New Mexico State Senator Dede Feldman's Blog

Agree with these Bills? Here’s How You Can Help Me Pass ‘em

A number of people have asked me what I’ve introduced so far this session and how they can help. Here’s a partial answer.  This week, I introduced three bills that will help consumers:

Listen to my audio description of Senate Bill 448 Here ( Download & Play SB448.mp3 .) Senate Bill 448 pre-empts identity theft by allowing consumers to place a freeze on access to their credit reports whenever they want.  So, if your mail has been stolen, or your n’ere-do-well brother-in-law "borrowed” your credit card, and you fear the worst, you can just call the credit bureau and put on the freeze.  Whenever you want to unfreeze the access, to shop for a car, say, you can use a pin number to unfreeze it for as long you want.  It’s a measure that is law in 25 other states.  I’m working with the new AG, Gary King, on the bill, which is backed by the AARP.  Current laws only allow you to protect yourself in this way after your identity has been stolen, and new accounts have been opened in your name, or new charges start appearing on your credit card bill.

You can express your support by contacting members of the Senate Public Affairs Committee at 1-505-986-4300 and asking for their extension,  or by emailing them directly by clicking their email links below:

Sen. Mary Jane Garcia
Sen. May Kay Papen
Sen. Gerry Ortiz y Pino
Sen. David Ulibarri
Sen. Steve Komadina
Sen. Steve Neville
Sen. Gay Kernan
Sen. Stuart Ingle

Here's a link to the actual text of the bill:
SB448 (CREDIT REPORT SECURITY ACT)

Or you can send them an e-mail at first name.last name@nmlegis.gov.  (i.e. dede.feldman@nmlegis.gov )

Listen to my audio description of Senate Bills 542 & 543 Here ( Download SB542-543.mp3 )
Two green energy bills: Senate Bill 542 & SB 543 will help reduce dependence on oil and gas and reduce global warming by spurring conservation and alternative energy.

SB 542 encourages consumers to buy energy efficient appliances like washing machines, refrigerators, dishwashers, etc. through a tax holiday on those appliances during the month of November, when the gross receipts tax will not be charged.  It also gives an income tax credit for heating and cooling systems that are energy-efficient. Both measures will go to the Senate Corporations Committee in a week or so. Here's more information about SB 542 which tells you how to take advantage of SB 542 ( Download & Play SB542.mp3 )

SB 543 gives tax credits for people and companies who build green, sustainable buildings that meet certain LEED standards. Both bills are backed by the Governor.

You can express your support by contacting members of the Senate Corporations Committee at 1-505-986-4300 and asking for their extension,  or by emailing them directly by clicking their email links below:

Sen. Shannon Robinson
Sen. Gerry Ortiz y Pino
Sen. Diane Snyder
Sen. Mark Boitano
Sen. Dianna Duran
Sen. Phil Griego
Sen. Stuart Ingle
Sen. Cynthia Nava
Sen. David Ulibarri

You can send an email message to any Senator or Representative by sending an an email at first name.last name@nmlegis.gov.  (i.e. dede.feldman@nmlegis.gov)

Here are links to the actual text of each of the two bills:
SB 542 (ENERGY-EFFICIENT APPLIANCE TAX CREDIT)
SB 543 (SUSTAINABLE BUILDING TAX CREDITS)

Or you can get the full texts of the bills on the legislative website: http://legis.state.nm.us. Just click on my name, then the 2007 session, and a list of my bills will flop down. You can also get committee schedules and agendas, which really help.  The best time to contact committee members is a few days before the bill is heard. 

Thanks for any help you can give.

60 Day Legislature Begins!

We’re Off … with 400 bills, a long wish List from the Guv, and weather in Santa Fe

Starting at a sprint can be exhausting if you’re not in top shape, but we seem to do it every year. Everyone complains about the number of bills that get introduced and the long wish list from the Governor … and I’m no exception. But, I’ve already introduced 13 myself, and  I am in favor of most of the Guv’s initiatives, so I guess I should just sit down and be quiet.

But don’t count on it. Most of the bills I’ve introduced so far are health care bills, with the most important, by far, mirroring the Governor’s initiative to expand Medicaid to low-income adults under 100% of poverty. This is something that the Health and Human Services Committee, which I co-chair, has wanted to do for over ten years. And now we actually have the money to do it. The reason it makes so much sense is captured dramatically by a story told to me recently by a constituent/doctor who works at the First Choice Clinic in the South Valley.

Here’s how it went: “My patient is in the early 40s and had several serious medical conditions, including untreated high blood pressure and diabetes, and was unable to work. My patient needed to start several medications immediately yet could not afford prescription co-pays. The uncontrolled blood pressure made the risk of stroke or heart attack very high. The diabetes was leading to kidney disease and chronic nerve pain. Over several visits I tried to patch together enough medical care to prevent disaster, but we did not have enough free samples, and my patient had no money and no reliable transportation.

