Enchantment State News

A bill focusing on public-sector collective bargaining was defeated in the New Mexico Legislature  March 2.

Senate Bill 110 was sponsored by Sen. Mimi Stewart (D-Albuquerque), and many viewed it as an attempted power grab by unions that would have required public employees to release personal information to unions, and allow unions to use government facilities.

“Due to the union influence in the state, Speaker of the House Brian Egolf along with Majority Floor Leader Sheryl Williams Stapleton brought up a 'dummy' bill, HB 364, to replace SB 110," Carla Sonntag, president of the New Mexico Business Coalition (NMBC), told Enchantment State News.

A 'dummy' bill is a place holder until language is substituted in at its first committee hearing. 

"In this case, it was the language of SB 110 that was incorporated into HB 364,” said Sonntag. “The bill was put on a fast track, sent through the House and onto the Senate with only one committee assignment in each chamber. The normal process is an average of two committee assignments."

Although Senate committees were no longer meeting, a single committee was convened for the purpose of quickly passing the bill and then it being sent to the full Senate for a vote. The bill did not get a referral to Senate Judiciary for legal review or Senate Finance to assess the costs to the state.

Opponents of the bill included representatives of government bodies, and Sonntag said it was one of those potentially affected groups that reached out to NMBC for help.

“It appears that NMBC's involvement was important in getting SB 110 stopped, however, when the majority has the desire to break rules of public notice, proper bill assignment, and others to ram something through the process, there is nothing anyone can do to stop them,” said Sonntag. “No other business group or related associations lobbied against the bill. There are others now talking about the impact of the bill as well as the egregious process it followed to passage."

Some of the groups voicing opposition to the plan were the counties of Torrance, San Juan, Sandoval, Bernalillo and Valencia; the Association of New Mexico Counties, and the Municipal League. Some community colleges and school districts also opposed the bill, said Sontag.

Until the March 2 defeat, the bill had passed both chambers on what Sontag said was mostly a party-line vote, with a single Democrat from each chamber joining the Republicans in opposing Senate Bill 110.

New Mexico Business Coalition started in 2009 to provide a strong voice for business. The organization does not accept government funds and refuses to compromise on what they see as bad policy or legislation. The mission of NMBC is to be a strong advocate for business, and it often works on issues that other business groups avoid.