Font ResizeSANTA FE - Gov. Susana Martinez will fail this session in her effort to reinstate the death penalty.
She may also lose her high-profile battle to repeal the law that enables undocumented immigrants to obtain New Mexico driver's licenses. But Martinez's unrelenting criticisms of the existing law helped get a licensing reform bill approved in the House of Representatives. Now she is trying to force the state Senate to deal with the contentious issue.
With two weeks left in the 60-day legislative session, Martinez is positioned to win on at least one of her high-profile issues to reform public schools. It would mandate that third-graders who do not read proficiently be held back for a year.
She also may prevail in her push to obtain DNA samples in more felony arrests, though probably not with the sweeping bill she wants.
As for Hollywood, a regular target of Martinez's criticisms, it will be at the center of legislative debates down the stretch. The governor wants legislation that would reduce the amount of rebates the state pays annually to moviemakers who film in the state.
Here are capsules of laws Martinez wants to change and her chances.
Death penalty
Republicans in the House and Senate have introduced bills to revive the death penalty, but neither has advanced from committees.
The Legislature outlawed capital punishment two years ago, making New Mexico the 15th state without the death penalty. Martinez, a career prosecutor until her election
But because this battle was fought so recently, reviving the death penalty has generated little interest among legislators.
In addition, death-penalty prosecutions and appeals are expensive. The state's strained financial condition has led to everyday discussions about cutbacks, not reinstating laws that will increase judiciary costs.
Ronald Keine, who spent 22 months on New Mexico's death row in the 1970s before being exonerated, said the Legislature made the right decision in outlawing capital punishment.
"I will be there if they try to bring back to the death penalty," said Keine, now 63, who once was nine days away from the gas chamber.
Driver's licenses
Martinez has invested enormous effort in a bill that would repeal a 2003 law enabling undocumented immigrants to obtain New Mexico driver's licenses.
The proposal appeared dead in a Democrat-controlled committee, but Rep. Andy Nu-ez, an independent from Hatch, brought it to the full House of Representatives last week. Nu-ez got it through the House, on a 42-28 vote, after two full days of debate.
The licensing bill moves to the Senate now. Martinez challenged senators to give it a vote of all 42 members, rather than bottling it up in committees until the session ends.
Martinez says the existing licensing law makes New Mexico a magnet for illegal immigrants and weakens border security.
She also said that, without the change, New Mexico driver's licenses could be discounted as a valid form of identification to board airplanes. This means state residents might need passports to fly from one U.S. city to another.
Senators so far have shown no inclination to tighten the licensing law. But Martinez, thanks to Nu-ez, now has plenty of momentum on her side.
Katie's Law
As the district attorney in Do-a Ana County, Martinez prosecuted a man who raped and killed a 22-year-old graduate student at New Mexico State University. Her name was Katie Sepich, and her death remains a topic in the Capitol on how best to improve the state's DNA database.
Martinez wants DNA samples taken in every felony arrest. This would expand the first Katie's Law approved by legislators in 2006. It requires DNA samples from those arrested in a subset of felonies, mostly violent crimes.
Martinez said Sepich's killer, caught after three years, would have been pinpointed much sooner had he been required to be swabbed for DNA after his arrest in a burglary case.
Legislators generally have supported Martinez on this one. But the Senate Judiciary Committee has amended the bill so that DNA samples would be taken after findings of probable cause by a judge, not merely arrests by police. This would preclude police from jailing people on specious grounds, simply so they could obtain DNA samples, senators said.
Katie's Law revisions look like a sure bet for approval, though it may not be in the precise form that Martinez wants.
Movie rebates
New Mexico has become a hot spot for movies and television productions, landing "True Grit," "Breaking Bad" and "Employee of the Month," among dozens of others, in the last eight years.
The state now pays moviemakers a 25 percent refund on qualified production expenses. This removed about $65 million from the state treasury last year, but proponents of the industry said movies put thousands to work in a bad economy.
Martinez wants to reduce the subsidy to 15 percent. The House opted for a different approach, approving a bill that would limit the movie rebates to $45 million a year.
Senators, though, still could try to raise the cap. Some want up to $60 million a year in rebates, saying movies are a growing and clean industry for New Mexico.
Oddly enough, legislators generally agree that nobody knows if the rebates are good or bad for the New Mexico's economy. Senators have approved a bill mandating a thorough study of whether movies are generating jobs and tax revenue, or draining the state's treasury.
Promoting unqualified students
Martinez seems to have connected best with legislators on education issues. She has loudly criticized the state law that allows a parent to overrule a school staff that wants to retain a child.
Martinez said "social promotion - advancing kids who have not mastered the basics - is destructive." Unprepared children who move ahead tend to drop out of high school, frustrated that they cannot keep up academically, she said.
A bill approved by the House would require schools to retain third-graders who do not read proficiently. This could lead to some 4,000 of the state's 25,000 third-graders being held back.
The governor wanted similar mass retentions in grades 5 and 8, based on standardized tests. House members balked at so extensive a retention program, saying the state would do better to focus on kids in the early grades.
Critics of holding back third-graders en masse, notably Democratic Rep. Sheryl Williams Stapleton, say this approach will not be effective unless money is available to hire more reading teachers. Martinez's administration says existing federal funds for education can be used on the retention program.
The bill now is in a Senate committee.
Grading schools A, B, C, D or F
Martinez, advocating plain talk instead of jargon, wants every public school to receive a letter grade of A through F.
The arcane language by which schools are rated now discourages parental and community involvement, Martinez said. A straightforward letter grade should let everybody know where a school stands and what needs to be done to make it better, she said.
Bills on letter grades for schools are in both houses. One has advanced to the full Senate. A companion measure is in a committee of the House of Representatives.
Martinez will push hard on this issue in the final two weeks. Florida and New York City now grade schools in the clear terms that Martinez favors, but they also put more money into schools before changing the evaluation system.
Santa Fe Bureau Chief Milan Simonich can be reached at msimonich@tnmnp.com or (505) 820-6898. His blog is at nmcapitolreport.com.
