The House and Senate both go back into session at 10 a.m. on Thursday. Since today's House floor session ran late, House Appropriations rescheduled its revenue/budget review until Thursday.

HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS AND FINANCE COMMITTEE
Room 307
Thursday, Jan. 17
1:30 p.m. - Full Committee Hearing
Orientation Session
General Fund Estimates

Demesia Padilla, secretary, Taxation & Revenue Department
Tom Clifford, secretary, Department of Finance and Administration
David Abbey, director, Legislative Finance Committee
Presentation of FY14 LFC and Executive Recommendations
Tom Clifford, secretary, Department of Finance and Administration
David Abbey, director, Legislative Finance Committee

No Senate committees have been scheduled as of this hour.

House members spent much of their legislative day introducing bills and figuring out committee assignments. Of particular interest, since Rep. Rick Miera (D-Albuquerque) moved up to majority floor leader, his longtime House Education chairmanship goes to Rep. Mimi Stewart (D-Albuquerque). Rep. Gail Chasey (D-Albuquerque) will chair House Judiciary. Several chairs remain the same, including Rep. Kiki Saavedra (D-Albuquerque) in House Appropriations and Finance, and Rep. Edward Sandoval (D-Albuquerque) in Taxation and Revenue. The House also passed HB 1, the feed bill, which now goes to Senate Finance.

Senators also spent much of their day introducing bills. The session is 30 hours old, and already we have 235 bills in the hopper, not counting assorted memorials, resolutions, etc. We saw a number of retirement bills today (HB 64, HB 96, SB 86 and SB 115) as well as bills dealing with HSC priorities. Here are several of the new bills of interest:

HB 2 GENERAL APPROPRIATION ACT OF 2013 Sponsor: Henry Kiki Saavedra
MAKING GENERAL APPROPRIATIONS AND AUTHORIZING EXPENDITURES BY STATE AGENCIES REQUIRED BY LAW

HB 11 GENERAL APPROPRIATION ACT OF 2013 Sponsor: Luciano "Lucky" Varela
MAKING GENERAL APPROPRIATIONS AND AUTHORIZING EXPENDITURES BY STATE AGENCIES REQUIRED BY LAW.

HB 64 EDUCATIONAL RETIREMENT CHANGES Sponsor: Mimi Stewart
RELATING TO PENSIONS; AMENDING THE EDUCATIONAL RETIREMENT ACT; INCREASING CERTAIN MEMBERS' CONTRIBUTION RATES; CHANGING THE BENEFITS FOR NEW MEMBERS BY IMPOSING A MINIMUM RETIREMENT AGE, DELAYING THE COST-OF-LIVING ADJUSTMENT ELIGIBILITY AND INCREASING THE AGE AND SERVICE RETIREMENT REQUIREMENTS

HB 69 UNM HEALTH CENTER COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH Sponsor: Mimi Stewart
Two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) is appropriated from the general fund to the board of regents of the university of New Mexico for expenditure in fiscal year 2014 for the health sciences center to plan a college of public health.

HB 70 NMFA PUBLIC PROJECT REVOLVING FUND PROJECTS Sponsor: Patricia A. Lundstrom
AUTHORIZING THE NEW MEXICO FINANCE AUTHORITY TO MAKE LOANS FOR PUBLIC PROJECTS FROM THE PUBLIC PROJECT REVOLVING FUND;
11. The Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico in Bernalillo County for building, equipment, infrastructure, debt refinance, road, land acquisition, water, wastewater, water rights and solid waste projects;

HB 69 UNM HEALTH CENTER COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH Mimi Stewart
HEC/HAFC

HB 71 UNM-GALLUP AS COMMUNITY COLLEGE Sponsor: Patricia A. Lundstrom
Authorizing the Gallup Branch of the University of new mexico to become an independent community college; providing for a transition period; requiring the higher education department to assist in a feasibility study.

HB 80 UNM DENTAL SCIENCE PROGRAM Sponsor: Miguel P. Garcia
Four hundred thousand dollars ($400,000) is apprpopriated from the general fund to the board of regents of the university of New Mexico for expenditure in fiscal year 2014 to fund planning for a bachelor of arts and doctor of dental science program by the health sciences center.

HB 96 EDUCATIONAL RETIREMENT SICK LEAVE Sponsor: Dennis J. Roch
Relating to educational retirement; permitting the conversion of unused sick leave to service credit for retirement purposes

HB 112 DATA IN SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY REPORTS Sponsor: Jane E. Powdrell-Culbert
PROVIDING FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL AND PUBLIC POST-SECONDARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION ACCOUNTABILITY REPORTS TO INCLUDE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT DISAGGREGATED BY CERTAIN FACTORS.

SB 86 PUBLIC EMPLOYEE AVERAGE SALARY CALCULATIONS Sponsor: Sue Wilson Beffort
AMENDING THE PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT ACT TO PROVIDE A LIMIT IN THE CALCULATION OF THE FINAL AVERAGE SALARY OF NON-PUBLIC SAFETY MEMBERS; DEFINING "PUBLIC SAFETY MEMBER"; AMENDING THE EDUCATIONAL RETIREMENT ACT TO PROVIDE A LIMIT IN THE CALCULATION OF ANNUAL AVERAGE SALARY.

SB 87 UNM HEALTH WORKFORCE ANALYSIS Sponsor: Jacob Candelaria
Two hundred sixty-five thousand dollars ($265,000) is appropriated from the general fund to the board of regents of the university of New Mexico for expenditure in fiscal year 2014 for the health sciences center to add staffing for the center for health workforce analysis

SB 89 PUBLIC PROPERTY NAMING PROCESS Sponsor: Mark Moores
PROHIBITING PUBLIC PROPERTY OR PUBLICLY FUNDED PROGRAMS TO BE NAMED AFTER LIVING PERSONS OR PUBLIC OFFICIALS WHILE THEY ARE IN OFFICE; REQUIRING A PROCESS FOR NAMING PUBLIC PROPERTY.

SB 97 EXPAND HEALTH FOCUS CENTERS Sponsor: Jacob Candelaria
Two million two hundred thousand dollars ($2,200,000) is appropriated from the general fund to the board of regents of the university of New Mexico for expenditure in fiscal year 2014 for the health sciences center to expand existing FOCUS (family options caring understanding solutions) and Milagro programs and to fund personnel and support for, and evaluation of, three FOCUS centers of excellence.

SB 98 SUPPLEMENTAL SEVERANCE TAX BONDS Sponsor: Carlos R. Cisneros
Amending the severance tax bonding act to temporarily allow the state board of finance to issue supplemental road severance tax bonds and supplemental higher education severance tax bonds

SB 115 EDUCATIONAL RETIREMENT CHANGES Sponsor: Stuart Ingle
Relating to pensions; amending the educational retirement act; increasing certian members' contribution rates; changing the benefits for new members by imposing a minimum retirement age, delaying the cost of living eliibility and increasing the age and service retirement requirements.

It is legislative tradition for the sponsor of the 100th bill introduced in both the House and the Senate to throw a party for his or her colleagues. For some inexplicable reason, the Senate passed right over SB 100 today. In the House, Rep. Don Tripp (R-Socorro) got the luck of the draw. His HB 100 promotes farmers' markets.

Susan McKinsey, Office of Government and Community Relations