturbing” pattern of officials saying no Spanish is allowed in New Mexico high school athletics.
• Larry the Cable Guy was in Alamogordo for his show “Only in America” which is apparently pretty good.

The video of the KOB report is available at the bottom of this post. The Survey/USA crosstabs are available here.

The poll commissioned by the newspaper showed that Berry has the support of 59 percent of likely Albuquerque voters support Berry’s reelection bid while 17 percent prefer former Albuquerque city councilor Pete Dinelli and 9 percent prefer former Albuquerque Police Department Sgt. Paul Heh.

The poll is the first of the race, which will be decided in October. If no candidates receives at least 50 percent of the vote, there would be a runoff election.

Heh says he has done no campaigning yet, so is surprised to be at 9 percent. Berry told KOB that it was an example of voters liking his “steady and responsible leadership.” Dinelli says he expects to gain more support as the campaign goes on.

Voters said that the city economy would be the top issue in the races.

The poll of 501 likely voters from May 14 to 17 has a margin of error of 4.4 percent.

Update:

A Democratic source reacts to the poll, saying that this is the “exact same position RJ Berry was in four years ago at this time.” The source cites an extremely high name recognition for Berry and that party affiliation wasn’t read in the poll.

“Voters will know that RJ and Heh are republicans and Pete is a Dem,” the source writes.

The elections are non-partisan, though state parties get heavily involved in the race.

Update 2:
Berry campaign strategist Jay McCleskey sent the following statement to NM Telegram:

“It is wishful thinking for Dinelli supporters to claim his position today mirrors Berry’s from 2009. This year, Berry is exceptionally well-positioned for re-election and his ballot standing is 21 points higher than that of the incumbent mayor in 2009. If Berry’s lead was the product of simple name identification, then Democrats with higher name ID, like Diane Denish, would not have taken a pass on the race after conducting their own polls. While all races can be expected to tighten some, an incumbent starting at 59 percent is in a very different position than the one who started at 38 percent.”

The poll question McCleskey refers to is embedded below the video.

City of Albuquerque, NM Survey 2009

KUNM has more:

The 13-member board chose a hybrid approach to set up the health insurance exchange by the October deadline five months from now, and awarded a nearly $40-million dollar contract to the IT company GetInsured. The company will build the website customers will use to select their plans on the exchange. The state also has a $6-million grant from the federal government to conduct public outreach.

Meanwhile, the board chose a California company to build the framework of the exchange.

On to the Word:

• Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry starts the election with a very large lead over challengers Pete Dinelli and Paul Heh. KOB commissioned the poll from SurveyUSA.
• Former governor and new New Mexico State University president Garrey Carruthers says New Mexico is the only Western state not to see a recovery.
  

  He said New Mexico has too many four-year colleges and universities — seven compared to three in Arizona, which has triple New Mexico’s population.

  Carruthers also criticized larger districts for building mega high schools for thousands of students. He said high schools of 500 to 700 students were the most effective academically.

• The unemployment numbers went down in April according to the an AP report on Department of Workforce Solutions numbers.
• But there are still a lot of people looking for jobs at job fairs with thousands showing up for the limited spots available.
• Vice President Joe Biden’s wife, Dr. Jill Biden, gave the commencement speech at Navajo Technical College.
• The natin’s largest uranium mine is planned to open in New Mexico, the Albuquerque Journal reports in a front-page Sunday story.
• Uranium Resources Incorporated will close three New Mexico offices, KRQE reports. The company wants to mine uranium near Church Rock and Crownpoint.
• Economic Development Secretary Jon Barelas called suggestions that he would run for Lieutenant Governor “laughable.”
• Barela told the Legislative Finance Committee that the tax package pushed through at the end of the session saved 1,500 jobs and created another 200 jobs though he did not provide the names of businesses that would have left the state or cut jobs if hte package was not passed.
• The Sangre de Cristo Chronicle reports on the Mora County oil and gas drilling ban.
  

  Whether the push to keep oil and gas companies out of Mora ensures a more sustainable and fruitful growing season remains to be seen. National contenders continue to bout on the topics of hydraulic fracturing, mostly in regard to its opponents’ theorized effects on the environment and groundwater.
  Mora County Commission Chairman John Olivas said he believes local voters favor an agricultural economy without revenue based on fossil fuels. He said the voters showed that by voting for him and fellow commissioner Alfonso Griego, who ran platforms for sustainable and more environmentally friendly economic practices.

