Dear Editor,

We are now in the sixth week of the Legislative session and bills are beginning to make their way out of the N.M. House or N.M. Senate to the other legislative chamber. What does this look like in real life?

Generally, a bill will receive 1-3 committee hearings in the legislative chamber where the bill is introduced.

Once a bill passes those committees, it will be heard by the full chamber where it was introduced. If that chamber’s majority votes “yes” on the legislation, it will then be sent to the other legislative chamber for consideration in committees and then by the full chamber before heading to the governor for her signature or veto.

House Bill 126 passed...

Dear Editor,

House Bill 236, led by Rep. Eleanor Chavez and co-sponsored by Reps. Borrego, Castellano, Gurrola, Roybal Caballero, Rubio, and Sen. Brenda McKenna, would initiate a process for New Mexico to establish safe staffing parameters in our hospitals.

HB 236 is important as it would boost patient care levels by lessening the case loads of nurses and other healthcare professionals, and it would also help to lessen the burnout experienced by our healthcare workers.

AFT New Mexico is partnering with AFSCME District 1199 to promote and advocate for this legislation. HB 236 was presented on Feb.17 in the House Health Committee and public comment was taken. Due to a lack of time...

On Jan. 1,  we marked the end of four decades of predatory lending in New Mexico, thanks to a new law that reduces the maximum annual interest rate on small loans from 175%, one of the highest rates allowed anywhere in the nation, to 36%.

As Think New Mexico explained in our 2020 policy report making the case for this reform, the 36% interest rate cap is actually a return to a highly effective consumer protection law that was in effect from the mid-1950s through the early-1980s.

In the 1950s, the New Mexico legislature and governor capped the annual interest rates of loans at no more than 36%. This law protected consumers while still allowing plenty of access to credit...

Dear Gallup Sun,

Your informative Top Five stories of 2022 made me ponder on the “Top Five or Six Elephants in the Room” – those enormous and difficult issues which are obvious yet ignored due to the discomfort or political embarrassment of those in power.

1. Duplication of services Your “RMCH still facing problems” seems to have been an annual story for some 50 years, before the Rehoboth-McKinley General merge when we had three hospitals. Many of us wonder why there are multiple hospitals in a region which should require only one.

We are perplexed that there is a need to segregate non-Indians from Indians. Whether you have a Medicare, Medicaid, VA, ACA, Indian Health ID, or...