NEW MEXICO
Governor proposes 10% spending boost amid oil windfall
SANTA FE — New Mexico’s governor is proposing a nearly 10% general fund spending increase for the coming fiscal year to shore up housing opportunities, childhood literacy and health care access, with additional payouts for electric vehicles purchases.
Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Jan. 4 published the $10.5 billion budget plan for the fiscal year running from July 2024 through June 2025. It would increase general fund spending by roughly $950 million over current annual obligations.
The Democratic-led Legislature develops its own competing spending plan in advance of a 30-day legislative session that begins Jan. 16.
The nation’s No. 2 oil-producing state anticipates a multibillion-dollar surplus for the coming fiscal year, driven largely by oil and natural gas production in the Permian Basin that underlies southeastern New Mexico and western Texas.
The governor has signaled affordable housing as a major priority, proposing one-time spending of $500 million to expand opportunities through down-payment assistance, and to finance affordable housing and related infrastructure. The state separately would use $40 million to launch a statewide homelessness initiative.
In November, voters signaled frustration with surging home prices in fast-growing Santa Fe by approving a tax on mansions to pay for affordable-housing initiatives.
Spending on public education would increase by $283 million, or 6.8%, to nearly $4.5 billion — the single largest chunk of annual general fund appropriations.
Her budget proposal includes a 3% increase in pay for workers at executive agencies and public schools statewide — and larger increases of 8% for corrections officers and 14% for state police.
Economists for state agencies say New Mexico’s income surge is slowing down, but far from over, as lawmakers wrestle with how much to spend now or set aside for the future in case the world’s thirst for oil falters.
State proposes framework to reuse fracking wastewater
SANTA FE — New Mexico environmental officials have proposed a new regulatory framework for reusing wastewater with a focus on the used, salty byproducts of oil and natural gas drilling in a major U.S. production zone.
The Environment Department announced on Dec. 28 its petition to the Water Quality Control Commission to begin formal deliberations on the proposed rules.
New Mexico, the No. 2 state for oil production behind Texas, is looking to its energy sector and water-intensive fracking as a potential source of treated water for industrial applications — and to offset water demands that are depleting freshwater aquifers amid drought.
John Rhoderick, director of the water protection division at the Environment Department, said initial rules would only allow for “closed loop” projects involving treated oil-field water, with no discharge.
In a related legislative proposal from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, New Mexico would underwrite development of a strategic new water source by buying treated water that originates from oil and natural gas drilling. The governor is seeking a $500 million appropriation by the Legislature for the project.
That initiative doesn’t aim to provide potable water but rather a supply of treated water for emerging businesses ranging from microchip manufacturers to hydrogen fuel producers that separate the element from water in an energy-intensive process. Critics fear the plan might only spur more drilling for petroleum.
IDAHO
US Supreme Court lets state enforce its strict abortion ban
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 5 allowed Idaho to enforce its strict abortion ban, even in medical emergencies, while a legal fight continues.
The justices said they would hear arguments in April and put on hold a lower court ruling that had blocked the Idaho law in hospital emergencies, based on a lawsuit filed by the Biden administration.
The Idaho case gives the court its second major abortion dispute since the justices in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states to severely restrict or ban abortion. The court also in the coming months is hearing a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s rules for obtaining mifepristone, one of two medications used in the most common method of abortion in the United States.
In the case over hospital emergencies, the Biden administration has argued that hospitals that receive Medicare funds are required by federal law to provide emergency care, potentially including abortion, no matter if there’s a state law banning abortion.
U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Idaho agreed with the administration. But in a separate case in Texas, a judge sided with the state.
Idaho makes it a crime with a prison term of up to five years for anyone who performs or assists in an abortion.
The administration argues that EMTALA requires health care providers to perform abortions for emergency room patients when needed to treat an emergency medical condition, even if doing so might conflict with a state’s abortion restrictions.
The state argued that the administration was misusing a law intended to prevent hospitals from dumping patients and imposing “a federal abortion mandate” on states.
The justices’ order takes the case away from the appeals court. A decision is expected by early summer.
NAVAJO NATION
2 tribal members charged with illegally growing marijuana
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — Authorities on the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. have charged two tribal members with illegally growing marijuana on the Navajo Nation, marking just the latest development in a years-long case that also has involved allegations of forced labor.
Tribal prosecutors announced the charges on Jan. 4, claiming that Navajo businessman Dineh Benally and farmer Farley BlueEyes had operated a massive marijuana growing operation in and around Shiprock, New Mexico. The two men were expected to be arraigned on the charges in late January, prosecutors said.
Benally had previously been charged for interference with judicial proceedings after a Navajo judge granted a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in 2020 that was aimed at halting operations at the farms in northwestern New Mexico.
David Jordan, an attorney who has represented Benally, said the interference charges were dismissed in December as those cases were set to go to trial.
Jordan, who is expected to also represent Benally on the new charges, said Benally maintains he was growing hemp and declined to comment further.
The lawsuit alleges that Benally, a former Navajo Nation presidential candidate who campaigned on growing hemp to boost the economy, turned a blind eye to federal and tribal laws that make it illegal to grow marijuana on the reservation. The complaint stated that he instructed his associates and the workers to refer to the marijuana as “hemp” to avoid law enforcement scrutiny.
ARIZONA
Jaguar sighting makes for 8th in southwestern US since 1996
PHOENIX — There’s been another jaguar sighting in southern Arizona and it’s the eighth different jaguar documented in the southwestern U.S. since 1996, according to wildlife officials.
A hobbyist wildlife videographer who posts trail camera footage online captured the image of a roaming jaguar late last month in the Huachuca Mountains near Tucson, the Arizona Republic reported.
A spokesman for the Arizona Game and Fish Department said the agency has authenticated Jason Miller’s footage and has confirmed this is a new jaguar to the United States.
The animals were placed on the endangered species list in 1997 after being removed in 1980.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has designated about 750,000 acres of critical protected habitat for the jaguars along the border in southern Arizona and New Mexico.
Officials said the rosette pattern on each jaguar is unique — just like a human fingerprint — and helps identify specific animals.
The gender of the newly spotted jaguar is unclear.
“Whether male or female, this new jaguar is going to need a mate. Now is the time for us to have a serious conversation and take action to bring jaguars back,” Megan Southern, jaguar recovery coordinator with The Rewilding Institute, told Phoenix TV station KPNX.