• The Albuquerque Journal with an interesting story on tax returns from those in the country illegally. Namely that those who pay taxes won’t get tax refunds so as not to show their undocumented status in the country.
• The Los Alamos Monitor reports the Los Alamos Public School District propose a $36.8 million budget.
• The Los Alamos Monitor looked at Los Alamos National Labs director Charlie McMillan’s thoughts on an alternative plutonium strategy that he outlined to the Senate Armed Forces Subcommittee.
• New Mexico Compass will host a Google Hangout with the former executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government Gwyneth Doland andSanta Fe Reporter editor Alexa Schirtzinger today at noon.
• Steve Terrell notes a tie from long ago to IRS tax investigations featuring former U.S. Sen. Joseph Montoya.
  

  As James Bovard wrote in the Wall Street Journal last week, “after Sen. Joe Montoya of New Mexico announced plans in 1972 to hold hearings on IRS abuses, the agency added his name to a list of tax protesters who were capable of violence against IRS agents.”

• Could New Mexico come to dominate the drone economy? Fortune magazine:
  

  New Mexico is home to massive test ranges at White Sands (both for military missiles and NASA’s space rockets), Spaceport America, the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base, Sandia National Laboratories (a government-owned research center operated by Lockheed Martin), and Los Alamos National Laboratory. As a state, it doesn’t have to worry about importing engineering talent or where the FAA chooses to place its new test facilities. It also supports various state tax deductions for aerospace companies as well as incentives for capital investment and workforce development in the field. As such, many aerospace companies large and small maintain outposts in New Mexico, and the climate is favorable to those wishing to launch a UAS concern.

• Rio Rancho’s governing manager may drop the water rates in the city.
  

  Wilkins’ proposal to reduce the recent water and wastewater rate increase from 8.8 percent to 7.8 percent is on the city governing body agenda for Wednesday night. In January, governing body members approved a 7.8 percent increase to keep the water and wastewater utility financially solvent and added a 1 percent raise to pay for the replacement of leaky water service lines.

• A public works project in Mora County is in trouble because of the county’s interim County Manager.
  

  Pepin’s comments are contained in a May 14 memorandum obtained by the Optic. The memo is addressed to the Mora County Commission, the Department of Finance and Administration, the Legislative Finance Council, New Mexico Finance Authority and the New Mexico Association of Counties.

  AOC’s threat to walk away from the project is significant because the $1.85 million appropriation from the Legislature to complete the next phase of the vacant complex is contingent on Mora County’s continuing its collaboration with the AOC. Without that collaboration, the county would not be able to access the funding, according to the language in the bill containing the appropriation.

• The Navajo Nation hasn’t had a chief of police in five years after the last police chief was put on paid leave.
  

  The tribe has no intention of filling the chief position soon. The captains have been filling in for several months at a time — sometimes close to a year at a time.

  “We’ve been doing this for awhile,” said Erny Zah, spokesman for the Navajo Nation Office of the President and Vice President. “It’s really become routine.”

• The Sandoval County manager will get a raise and three year contract extension.
• Curry County commissioners want another vote on a bond for improvements to the county jail.
  

  Blackburn and Ashley noted the county spends more than $700,000 each year to house inmates outside the county because of overcrowding, largely due to classification issues.

  The proposal Tuesday would extend by another 20 years an existing 20-year bond on schedule to be paid off next year, according to County Manager Lance Pyle.

• Los Alamos County workers are moving to a new building.
• The Eddy County commission will hear from Col. Andy Croft, commander of the 49th Wing at Holloman Air Force Base, to hear about the base’s mission. While it isn’t in Eddy County, it does have an impact on the county.
• Some Alamogordo businesses spoke about the economy in the area as sequestration hits Holloman Air Force Base.
• The money pit htat is the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho continues to cost the financially strapped city money, as Batman Live was a huge flop.

• Gov. Susana Martinez isn’t a frontrunner for the Republican nomination for President in 2016; Public Policy Polling finds that 68 percent of likely Republican voters don’t know enough about her to form an opinion while just one percent say she is their top choice.
• A study by the Economic Policy Institute finds that economic recovery is slow in New Mexico — and even slower for Hispanics in the state.
• An ethics complaint against Mayor Richard Berry took a step forward.
• A member of the Health Insurance Exchange Board said the state shouldn’t rely on the federal government, citing the high risk pool. Albuquerque Business First:
  

  “I have the experience of getting burned by the feds,” Sandel said while urging his fellow board members to not allow federal officials to run the individual insurance portion of New Mexico’s exchange.

  “It’s very difficult for me to envision handing individuals to the feds. It’s scary for me.

  “We continued to be encouraged by the feds to enroll more people, and now they’re changing the contract. This is a significant change. I’m left with a feeling that things can change no matter what assurances there have been.”

