Featured Presentation
Every year at the conclusion of the NM legislative session, PVA invites every legislator in Doña Ana County to tell us what really goes on in Santa Fe. This year was a 60-day session, and five legislators participated: Senator Bill Soules, Representative Micaela Lara-Cadena, Representative Sarah Silva, Senator Carrie Hamblen, and Senator Jeff Steinborn. Each legislator reflected on the bills they worked on; some important bills were left on the floor, others were vetoed by Governor Lujan Grisham, and some bills were signed.
Here’s a taste of their experience in this session:
Sen. Bill Soules concluded his comments saying, “I always feel like we left an awful lot on the table that we could have, should have gotten done. The state is a wealthy state and we leave way too many people behind in this state.”
Rep. Micaela Lara-Cadena summed up her session as “the biggest loss of this session was the veto of Senate Bill 13 that moved through both the House, Senate, and Education Committees. If New Mexico could do one thing right, it is to trust indigenous people, native people, tribal communities in caring for their own languages and preservation and survival and resiliency.”
As a new Representative, Sarah Silva emphasized all that she learned in her first session but she was disappointed that House Bill 143 was vetoed. She said, “The fact that a transparency bill was vetoed by the governor after it took 15 years to get to a governor’s desk just took the wind out of me.”
Sen. Carrie Hamblen reported that she was named as chair of the Senate Tax, Business, and Transportation Committee, and though she worked with the minority members, the tax package they developed was vetoed by the Governor. But she is proud of two bills, SB 267 Housing Application Fees that will reduce financial burden when seeking housing, and SB 357 Essential Services Development Act that provides access to internet, energy, water, etc. to improve quality of life.
Sen. Jeff Steinborn outlined his efforts to address medical practices in NM (an issue that a number of legislators present at the April PVA worked on). Knowing that New Mexico is one of only two states that pays gross receipts tax, he worked to identify all the areas doctors pay taxes. “It’s not just about medical malpractice, about GRT. It’s about increasing residencies, which we have found is one of the best ways to grow doctors here at home.”
The snip-bits above are just a brief look at the intense work our legislators pursued in the 2025 NM session.
Need for donations to food organizations serving Las Cruces and Doña Ana County
Pamela Daves moved to Las Cruces 3 years ago, and she has learned that most local food pantries are having trouble getting food for the folks who need them. She searched for food pantries and made a list of all of those organizations. Gradually she’s going down the list of food pantries, and making contributions. She hopes all of us will do the same because there are lots of hungry people out there.
For more information, contact Pamela at bobcat3936@yahoo.com.
Updates on Representative Doreen Gallegos’ legislative accomplishments
Representative Gallegos was unable to attend the April PVA meeting, so Adam Sommers, her District Legislative Aide, outlined her legislature accomplishments. A lot of good legislation was left on the table this past session, but there are a few pieces that the representative was able to get across the finish line.
HB10 creates a cannabis enforcement bureau within RLD to make sure the cannabis being sold in New Mexico is safe and suitable for consumers. HB71 increases the distributions from the early childhood education and care trust fund to at least 500 million dollars a year. HB178 streamlines licensure of nurses in New Mexico and updates the scope of practice for some categories of nurses, and HB214 directs the health core authority to create a credentialing process for doulas that will allow them to be reimbursed through Medicaid.
For more information, contact Adam at adam.sommers@nmlegis.gov.
Maria Flores encourages PVA members to take 2 actions
Maria Flores asks everyone to please call, text, or email Senator Ben Ray Lujan and ask him to join Senator Heinrich in calling to end the agreement with El Salvador. The more people who make these calls and the more senators that are receiving calls from us, the better chance we have of closing down this agreement that deports Venezuelans (or disappear them) to the CICOT prison in El Salvador. Check out this good article, “The Makeup Artist, Donald Trump Deported Under the Alien Enemies Action” written by Jonathan Blitzer (published in the New Yorker in March).
Maria also encouraged everyone to contribute to the Southern New Mexico Giving Day, which occurred on Monday, April 28 (donations are still welcome, but they might not be matched). 60 organizations participate in this Southern New Mexico Giving Day, hosted by Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico and United Way. They will match each donation dollar to dollar, donating up to $500. This is a wonderful opportunity for all the organizations and KTAL LP (101.5) is one of them!
For more information, contact Maria at maflores54@gmail.com.
