Days remaining in session: 6

Stop the traffic: The Senate on Thursday unanimously passed Senate Bill 71, sponsored by Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, D-Doña Ana, which would create a new criminal offense of human trafficking and establish a task force to research and combat it.

Human trafficking is defined as obtaining another person knowing that force, fraud or coercion will be used to subject them to labor, services or commercial sexual activity; obtaining a person under 18 knowing they will be caused to engage in commercial sexual activity; or benefiting financially from the above. The penalty is a third-degree felony, except if the victim is under 16, in which case it is a second-degree felony, or under 13, which is a first-degree felony.

Task force responsibilities will include collecting data on the nature and extent of human trafficking, developing and conducting training for law enforcement personnel and victim service providers in how to identify victims, implementing a media awareness campaign in communities affected by trafficking and developing recommendations on how to prevent it.

The bill, which is backed by Attorney General Gary King, goes to the House.



Forming families: By a 30-4 vote, the state Senate on Thursday passed SB 315, the Federal Funding to Family Formation Programs bill sponsored by Sen. Mark Boitano, R-Albuquerque.

The bill would appropriate at least 1 percent of the federal block grant from the state's temporary assistance for needy families for family-formation programs.

Boitano said programs would include marriage-skills training, divorce-reduction programs, marriage-mentoring programs and responsible-fatherhood training.



Rally against transfer-tax limit: The mayors of Española and Santa Fe were joined Thursday by representatives from community groups in opposing a bill that would keep municipalities from imposing taxes on the transfer of real estate. SB 160, introduced by Sen. John Grubesic, D-Santa Fe, would keep Santa Fe City Council from bringing back around an idea it tabled last year — to add a 1 percent tax on the portion of home sales that is over $500,000.

Hank Hughes, director of the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness, said his group wants cities to retain the right to decide on their own about whether to impose such a tax. Santa Fe has discussed using some of the revenue from a transfer tax to fund housing for the homeless and other affordable living programs. Labor union and religious leaders accompanied Hughes and the mayors at the midday rally. The bill has passed the Senate and is assigned to the House Business and Industry Committee and House Taxation and Revenue Committee.



Giving back: The Senate Finance Committee agreed Wednesday to reinstate six full-time attorney positions to the Environment Department and the Oil Conservation Division. But the committee put back less than half of the $500,000 it yanked from the OCD's general fund request. The committee proposed sending the attorneys and the funding to the state Attorney General's Office.

SFC Chairman Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, and Sen. Leonard Lee Rawson, R-Las Cruces, said the move in part is prompted by what they see as Gov. Bill Richardson usurping legislative powers. "Moving these six attorneys to the Attorney General's Office would insure that they represent the public's interest and not merely the governor's agenda," Rawson said.

Others saw the action as retaliation for moves by the governor and his administration to tighten oil and gas drilling regulations and create tougher car emissions standards. The Senate and House agreed on the $6 billion total state spending bill and have sent it to the governor.



Please protect us: Legislators approved a measure this week asking the U.S. Forest Service to protect "the traditional, rural, cultural and ranching way of New Mexican life" while the agency is creating plans for where motorized vehicles will be allowed to go.

Santa Fe National Forest and national forests all over the country are working on travel management plans that will dictate where dirt bikes, all-terrain vehicles, trucks and other vehicles are allowed.

Ranchers from the Glorieta/Rowe Mesa area complained to legislators earlier in the session that off-roading vehicles were tearing up their land. They said the Forest Service had not consulted with them about the travel management plans, although the agency has held numerous public meetings, posted fliers and been available to speak to groups about the plans, which are posted online.

Senate Joint Memorial 13, carried by Sen. Phil Griego, D-San Jose, and Rep. Jeanette O. Wallace, R-Los Alamos, is nonbinding.



Looking ahead: Sens. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque, and John Ryan, R-Albuquerque, are this week's guests on Report from Santa Fe. The pair will discuss health-care reform, budget issues, stem cell research and ethics. The program airs in Santa Fe and Albuquerque at 6 a.m. Sunday on KNME-TV Channel 5.

It also airs at 6 p.m. Saturday on the east side of the state on KENW-TV in Portales. Viewers in the southern part of the state can see the show at 11 a.m. Sunday on KRWG-TV in Las Cruces.



Quotes of the day:

"Many of us would like to have an out of body experience right now to the other side." — Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, during a debate on a property tax cap measure.

"With the legislation we passed in 2006, we gave away the farm. With House Bill 276, we're giving away the farmer's wife and the farmer's children." — Rep. Miguel Garcia, D-Albuquerque, on a measure that would create a Tax Increment Development District to issue bonds in Albuquerque. It passed the House 44-23.