• And the board is beginning the process of hiring a marketing firm for the exchange.
• The Rio Grande Sun reports on the city of Española needing an audit before it can get any capital outlay funding.
• New Mexico In Focus will talk about the state’s water battle with Texas — with Attorney General Gary King. Look for it tonight on KNME.
• Two Albuquerque city councilors want to suspend the Police Oversight Commission, saying it is ineffective. They say it should be suspended until a better solution can be found.
• St. Pius High School is forcing a transgender student who identifies as a male to wear a female gown if he wants to walk at graduation.
• Michael Coleman looks at the political infighting over who gets the credit for LANL cleanup funding.
• Clovis officials started the process on a huge amount of industrial revenue bonds for the Tres Amigas power superstation.
  

  The commission, in a 6-0 vote, agreed to introduce an ordinance that would create 30-year bonds for a tax abatement of $1.655 billion for Tres Amigas, LLC, to build its power superstation on 14,400 acres of land in Curry County.

• State Republicans are going after Sen. Tom Udall for a letter he signed onto that asked the IRS to look into the non-profits that were involved in politics. The letter did not single out conservative groups or any other type of non-profit.
• The town of Taos rejected proposals for the Convention Center — and now may close down the buildings.
• NM Capitol Report has more on Leslie Endean-Singh, the Democrat who wants to face Rep. Steve Pearce in the 2nd Congressional District.
• The Daily Drought Digest:

  The Mt. Taylor Ranger District is postponing issuing personal use woodcutting permits because of the drought.
  

  The woodcutting season will begin when there is enough precipitation to decrease the likelihood of human-caused wildfires. The district will issue a media release and post information on the web to announce the beginning of the season.

  The Lincoln County Commission accepted a change to subdivision ordinances despite opposition, the Ruidoso News reports.
  

  Residents filled a Board of Public Utilities meeting on Wednesday to voice their dispelesature over a plan to drill a water well in their community. The Los Alamos Monitor:
  

  DPU proposes digging the wells to utilize the county’s 1,200 acre-feet San Juan-Chama water allotment and secure the county’s water rights.

  Well Site 3, located in county open space south of Pajarito Acres — provides the greatest potential to yield the 1,200 acre-feet allotment and will be the first site tested.

  The State Engineer plans on metering some water wells to measure water use.

• Las Cruces will repeal a law that would have imposed impact fees on developers.
  

  The action comes after the council was told by Public Works Director Loretta Reyes earlier this week that the fees won’t be enough to pay for improvements.

  “We’ll repeal the ordinance,” Mayor Ken Miyagishima said. “We could have gone back through the entire process again, and come up with a new method, but that would be too lengthy and more expensive for the city in the long run.”

• The mayor of Las Vegas spent $9,500 on travel. The mayor, Alfonso Ortiz, is facing a recall effort.
• The city of Raton is looking at putting a $6 surcharge on electric bills to help close a budget gap.
• Albuquerque is looking for public comment on a bus rapid transit idea that would provide bus-only lanes on Central Avenue.
• The Navajo Nation named a new Poet Laureate. New Mexico In Depth has the details.
• A judge delayed unsealing pre-trial motions in the Levi Chavez case. Chavez is accused of killing his wife.

  From New Mexico Compass:
  

  One court document was made available to the public during yesterday’s hearing. Judge George Eichwald also reversed his position and lifted a blanket seal he had ordered on all future motions filed before the trial begins.

  Another six sealed court documents will be considered on Wednesday, May 22, after lawyers have had a chance to comb through hundreds of questionnaires given to potential jurors. Defense attorney David Serna said a random sampling of 47 questionnaires showed 24 people had a fixed, negative opinion of the case. He read examples out loud one by one.

• Oil and gas interests are not happy with new rules on the controversial practice known as “fracking.” Capitol Report New Mexico writes about it.
• The Raton Range looks at Raton’s ties to the space travel industry in New Mexico. While I’ve never been a fan of the Spaceport, the typing “the space travel industry in New Mexico” is pretty cool.
• The Alamogordo city council failed to pass a ban on texting and driving as well as one that would stop talking on the phone while driving.
  

  Some commissioners have objected to language that exempted emergency workers from following the law. Others have only wanted texting while driving banned.

  The ordinance was called unenforceable by some and unnecessary by others because there are already laws in the books that deal with distracted drivers.

The city Board of Ethics will hear the complaint after a Review Committee of the City of Albuquerque Board of Ethics and Campaign Practices ruled there was enough evidence to go to the full Board.

The move was announced by the campaign of Pete Dinelli.

At issue is if Berry’s campaign received donations from city contractors. The city charter forbids municipal candidates from receiving donations from companies, non-profits or any entity with a contract with the city.

