New Mexico

Roads, school and national debt: Here’s what Eddy County representatives hope to make law

Published

2 years ago

February 1, 2024

Roads, school and national debt: Here’s what Eddy County representatives hope to make law

No more bills could be introduced into the New Mexico Legislature for the ongoing 2024 session, as the deadline passed Wednesday.

There were 641 bills, resolutions and memorials introduced in the New Mexico House and Senate, and being considered by lawmakers for adoption before potentially moving on to the desk of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for signing into law.

Here are the bills introduced by members of the New Mexico House of Representatives from Eddy County.

More: Funding for detention center on Eddy County priority list for 2024 legislative session

Rep. Cathrynn Brown, Republican, District 55 – Eddy, Lea

House Bill 56: HB 56 would clarify in New Mexico law that the crime of trespassing includes people who knowingly enter the lands of others without expressed permission from landowners or designated land custodians and raised the crime from a misdemeanor to a fourth-degree felony. The bill was assigned to the House Rules and Order of Business Committee.

House Bill 146: This would create a transportation trust fund to provide matching funds the State of New Mexico could use to pursue federal grants for road projects in the state. The bill also specifies several sources of funding that would be sent to the trust fund, and how it would be distributed. This bill passed the House Transportation, Public Works and Capital Improvements Committee and was sent to the House Appropriations and Finance Committee.

More: Jack Volpato taking on fellow Republican Cathryn Brown for New Mexico House seat

House Bill 153: Brown cosponsored this bill with several other representatives from southeast New Mexico to pay for road improvements on U.S. Highway 380, which runs from Chaves County to the Texas State Line. If passed, the bill will appropriate $350 million for the work. It was being considered by the House Appropriations and Finance Committee.

House Bill 161: HB 161 would require school buses purchased after July 1, 2025 be outfitted with air conditioning and seatbelts if they are driven in areas of the state where the heat can pose a safety risk. It also required by law that drivers undergo proper training to determine the capacity of buses when children are loaded. This bill was awaiting a hearing in the House Rules and Order of Business Committee.

House Bill 208: This bill would provide $100 million to pay for stipends given to state residents attending trade schools in New Mexico and create a trade school assistance fund to carry out the funding. The bill was being considered by the House Education Committee.

More: Lujan Grisham wants to use oilfield waste to solve drought. Is it an industry ‘bail-out?’

House Bill 231: HB 231 would make a $300 million appropriation for work on State Road 128 between State Roads 31 and 18, as 128 runs between Eddy and Lea counties. The bill was sent to the House Appropriations and Finance Committee for consideration.

House Bill 238: A $30 million appropriation would be made by this bill to allow the Department of Transportation and Eddy County enter into a joint agreement for road construction on State Road 31 between U.S. Highway 285 and State Road 128. This was being considered by the House Appropriations and Finance Committee.

House Bill 248: This would remove caps on social security exemptions previously set at incomes of $75,000 for married people, $150,000 for heads of households and $100,000 for single people. HB 248 was being considered by the House Commerce an Economic Development Committee.

More: Southeast New Mexico legislators prepare proposed fix for lost tax revenue for Carlsbad

House Bill 249: This bill would tie tax filers’ gross income when considering social security exemptions to inflation. It was also in the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee.

Rep. Jim Townsend, Republican, District 54 – Eddy, Lea

House Bill 76: This bill was in direct opposition to a state policy that required auto dealers in New Mexico to increase the percent of electric or zero-emission vehicles in their fleets. HB 76 would block the Environmental Improvement Board from adopting the rule by amending the Air Quality Control Act. It was sent to the House Rules and Order of Business Committee.

House Bill 280: HB 280 would strip language from New Mexico’s income tax law that specified how income tax would be applied to taxpayers based on income level and marital status, leaving just a 1 percent tax for all New Mexicans. This bill was assigned to the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee.

More: Your guide to the 2024 New Mexico Legislative budget session

House Bill 281: This would remove language from state statute governing eligibility for college students to receive the lottery scholarship used to offset tuition costs, removing a definition of a “legacy student” meaning one who successfully earned three or more semesters of tuition by the end of Fiscal Year 2014.

Legacy students were allowed to get funding for up to eight semesters, while non-legacies could only receive seven. This appeared an effort to expand eligibility of the lottery program to increase the semesters potentially earned by a non-legacy student.

House Joint Resolution 14: HRJ 14 would add a ballot question for voters to decide if a program could be established to provide state funds for private or homeschooling in New Mexico. This was being considered by the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee.

More: Republicans want to repeal New Mexico’s electric vehicle requirement

Rep. Jimmy Mason, Republican, District 66 – Eddy, Lea and Chaves

House Bill 55: This bill would establish a pilot project for oral drug tests that could be conducted during traffic stops and would spend $650,000 to do so. The project would study technologies and determine the effectiveness of such tests in preventing driving while intoxicated. It was sent to the House Rules and Order of Business Committee.

House Bill 153: Mason also cosponsored HB 153 with Brown to pay $350 million for road improvements on U.S. Highway 380, which runs from Chaves County to the Texas State Line.

