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Financial cost of proposed New Mexico Civil Rights Act contentious
Santa Fe New Mexican, The (NM)
Feb. 28 As Democratic lawmakers continue to advance a bill they say would protect constitutional rights, government officials across
New Mexico are sounding the alarm over what they contend will be a multimillion-dollar price tag that ultimately would be shouldered by taxpayers.
Sponsors of House Bill 4, including Speaker
Brian Egolf, D-
Santa Fe, say the sky is falling assertions that city and county governments will become uninsurable or face financial calamity are based on conjecture and hypothesis. They don t get to pull out a cocktail napkin and write the word evidence on it and then give it to the Legislature and expect us to believe it, Egolf said Saturday.
meunierd/Shutterstock
A bill that would end qualified immunity as a defense in civil rights cases advanced from the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee.
HB 4, known as the New Mexico Civil Rights Act, passed without recommendation in a 5 to 3 vote along party lines. State Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, amended the bill to remove acequias, land grants and other small units of government from the definition of a public body, said Daniel Marzec, communications director for House Speaker Brian Egolf’s office.
Egolf is a co-sponsor of the bill. The lead sponsor is Rep. Georgene Louis, D-Albuquerque.
The bill provides individuals whose civil rights have been violated the ability to sue the governmental body for up to $2 million in civil penalties. That would include attorney’s fees.
AZTEC A bill that would allow essential workers who contract COVID-19 to qualify for workers’ compensation benefits has advanced to the House floor after passing the House State Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee on a 5-3 vote on Feb. 26.
House Bill 268, or Coronavirus and Workers Comp, was sponsored by Rep. Dayan Hochman-Vigil, D-Albuquerque, Rep. Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos, Rep. Meredith Dixon, D-Albuquerque, Rep. Daymon Ely, D-Corrales, and Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero, D-Albuquerque.
“House Bill 268 came about because we heard firsthand from constituents who unquestionably caught COVID-19 at work, but were denied Workers’ Compensation,” said Rep. Hochman-Vigil in a press release. “Essential employees put their health and safety on the line every day to provide the services that New Mexicans need. Should they become infected at work, they deserve the same protections they would receive from any other workplace injury.”