Credit KUNM LAS CRUCES - Legislation requiring paid sick leave to be offered to all workers in New Mexico cleared its first committee Thursday, Feb. 4, after the sponsors of two different bills on the subject agreed to combine their efforts.
House Bill 37, sponsored primarily by Angelica Rubio, D-Las Cruces, and House Bill 20, sponsored primarily by Christine Chandler, D-Rio Rancho, were combined into a committee substitute for HB 20. That bill passed the House Labor, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee on a 5-3 vote.
The bill would require employers to offer paid sick-leave benefits to all employees, both full-time and part-time. Workers would earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.
LAS CRUCES - Legislation to remove a 1969 state law outlawing abortion that was made unconstitutional by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade has completed the committee process in the Senate, and is now eligible for debate by the full Senate.
Senate Bill 10 passed the Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote. It follows House Bill 7, which had already cleared the committee process in the House. Both bills would remove the outdated law from the books.
Similar legislation in 2019 passed the House on a 40-29 vote, but fell in the Senate on a 24-18 vote against. Six of the eight Democrats who voted against the bill were defeated in primary elections last summer. Removing the old law is one of the top priorities this session for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
The 2021 International Military Ball in Minot has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sponsored by the Military Affairs Committee of the Minot Area Chamber EDC, the military ball is a formal event with a black-tie dinner. This year would have been the 33rd year for the event.
The first International Military Ball was held in Minot on Feb. 13, 1988, at the Sheraton-Riverside Inn, now Clarion Hotel, with between 500 and 600 people attending, according to the files of The Minot Daily News.
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SANTA FE — A proposal to exempt Social Security benefits from New Mexico s income tax narrowly passed a House committee on Tuesday with bipartisan support. The legislation, sponsored by five…
Legislative Roundup: 44 Days Remaining In Session
SFNM
Weather report: Advocates say House Bill 48, which would appropriate $3.5 million a year for over 100 more weather stations in New Mexico State University’s ZiaMet Mesonet system, would do more than improve weather predictions.
Rep. Martin Zamora, R-Clovis, who sponsored the bill, as well as climatologists and agricultural insurance experts, told lawmakers Tuesday the bill also could help the state’s farmers weather drought.
If the state can provide more and better data about rainfall, farmers hit hardest by drought conditions might be able to use the information to apply for some $30 million in federal drought relief funds. Members of the House Agriculture and Water Resources Committee voted 7-0 to support the bill and advance it to the House Appropriations and Finance Committee for consideration.