A few thoughts about guns
Frank Lopez reflected on the shooting we experienced a few weeks ago and said it’s heavy on his heart. What he’d like to do is to ask everyone what are we doing about it? It’s not just the legislators’ responsibility, it’s all of us. What are we doing about this situation? “I’m going to begin by proposing that PVA make time for a conversation on gun control,” said Frank, who would volunteer to facilitate it. But here’s a couple of things. The solution is not to ban guns. The solution is also not necessarily to ban any specific kind of rapid fire gun because the very next day they can change the gun to make it rapid fire. He said to consider licensing and registering every single gun as a way to reduce gun violence.
For more information, contact Frank at Lopezfrankr@gmail.com.
Updates about Indivisible actions
Pam Hett announced that Indivisible held an event on May 1st from 6 to 7:30 p.m., focused on unions and solidarity with immigration.
Their next event will host a panel discussion on May 15th, from 6 to 7:30, at First Christian Church. The focus will be what the end of the Department of Education will mean to you. The panel will explore what it means for the federal government to cut the Department of Education, how that will impact New Mexicans from early childhood, elementary, high school, and college.
For more information, visit their website: IndivisibleLCNM.org.
Have you done your civic duty?
William Gilman detailed his experience at the rally at the Border Patrol headquarters. “There’s a lot of middle-of-the-road type people who are going to want to start showing up to these things and we need to bring them in and create a sense of community with each other and with them,” William said. “Show up, but also if you go home and you didn’t greet somebody and
say welcome, you should not feel entirely like you did your civic duty that day.”
For more information, contact William at william@starwhiskersinsight.com.
National Day of Reason
Diane Starbuck reminded people that there are those who do not believe that religion should merge with government. “Our main purpose is the separation of church and state. One of my concerns is February 6th, Trump wrote an executive order to form an anti-Christian bias task force, in which members of the federal government are supposed to report on people.”
She invited everyone to Las Cruces Nones’ National Day of Reason event, which happened Thursday, May 1st, from 12-1 pm at the flagpole at City Hall.
For more information, check out the website: LasCrucesNones.org.
Success for the separation of church and state
Jim Hoerst has been working on the separation of church and state at the local level and has recently seen success.
“For the last couple of years, I have been beating my head against the wall. And this week, I found a soft spot in the wall. The county commission decided not to adopt a National Day of Prayer proclamation,” Hoerst said, explaining that derogatory mentions of homosexuality and transgender people led the county to not want to associate themselves. “It gives you a headache. But there are soft spots in the wall. If you bang on it long enough, you might find one.”
He seconds the invite to the National Day of Reason event.
For more information, contact Jim at seattletags@gmail.com or 206-719-3225.
Thanks from Cyclists
Jim Wilcox extended his thanks to Senators Steinborn and Hamblen for their assistance in legalizing the rolling stop for cyclists at intersections. [Read the bill here.]
For more information, contact Jim at jimwilcox@comcast.net.
Unions are Rising Up; Local Showing of Amazon Organizing Movie
Glenn Landers spoke to how local unions are speaking up against Trumps anti-union agenda. “We’re all hoping that May 1st is a huge day for the resistance. May1st, as you probably know, is internationally associated with labor. A number of national labor unions have been organizing their own events across the country. There’s supposed to be 700 of them on May 1st. In 47 different states,” Glenn said. “And that includes us right here. There are 6 labor unions that will be holding an event at Milton Hall on May 1st at 6 o’clock. And then at 7 o’clock they plan to show a movie. It’s one you won’t see on Prime.” The movie is called “Union” — the story of organizing at Amazon.
For more information, contact Glenn at glenn.landers@gmail.com.
Help both KTAL and Pantry through Giving Funds
Peter Goodman encourages helping KTAL on Giving Day. Peter also announced that KTAL will have the New Mexico Attorney General on May 14 on the show he co-hosts, Speak Up Las Cruces, which airs on Wednesday mornings from 8-10 am and rebroadcast on Wednesdays from 2-4 pm.
Peter also mentioned a fundraiser at First Christian Church scheduled for Saturday, April 26, to benefit a food pantry for individuals living with AIDS/HIV.
For more information, email Peter at peter@pgoodmanphotos.com.
A chance at collective awareness
Jorge Aguirre read an excerpt from a column published by David Brooks that spoke to the loss of a nation’s honor and the grief and pain that it induces.
“I feel like Mr. Brooks, like many of us, is going through a mourning process,” Jorge said. “We are losing the myth that we’re the good guys. And with that comes a lot of pain, but with that also comes self-awareness. And the thing tome as a person of color is that we’ve always lied to ourselves. We like this lie because it makes us feel good. But once we’re aware, it gives us the opportunity to think about what’s next.”
For more information, contact Jorge at jorgeluis.aguirrebaez@gmail.com.
PVA meets again:
Thursday, May 22, 2025, at 7pm
Munson Senior Center, Las Cruces