With the clock ticking before the end of the Legislature this week, there was slight progress Saturday on the proposed constitutional amendments aimed at reforming the scandal-scarred Public Regulation Commission.

The Senate Rules Committee voted unanimously to give a do-pass recommendation to House Joint Resolution 16, sponsored by House Republican Leader Tom Taylor of Farmington, which would move the registration and reporting requirements for corporations from the commission to the Secretary of State's Office.

Before the full Senate can hear it, the resolution must be heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

However, the committee did not hear two other proposed amendments. One would impose minimum professional and educational qualifications for elected commissioners (HJR 11). The other would remove the Insurance Division from commission oversight and create an independent insurance superintendent appointed by the governor (HJR 17).

Those two measures are on the committee's agenda for Sunday. The meeting is scheduled for noon.

All three proposed amendments -- which initially were proposed by the Santa Fe-based think tank Think New Mexico -- sailed through the House early in the session with little opposition.

The Think New Mexico study was prompted by the fact that the regulatory agency has become a virtual swamp of negative publicity in recent years. In the past two years, two former commissioners -- Jerome Block Jr., who represented the district including Santa Fe, and Carol Sloan of Gallup -- resigned after each being convicted of unrelated felonies.

But the momentum slowed considerably once the proposed amendments got to the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, said last week that legislators should take time to study the proposals.

"A 30-day session is a very short session," Sanchez told The New Mexican. "I don't think it's enough time for us to vet these constitutional resolutions carefully enough. Let's do it deliberatively, not just do it in the next five days."

On Friday, following several news accounts that quoted Sanchez, the Senate Democratic Caucus issued a news release saying, "We need to be deliberative and thoughtful anytime changes are made to the New Mexico constitution, and that will be the case with PRC reform."

Doug Howe, the commissioner appointed by Gov. Susana Martinez to replace Block, testified at Saturday's hearing in favor of Taylor's bill. He noted that in most states the Secretary of State's Office handles corporation registration.

Fred Nathan of Think New Mexico told the committee that a majority of the commission supports the amendment. He said that's unusual, because the commission would be relinquishing some power.

If the Senate passes any the amendments, they would appear on the November general election ballot.

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com