NMLA 2024 Legislative Bulletin #1								November 14, 2023

The Legislative Bulletin is a summary of library legislation during the 2024 Legislature, provided by the Legislation Committee of the New Mexico Library Association.

The 2024 Legislative session starts on Tuesday, January 16th. This will be a 30-day session, ending at noon on Thursday,February 15th. January 31st is the last day for new bills to be introduced. Legislation may be pre-filed beginning January 2nd. 

NMLA Legislative Day will be Friday, January 26th. Please ask library supporters, including your local board members and friends groups to save the date and plan to be there.  

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TODAY, November 14th, at 2:30 pm, the Legislative Finance Committee will hear the FY 25 budget request of the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), including the programs of the New Mexico State Library.  The NMLA Legislation Committee has been given a short segment to advocate for robust funding for the 2024 Library General Obligation Bond Issue.  NMLA is requesting that the G.O. Bond be continued at the $19 million level from 2022, which voters supported with a 62.7% positive margin. 

NMLA is also supporting a one-time appropriation for the Rural Library Endowment. Appropriations over the past three years have brought the fund to $28 million. Proceeds from the endowment are granted to public and tribal libraries serving populations below 3,000. The goal is to raise the endowment to over $50 million, which would be around one million dollars for each of the more than fifty current and developing eligible libraries.
The Governor's budget includes an appropriation of $15 million for the endowment, which would bring the fund to $43 million. Rural library supporters are asking their local legislators to support additional funding, using picture postcards showing their library buildings. 


Here is the LFC Agenda for the afternoon of November 14. 
Legislative Finance Committee
State Capitol - Room 322 - Santa Fe, New Mexico

12:00 -- Lunch 
1:30 -- Capital Outlay Quarterly Status -- Cally Carswell, Analyst, Legislative Finance Committee
2:30 -- Department of Cultural Affairs (505) -- Debra Garcia y Griego, Secretary, Department of Cultural Affairs
          • 2024 Library GO Bond Request 
3:30 -- Attorney General (305) -- Raul Torrez, Attorney General
4:30 -- Department of Information Technology (361) -- Raja Sambandam, Acting Secretary, 
Department of Information Technology; Micaela Fischer, Program Evaluation, Legislative 
Finance Committee 
         • Summary of FY25 Agency IT Requests
         • Office of Broadband Access and Expansion -- Drew Lovelace, DoIT Acting Director

You can watch the LFC hearing live on the Legislature's website. Go to the Webcast tab and select "Now Playing". 
https://sg001-harmony.sliq.net/00293/harmony

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Here is a list of legislators on the Legislative Finance Committee.  Members have a vote on committee decisions. If one of your legislators is on the committee, please let them know of your particular concerns, including the Library G.O. Bond Issue.  

 		Legislator				Role
Committee Members
George K. Muñoz		Senator			Chair
Nathan P. Small		Representative	Vice Chair
Gail Armstrong		Representative	Member
Brian G. Baca			Representative	Member
Pete Campos			Senator			Member
Jack Chatfield		Representative	Member
Meredith A. Dixon		Representative	Member
Harry Garcia			Representative	Member
Roberto "Bobby" J. Gonzales	Senator	Member
Siah Correa Hemphill	Senator			Member
Derrick J. Lente		Representative	Member
Steven P. Neville		Senator			Member
Nancy Rodriguez		Senator			Member
Debra M. Sariñana	Representative	Member
William E. Sharer		Senator			Member
Pat Woods			Senator			Member

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Now is the time to be contacting your local legislators to request local capital outlay requests. 

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Joe Sabatini, Co-Chair
NMLA Legislation Committee