SANTA FE, NM (AP) — Democrats who hold the majority in the state legislature on Thursday resisted calls from New Mexico’s governor for immediate action to resolve the “dangerous conflict” between crime and homelessness, rejecting her proposals to toughen penalties, restrict panhandling and expand involuntary housing and treatment for mental health problems.
Instead, the House sent the governor a single bill to expand pilot programs for voluntary treatment for people with grave mental illness and addiction problems, as well as an emergency relief package in response to the devastating wildfires that devastated a southern New Mexico village in June.
“We absolutely have a responsibility to do something about the people who are on the merry-go-round of our court system,” Democratic Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino of Albuquerque said at the House meeting. “But the answer is not that we should start putting them in jail. The answer is that we should start providing them with services.”
The bill received final approval from the Senate by a vote of 30 to 0. However, the Senate adjourned the special session despite objections from Republican lawmakers who aligned with two-term Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.
The governor accused Democratic lawmakers of having “no interest in making New Mexico safer.”
“Not a single public safety measure was considered,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “Not a single one, despite the bills being supported by police chiefs, public safety unions, mayors and district attorneys.”
Republicans, who are in the legislative minority, were tasked with introducing governor’s initiatives that would provide longer minimum sentences for armed felons, combat fentanyl trafficking, restrict loitering on narrow medians and crack down on organized crime through changes to organized crime laws. Those senators’ bills were referred to committees that never met.
“We called this special session for a reason … it was about crime, at the heart of it,” said Republican Sen. Greg Baca of Belen. “We had an opportunity here, and I want to thank the governor. … Why wouldn’t we take the opportunity to do something?”
Democratic lawmakers said they shared the governor’s sense of urgency but were also awaiting research and recommendations from an ongoing state Supreme Court commission on mental health and sanity.
“What we don’t need is bad bills passed in a hurry and then faced with unintended consequences,” said Javier Martínez, a Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives from Albuquerque.
Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth of Santa Fe acknowledged that there is a rift between Democratic lawmakers and the governor, but urged her to support providing $3 million for voluntary treatment programs for people with grave mental illness through both civil and criminal litigation.
“I would suggest that passing this bill to redirect medical funds is an important first step in rebuilding the cooperation that must exist between the three co-equal branches of government,” Wirth said. “The people of New Mexico want this.”
In addition, the bill provides $10 million from the state’s general fund to assist the Mescalero Apache Tribe recover from wildfire losses and rebuild.
The program also includes a $70 million allocation from the general fund to local governments to replace and repair infrastructure destroyed by wildfires, including a blaze that ripped through the village of Ruidoso in June. These funds are intended to expedite projects already approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The state expects to be reimbursed.
Lujan Grisham called the special session to address the persistently high crime rate. She repeatedly spoke of a “revolving door” in the state’s criminal justice system that leaves unsafe individuals and those in need of mental health care on the streets.
“This should be a terrifying environment for everyone,” Lujan Grisham said.
FBI data shows a acute decline in every category of violent crime in the U.S. in the first three months of 2024 compared to the same period last year, continuing a downward trend since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
The situation is different in the Albuquerque metropolitan area, where about a third of New Mexico’s population lives. The violent crime rate there is about three times the national average. The number of cases involving adolescent people and firearms increased last year. In addition, authorities had to contend with homeless encampments on sidewalks and in riverside parks.
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said Wednesday that the city cleared 1,000 encampments in June alone and spends $1 million a month on occupancy certificates. That’s not enough, he said.
Due to concerns about crime and homelessness, several states, including California and Tennessee, are taking a more aggressive approach to untreated mental illness and addiction problems.
Lujan Grisham wanted lawmakers to make it easier to forcibly put a person into treatment. She also wants to give courts and prosecutors more leeway to arrest and evaluate defendants when their mental capacity is in question.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups warned that the governor’s initiatives would make it easier to forcibly commit someone to a closed mental health facility.
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Associated Press writer Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque contributed.
