Gov moves forward with special session despite lawmaker concerns, makes some adjustments

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is moving forward with Thursday’s special legislative session on public safety issues despite concern from lawmakers. She signed the official proclamation for the session at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

Democratic lawmakers on Monday expressed reservations that the special session would be productive, stressing the need for more time to further vet the proposals and build consensus among lawmakers and stakeholders.

House Speaker Javier Martinez said special sessions usually address emergencies, rather than being called for complex topics like crime prevention.

“And certainly not for a number of different bills that seek to change — in some cases, pretty drastically — existing public policy,” he said.

Lujan Grisham, also a Democrat, responded Wednesday that she agrees public safety issues are “delicate.”

“But that’s why you have a Legislature,” she said. “They don’t get to just appropriate money for soccer fields. They have to also do this work too. They’re both valuable to New Mexicans. Do the work.”

She said her office had been in touch with lawmakers since they spoke out against the session and that she added a few new topics to the agenda in response. Those include relief for fire victims in Ruidoso, combating organized crime and cracking down on fentanyl.

“So, quite a bit has shifted in just those few days,” Lujan Grisham said. “If people were talking to us like that all along, there might have been other proposals that would make more sense.”

The governor is also continuing to call for lawmakers to address the original proposals they took issue with. Those include expanding who can be involuntarily committed to mental health facilities, increasing penalties for possessing a gun after being convicted of a felony, and criminalizing panhandling in some cases.

The governor said, regardless of what legislators accomplish in the special session, she considers calling it a success in and of itself because doing so signals that the status quo “can’t stand.”

“What I have to say to New Mexicans about what happened or didn’t? I won’t know that answer until I know that answer,” she said.

The 2024 special legislative session is set to convene Thursday at noon in Santa Fe’s Roundhouse.