Gov. Issues Special Session Proclamation, Sets Agenda

The governor made public his proclamation today. The official state document calls the 44th Legislature into a special session and sets the agenda for lawmakers.

State legislators can only consider and enact legislation on the following 17 items:

• appropriation bill for executive, legislative, and judiciary departments, public schools and other expenses required by existing laws;
• an act providing for a reasonable increase in the state minimum wage but no greater than that of the federal minimum wage contingent on the enactment of an income tax reduction for the citizens of NM for tax year 2000;
• an act creating an exemption to the gross receipts tax for sale of airplanes manufactured in NM;
• an act providing a gross receipts tax reduction for the receipts of hospices from the provision of services to Medicare beneficiaries;
• an act creating the Technology Jobs Tax Credit Act for certain research, development and experimentation investments to provide a favorable tax climate for technology-based businesses engaging in research, development and experimentation;
• an act creating the Laboratory Partnership with Small Business Tax Credits Act for certain technical assistance provided to NM small businesses to bring the technology and expertise of the national laboratories to small businesses in NM to promote economic development in the state, with an emphasis on rural areas;
• a joint resolution presented by the committee on compacts for the purpose of approving a negotiated Indian Gaming Compact;
• an act authorizing the issuance and sale of capital projects general obligation bonds to provide funds for capital expenditures throughout the state;
• an act authorizing the issuance of severance tax bonds for the funding of capital expenditures;
• an act defining the annual distribution rate from the tobacco settlement permanent fund and crediting the income from the investment of the tobacco settlement permanent fund to the fund;
• an act revising the higher education qualifications for new state police officers to allow such officers to have completed not less that thirty hours of college credit and no later than two years following appointment to have completed not less than an additional thirty hours of college credit;
• an act allowing the Department of Public Safety to collect access fees on its law enforcement telecommunications systems;
• an act funding the purchase of state police vehicles;
• an act creating the NM Religious Freedom Restoration Act;
• an act providing supplemental funding for the state parks for fiscal year 2000;
• an act authorizing loans from the public project revolving fund for the following ready to fund projects: 1) Elephant Butte for a water project; 2) Galllup for an equipment project; 3) Hagerman for a building and related infrastructure project; 4) South Central Solid Waste Authority for a refinancing project; and 5) Tularosa for a building project; and
• an act appropriating money necessary for paying the expenses of the special session called pursuant to this Proclamation.