A few months went by without hearing from my patient. I believed he had given up trying to fight for needed medical services. We then received a call with devastating news: my patient had had a stroke caused by uncontrolled blood pressure, was paralyzed on one side, in a wheel chair, wearing diapers, and in a nursing home. The cruel irony of our healthcare policy played out in this unfortunate patient: Having become severely disabled, dependent on others for basic needs, the patient was now qualified for Medicaid.

When I care for these patients, knowing what they need and unable to help them get it, witnessing their health deteriorate as we do nothing, I feel great shame and sadness by the suffering policy exacts upon them. We require them to become a burden, to lose vital functions, before we are willing to pay for their care. If this individual had been covered by Medicaid when I first saw him, he could have been treated appropriately at far less cost than the lifelong institutional care he will now need.”

The Governor’s State of the State: A Strategic Analysis

Here are a few of the things I noticed about Governor. Richardson’s address:

He wants us to pass four things in the first thirty days:

1.  A $7.50 an hour minimum wage

2.  A Renewable Energy Transmission Authority to export solar, wind and other renewable energy.  A requirement that utility companies produce 15% of their energy through renewable energy sources by 2015 and 25% by 2020  (Go Bill)

3.  Grip II to finish the giant road building project he begun in his first term

4.  $123 million in tax cuts, including a Working Families Tax Credit, an extension of the personal income tax credit, and an elimination of income tax for active duty members of the military

He led off his discussion of the Year of the Water by calling for river ecosystem restoration, mandated water conservation standards in building codes, and investing more money in the Strategic Water Reserve. (Yes!)

He finished his speech with a call for responsibility from elected officials and an appeal to pass his ethics package which includes limits on gifts and campaign contributions, public financing for judicial candidates, an independent ethics commission, and better reporting. He said “This time, there are no excuses.” (Significantly, he left out the Task Force’s recommendation for an expense reimbursement for legislators, which won’t help pass the package.)

Now, let the games … and the deal making … begin. What would you do if you were a legislator? Give the Guv his highest priorities right from the start? What would then be his incentive to compromise or fulfill some of the legislature’s priorities?

Watch to see if the vetoed items from last year’s session go up to his office early to test his good will. Maybe they will be paired with some of the first-30 day items. Who knows?

New Saturday Afternoon Radio Show: Insight New Mexico

I’ll be one of the first guests on Insight New Mexico, a radio show on 1350 AM Saturday Jan. 13 at 3 p.m.  The show, hosted by former Albuquerque City Councillor Eric Griego will be a preview of the 2007 legislative session. 

Eric is looking for more guests and advertisers for the show, Insight New Mexico, 1350 AM, Saturday afternoons.  Call him at 259- 7600 and tune in!!  I’m not sure if it’s a call-in show. 

Remembering Dee Johnson

I didn’t know Dee Johnson well, but I liked her. She crossed the partisan divide to help me the first year I served in the legislature, encouraging her husband to sign one of the first health care bills I was able to pass -- a mandate that insurance companies cover at least a 48 hour stay for patients undergoing mastectomies and at least a 24 hour stay for lumpectomies. This is precisely the kind of mandate that insurance companies always say is driving up the cost of health insurance — but come on, drive-by mastectomies with women sent home from the hospital with drainage tubes and a manual on how to change dressings themselves during those crucial, early postoperative hours?   I thought it was barbaric and so did Dee Johnson and the American Cancer Society.  Some things should be mandated, I believed, and, during the late ‘90s, with HMOs in their heyday, I spent several years in the legislature fighting for mental health parity and a patient bill of rights.  Gary Johnson was not so favorable on the later two mandates, but we finally got them.

Several years ago I was able to return Dee’s favor.  Dee had long championed a smoke free capitol, but had gotten nowhere because her bills were always stalled in the Senate Public Affairs Committee, which was chaired by Sen. Shannon Robinson, a dedicated smoker. He’d delay her bill, keep her waiting for hours, then adjourn the committee.   In 2002, after Sen. Manny Aragon no longer controlled committee chairmanships, Sen. Richard Romero appointed me Chair of the Public Affairs Committee. The first thing I did as Chair was to schedule Dee Johnson to present her smoking bill.  She was magnificent -- with well reasoned and researched points and expert witnesses — a class act.  And she was alone, no Governor’s staff doing the heavy lifting.  This was just Dee.  The bill flew through the committee and finally the Senate floor — after all those years.    

I will miss this graceful lady, who contributed more than many of us know and who was taken from us much too soon.