Your NM Government: Roundhouse Update | 3.4.21

No More Normal

Thanks for joining us again for this short legislative update, coming to you straight from my garage! We're working on our floors right now, so the usual spot in the closet was taken today. Another busy day in the Roundhouse, including another long night in the House. That will likely continue for the rest of the session as the pattern now is to start the daily House Floor sessions at 4:30pm. The Senate Floor sessions are happening starting around 11am. And, of course, committee meetings are still in play throughout the day as well. Some of the highlights from yesterday's action, you'll hear me talk more about in today's episode:

*Governor Lujan Grisham signs a pair of pandemic relief bills

*The House did approve a tax bill last night, House Bill 291, that would include tax credits for low income New Mexicans, and tax increases for high earners. A proposed amendment to that bill failed to get enough backing, however. It would have instead instituted new taxes on renewable energy businesses in our state.

*A bill that paves the way for limited at-home liquor delivers (HB 255) made it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee and is now headed to the full Senate. A vote on that could happen later this week, but time will tell.

*Senate Bill 93 is headed to the House, after a 33-6 vote in the Senate yesterday. This would create the new Office of Broadband Access and Expansion to help us create a comprehensive plan to connect more of the state, which was ranked 42nd in the country in a new broadband report.

Let us know what bills or issues you are following and we will do our best to keep you up to date on all of that as the session heads into the final days of the 2021 session.

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Your New Mexico Government is a collaboration between KUNM, New Mexico PBS and the Santa Fe Reporter. Funding for our coverage comes from the New Mexico Local News Fund, the Kellogg Foundation and KUNM listeners like you, with support for public media provided by the Thornburg Foundation.