An energy bill that died last week in the New Mexico House of Representatives at the request of the All Pueblo Council of Governors was partially resurrected Wednesday in a Senate Finance Committee hearing that debated — after a fashion — what to do with $50 million previously set aside for the dead bill. But one would be forgiven for not knowing the details. The committee was discussing wording in HB2, the Legislature’s overall spending bill, but was working with documents received at the last second and not made available to the public.
In fact, they weren’t made available to the cabinet secretaries whose budgets were discussed, either. One handout contained a reshuffling of the New Mexico Environment Department budget, and a day later, James Kenney, the NMED cabinet secretary, still hadn’t received or even seen a copy. “They don’t post the handouts,” he said. He called tracking his budget as it winds through the Legislature “a little challenging.”
