Days remaining in session: 58

•Corruption fighters: During her election campaign, Gov. Susana Martinez repeatedly blasted the corruption that has dogged state politics in recent years. But the Las Cruces prosecutor dismissed the notion of creating an independent state ethics commission, an idea that has failed to clear the Legislature despite several attempts. Instead, Martinez preferred establishing a public corruption unit in the Department of Public Safety.

The idea of such a unit came up in her State of the State speech Tuesday. "They will investigate allegations of public corruption and help bring to justice those who violate the public's trust,'' Martinez said to applause from the standing-room-only crowd at the Capitol.

Her administration isn't proposing a big bump in funding at that agency, however.

"We are going to have to do with what we have already,'' the governor told The New Mexican after Tuesday's speech. "We're not going to increase the budget just for the corruption unit. We are going to pull detectives from different parts of the state and we are going to make sure we are responsive to a hotline of corruption being reported by state employees or others.''

The corruption unit will have subpoena power, she added.

•Health care exchange: At the center of the nation's new federal health care law are health insurance exchanges. As envisioned by the law, the exchanges are places that should function as clearinghouses for consumers

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looking to purchase health insurance. They must be up and running by 2014.

How New Mexico's exchange will work, and whether it should drive insurance reform or not, will emerge as a discussion topic during this year's 60-day legislation session. House Rep. Danice Picraux and Sen. Dede Feldman already have introduced a bills - House Bill 33 and Senate Bill 38 - that set up a framework for the state's health care exchange. Look for that discussion to heat up during the session.

The New Mexican