House Bill 238: Mason was listed as a cosponsor on HB 238 to make a $30 million appropriation to allow the Department of Transportation and Eddy County enter into a joint agreement for road construction on State Road 31 between U.S. Highway 285 and State Road 128.

House Joint Resolution 12: This resolution would ask Congress to call a Constitution Convention where fiscal restraints could be imposed on the federal government. The resolution as proposed argued the federal government continue to “accrue unsustainable increases in national debt” adding burden to New Mexico’s taxpayers.

Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.

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New Mexico

New Mexico deserves speedier game commission appointments

Published

5 hours ago

January 9, 2026

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New Mexico deserves speedier game commission appointments

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New Mexico

What bills have been filed for New Mexico’s 2026 legislative session?

Published

17 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

What bills have been filed for New Mexico’s 2026 legislative session?

The governor sets the agenda for the session, including for the budget, so here is what they are looking at so far.

SANTA FE, N.M. — As the regular session of the New Mexico Legislature is set to begin Jan. 20, lawmakers have already filed dozens of bills.

Bills include prohibiting book bans at public libraries and protections against AI, specifically the distribution of sensitive and “Deepfake” images

Juvenile justice reform is, again, a hot topic. House Bill 25 would allow access to someone’s juvenile records during a background check if they’re trying to buy a gun.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham sets the agenda and puts forth the proposed budget lawmakers will address during the session. The governor is calling for lawmakers to take up an $11.3 billion budget for the 2027 fiscal year, which is up 4.6% from current spending levels.

Where would that money go? More than $600 million would go to universal free child care. Meanwhile, more than $200 million would go to health care and to protect against federal funding cuts.

There is also $65 million for statewide affordable housing initiatives and $19 million for public safety.

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New Mexico

Understanding New Mexico’s data center boom | Opinion

Published

1 day ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Understanding New Mexico’s data center boom | Opinion

Paul Gessing, Rio Grande Foundation
| Las Cruces Sun-News

After years of failure to land a “big fish” business for New Mexico’s economy (or effectively use the oil and gas revenues to grow the economy) Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham with the help of her Economic Development Secretary Rob Black have lured no fewer than three large data centers to New Mexico. These data centers are being built to serve the booming world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and they will have profound impacts on New Mexico.

It is our view that having these data centers locate in New Mexico is better than having them locate elsewhere. While we have many differences of opinion with this governor, we are pleased to see her get serious about growing and diversifying New Mexico’s oil-dependent economy albeit quite late in her second term.

Sadly, the governor and legislature have chosen not to use broad based economic reforms like deregulation or tax cuts to improve New Mexico’s competitiveness. But, with the failure of her “preferred” economic development “wins” like Maxeon and Ebon solar both of which the governor announced a few years ago, but haven’t panned out, the focus on a more realistic strategy is welcome and long overdue.

Currently, three new data centers are slated to be built in New Mexico:

Oracle’s Project Jupiter in Santa Teresa with an investment of $165 billion.
Project Zenith slated to be built in Roswell amounts to a $11.7 billion investment.
New Era Energy & Digital, Inc. While the overall investment is unclear, the energy requirement is the largest of the three at 7 gigawatts (that’s seven times the power used by the City of San Francisco).

What is a data center? Basically, they are the real-world computing infrastructure that makes up the Internet. The rise of AI requires vast new computing power. It is critical that these facilities have uninterrupted electricity.

That electricity is going to be largely generated by traditional sources like natural gas and possibly nuclear. That contravenes New Mexico’s Energy Transition Act of 2019 which was adopted by this Gov. and many of the legislators still in office. Under the Act electrical power emissions are supposed to be eliminated in a few years.

With the amount of money being invested in these facilities and the simple fact that wind and solar and other “renewable” energy sources aren’t going to get the job done. In 2025 the Legislature passed and MLG signed HB 93 which allows for the creation of “microgrids” that won’t tax the grid and make our electricity more expensive, but the ETA will have to be amended or ignored to provide enough electricity for these data centers. There’s no other option.

New Mexicans have every right to wonder why powerful friends of the governor can set up their own natural gas microgrids while the rest of us face rising costs and decreased reliability from so-called “renewables.” Don’t get me wrong, having these data centers come to New Mexico is an economic boon.

But it comes tempered with massive subsidies including a 30-year property tax exemption and up to $165 billion in industrial revenue bonds. New Mexico is ideally suited as a destination for these data centers with its favorable climate and lack of natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. We shouldn’t be giving away such massive subsidies.

Welcoming the data center boom to New Mexico better than rejecting them and pushing them to locate in other states. There is no way to avoid CO2 emissions whether they happen here or somewhere else. But, there are questions about both the electricity demand and subsidies that must be addressed as New Mexico’s data center boom begins.

What will the Legislature, radical environmental groups, and future governors of our state do to hinder (or help) bring these data centers to our State? That is an open question that depends heavily on upcoming statewide elections. It is important that New Mexicans understand and appreciate these complicated issues.

Paul Gessing is president of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation. The Rio Grande Foundation is an independent, nonpartisan, tax-exempt research and educational organization dedicated to promoting prosperity for New Mexico based on principles of limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility

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