“We must hold our elected officials to the highest standards of ethical behavior and transparency,” said Dinelli. “It’s a disservice to the people of Albuquerque that the Mayor has given up on the accountable and transparent public financing system. Instead, he has focused on raising high dollar donations from corporate special interests and has broken the law. He must be held accountable for his inappropriate and unethical grab for pay-to-play campaign cash.”

Berry’s campaign did not return a request for comment from NM Telegram. This post will be updated if and when the campaign responds.

Some of the donors in question filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the contribution ban. Dinelli opposes this lawsuit, saying it leads to views of pay-to-play.

The states receive 50 percent of the revenues resulting from the leasing of mineral resources on federal public domain lands within their borders according to the Mineral Leasing Act. The DOI has said the state’s share is subject to sequestration.

New Mexico lost $25 million in funding because of the budget cuts — though the delegation in New Mexico and other western states argue this is state funding and therefore should not be subject to sequestration. These protests have so far fallen on deaf ears, so there is now legislation pending to make the changes into law.

In addition to exempting the funds from being taken by the federal government through sequestration, the bill would eliminate a 2 percent fee that the federal government charges for collection of the royalties.

U.S. Sen. Tom Udall cosponsored legislation by Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., that a statement by Udall’s office said would “protect money that is rightfully owed under the Mineral Leasing Act.”

“We have an existing agreement for mineral development within our states’ borders that should be honored and off limits to federal meddling,” said Udall. “The royalties New Mexico earns from the extraction of our abundant natural resources is used to fund public education and other critical services.”

New Mexico’s other Senator, Martin Heinrich, also opposes the money being taken from state coffers. Like Udall, Heinrich is a Democrat.

“I disagree with DOI’s decision to sequester revenue under the Mineral Leasing Act and am pursuing an approach to fixing the problem that may not require legislation,” Heinrich told NM Telegram in statement.

NM Telegram has asked for a clarification on what sort of approach Heinrich is pursuing and why he prefers it and will update this post when this is given.

See Update at end of post.

On the House side, Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, a Democrat, was an original cosponsor of companion legislation to the legislation Udall cosponsored in the Senate.

“The state’s share of these funds is just that – the state’s share – and should not be withheld by the federal government due to sequestration. The sequester is a failed experiment – one that I have been opposed to every step of the way – that is harming New Mexico and should be repealed in full,” Lujan said in a press release. “But absent a comprehensive solution, Congress should stand up to protect funds that belong to the states and play a vital role in our communities.”

The state’s only Republican member of the delegation also approved of the proposed legislation, calling the money being taken because of sequestration “an outrage.”

“This legislation will streamline the royalty payment distribution, ensuring that New Mexico will receive its share of the payments without interference,” Pearce said in a press release. “There is no reason for the states to be reliant on the federal government to disburse mineral royalty payments when history shows that the federal government cannot be relied upon to make these payments in a timely fashion. This money- which amounts to about $25 million for New Mexico- is too valuable to our schools and communities to let out of the state.”

Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham told NM Telegram that she supports the State Revenue Repayment Act State Mineral Revenue Protection Act.

“The across-the-board cuts mandated by sequestration are slowing economic growth throughout the country,” Lujan Grisham said. “New Mexico receives significant federal investments that have driven our state’s economy in sectors such as health care, engineering, technology and science, all of which have been hard-hit by sequestration. To have these indiscriminate cuts also affect the distribution of mineral royalty payments further strains our state’s ability to fund our public schools, hospitals and infrastructure. I support the State Mineral Revenue Protection Act and hope that Congress will soon vote to end the disastrous sequester cuts.”

Both Lujan and Pearce voted against sequestration. Udall and Heinrich voted for the bill that included sequestration. Lujan Grisham was not in Congress when sequestration was passed by Congress.

Sequestration is a nearly across-the-board cut to the federal budget that was designed to be painful enough that legislators would find an alternative solution. That did not happen and the cuts went into effect. So far, Congress has addressed sequester in only one instance — giving the Federal Aviation Administration on the budget cuts.

Other programs, such as federal funds that pay for Meals on Wheels programs, have not seen similar exemptions.

Update (4:10 pm):

The five members of the New Mexico delegation signed onto a letter to Sylvia Burwell, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, asking for the mineral revenue to be returned to the states.

The full text of the letter is available below.

Letter Requesting the Office of Management and Budget to Return Sequestered Mineral Revenue Owed to the Sta… by U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.)

Correction: This post incorrectly referred to the law as the State Revenue Protection Act. NM Telegram regrets the error.

Photo via Flickr/Maarten1979