Sen. Nibert: What will we do to make new Mexico safer?

The Governor has called for a Special Session of the Legislature on July 18th to address “public safety” issues. At a cost of $50,000 per day to New Mexico taxpayers, ideally, legislators should be presented proposals well in advance to craft appropriate legislation to address the emergency the Governor has identified. The Governor should have at this point ideas to meaningfully address the “public safety” emergency. Unfortunately, a recent presentation reveals the real public safety emergency will not be addressed.

This week, several of my fellow legislators and I were presented with the proposed public safety measures from the Governor’s Office at an interim Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee meeting. Legislators on both sides of the aisle expressed major concerns with the targeted areas of public safety to be addressed. These measures include a complete retooling of our courts’ criminal competency protocol; an ambiguous and potentially unconstitutional measure to limit panhandling; and a measure to increase he penalties for felons found in possession of a firearm. Ironically, this bill has been proposed by Republicans for years, and year after year, including the recent 30-day session, it has been defeated by Democrats in the legislature. We were advised that the panhandling bill was revamped to be a road safety bill preventing activity within close proximity to a roadway, which I characterize as an anti-hitchhiking bill.

I asked: “When I return home from the Special Session, what will I be able to tell my constituents we accomplished to make our communities safer?” There was no acceptable response to the question. The answer is, if we move forward with what the Governor presented, not much at all. I question if any agreement can be reached prior to the Special Session.

We do have a public safety emergency in our state and it does need to be addressed. I had hoped to hear the Governor propose meaningful legislation to ‘move the needle’ and correct some of the root problems of crime that have gripped our state. When I see the limited issues to be advanced by the Governor, I am disappointed. We can work together to make our communities safer. It will take significant resolve and discipline. Unfortunately, we will spend our time debating competency, panhandling, and hitchhiking. We should use the interim to find solid ‘solutions’ that can be introduced and discussed in the 2025 60-day session. We simply cannot rework our criminal competency protocol on such a large scale in a matter of a few days let alone legislation to reduce crime.

My recommendation to the Governor is to either put forward some serious solutions, or save the taxpayer’s money by calling off this aimless Special Session. The people are demanding action and we owe it to them to do whatever is necessary to restore law and order in our communities and take back our streets and parks from those who are intent on harming our citizens.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Sen. Nibert: What will we do to make new Mexico safer?