New Mexico
New Mexico Senate advances seven bills with few opponents – Source New Mexico
The New Mexico Senate on Thursday passed seven pieces of legislation in a series of unanimous votes — with two narrow exceptions.
Senators passed Senate Bill 148 in a 34-0 vote. Sponsored by Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto (D-Albuquerque), SB 148 would eliminate a 3% fee charged to local governments by the state Taxation and Revenue Department for collecting and distributing sales taxes.
The bill was a priority for the New Mexico Municipal League and New Mexico Counties.
If passed into law, it would begin phasing out the fee on July 1, 2026 and completely go away two years later.
Next, senators passed Senate Bill 300 in a 37-0 vote.
Sponsored by Sen. George Muñoz (D-Gallup), SB 300 would allow the State Board of Finance to raise up to $527.8 million for building and maintaining state and federal highways.
Then, senators passed Senate Bill 129 in a 37-0 vote.
Sponsored by Sen. Michael Padilla (D-Albuquerque), SB 129 would create minimum standards for state agencies to protect themselves from cyber attacks that threaten assets, private information or reputation.
The first exception of the day in the Senate was Senate Bill 135, which passed by a38-2 vote.
SB 135 would ensure doctors can ask health insurers to cover medications without the patient having to first try a cheaper version, a strategy insurers use to save money called “step therapy.”
The bill adds medications approved for treating substance use disorder, autoimmune disorders, behavioral health conditions and cancer to the list of drugs that cannot be subject to step therapy or prior authorization requirements.
The two opponents were Sens. Martin Hickey (D-Albuquerque) and Mark Moores (R-Albuquerque). Hickey said he supported the bill but it could lead to more complications and drug-to-drug interactions.
The second exception was Senate Bill 106, which passed in a 38-1 vote.
Sponsored by William Sharer, (R-Farmington), SB 106 which would create a committee to plan a celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the founding of the U.S. on July 4, 2026.
The lone opponent was Sen. Brenda McKenna (D-Corrales) who did not take the opportunity to explain her vote.
Next, the Senate passed Senate Bill 17 in a 40-0 vote.
Sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Stefanics (D-Cerrillos), SB 17 would create a new program run by the Health Care Authority with the goal of maximizing the impact of state money for health care by redirecting money from certain hospitals to rural hospitals and small urban ones.
Finally, senators passed Senate Bill 108 in a 41-0 vote.
Sponsored by Muñoz, SB 108 would allow the Secretary of State’s Office to pull from a new $20 million pot of money three months after a statewide election, to stabilize the agency’s annual budget.
Each bill now heads the House chamber where they must receive committee review before a full vote. The New Mexico legislative session ends Feb. 15.
New Mexico
Timothy Busfield dropped by talent agency as he makes first court appearance in New Mexico child sex abuse case
Embattled actor Timothy Busfield was dropped by his talent agency on the same day that he appeared inside a New Mexico courtroom for the first time in his child sex abuse case.
Innovative Artists, which is based in Los Angeles and New York, released the 68-year-old actor and director as a client as of Wednesday, Deadline reported.
The agency offered a “fair-sized” team to represent the “West Wing” actor during his several years with the group, according to the outlet.
Busfield’s career hit came after he entered no plea in his first court appearance on disturbing allegations he sexually abused two young boys on the set of a FOX show he directed.
The alleged abuse began in 2022, when the boys were 7 years old on the set of “The Cleaning Lady” in New Mexico.
The ‘Field of Dreams’ actor is accused of inappropriately touching one of the boys three or four times, and the other five or six times, according to the arrest warrant filed Friday.
A criminal investigation began in 2024 when a physician notified police about suspected sexual abuse after examining one of the children at the University of New Mexico Hospital, according to the complaint.
Attorneys for Warner Bros., which produced “The Cleaning Lady,” told cops that a prior independent investigation into the allegations found no evidence to support the claims, the complaint alleged.
Busfield, who is married to former child star Melissa Gilbert, turned himself in to the Albuquerque Police Department on Tuesday.
Busfield was charged with two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse. He has denied those allegations.
“Tim Busfield denies the allegations in the criminal complaint and maintains they are completely false,” the 68-year-old’s lawyer, Larry Stein, said in a statement to The Post Wednesday.
Follow The Post’s coverage on Timothy Busfield
A third alleged victim, a 16-year-old girl in Sacramento, California, accused Busfield of sexual abuse “several years ago,” according to a motion filed by prosecutors in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, on Jan. 14.
Colin Swift, the alleged victim’s father, reported the incident to investigators on Jan. 13, according to the motion, which was filed to request pretrial detention and was obtained by The Post. Busfield has not been charged in connection with the 16-year-old’s claim.
The father claims Busfield kissed his daughter during an audition with the director before he put his hands down the teen girl’s pants and “touched her privates,” at the B Street Theatre, the motion alleges.
Busfield founded the B Street Theatre, which opened as the Theatre for Children in Sacramento in 1986.
The director allegedly begged for the family to not report the incident to police “if he received therapy,” according to the motion.
Swift, a therapist, agreed “that was the best thing to do” at the time.
The third abuse claim was made the same day Busfield was arrested.
The actor was ordered held without bail and is currently at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque.
New Mexico
A 900K-acre land sale just made LA Rams owner Stan Kroenke the nation’s largest private landowner
The purchase of a New Mexico ranch nearing 1 million acres tipped the scales for Stan Kroenke, who is now the largest private landowner in America.
Kroenke, 78, topped Land Report’s annual list of the country’s 100 largest landowners, leading a pack of billionaires eager to beef up their rural portfolios.
Kroenke is worth an estimated $26.8 billion, according to Bloomberg, largely thanks to his ownership of sport franchises like the Los Angeles Rams, the Denver Nuggets and the UK’s Arsenal Football Club — as well as several of the teams’ sports arenas.
Kroenke, a Missouri native, is married to Walmart heiress Ann Walton Kroenke.
Kroenke recently acquired more than 937,000 acres of noncontiguous New Mexico ranchland, rounding out his total land holdings to more than 2.7 million acres across the American West and Canada.
Land Report confirmed the December deal, which spans four New Mexico counties. The off-market transaction is the largest single land purchase in the US since 2011.
The price of Kroenke’s New Mexico purchase remains under wraps, but Land Report estimated the former value of his ranch holdings at $3.9 billion.
Kroenke made headlines in 2016 when he snapped up Texas’ historic Waggoner Ranch — the 535,000-acre property is largest piece of unbroken ranchland in the Lone Star State. Other acquisitions include massive ranches in Montana and Nevada.
In addition to rolling rural plains, Kroenke owns an estimated 60 million square feet of commercial holdings, the New York Times reported, including sports venues in California and Denver.
The investor’s busy two decades of ranch acquisitions has set him far above other high-profile billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
Bezos’ holdings ranked 21st in Land Report’s report, spanning close to half a million acres largely concentrated in Texas. Gates trailed behind in 44th place, whose prolific farmland purchases span roughly 275,000 acres.
An uptick in rural land grabs among billionaires over the past decade was hastened along in recent years by the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic and the so-called “Yellowstone Effect.”
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