Ethics bills highlight end of session

SANTA FE (KRQE) - The 2009 legislative session wrapped up Saturday at noon. From the start, ethics reform bills were pushed by lawmakers from both the House and Senate.

Several ethics bills are heading to Gov. Bill Richardson's desk, while another News 13 has been tracking died.

That bill aimed to punish crooked public officials by allowing judges to increase fines for public officials who are found guilty of a felony related to their public office.

The sponsor Sen. Bill Payne, R-Albuquerque, said he will push it again next year.

"This is a hard place sometimes and for whatever reasons it didn't make it," Payne said. "I'll try again next year for the fourth time to get it through."

The bill was tabled in the House Judiciary Committee.

Payne claimed no one told him it was being heard, so he wasn't there to present it.

"Obviously I'm disappointed, but we'll try it again," he said.

There is good news for ethics reform despite Senator Payne's bill dying in the legislature. A bill to limit campaign contributions is on its way to Richardson.

If it is signed into law, it would be the first of its kind to cap campaign donations in New Mexico.

"Two years ago, campaign contributions capping lost by one vote with five minutes left to go in the session," Sen. Dede Feldman, D – Albuquerque, said.

Under that bill, a single person can donate $2,300 to a legislative candidate and up to $5,000 to a statewide candidate or political party for a primary election or a general election.

Political action committees' donations are limited to $5,000 to a candidate and a political party.

"I am delighted, really delighted," Feldman said. "We are now the 46th state to adopt limits on campaign contributions."

Also, a bill to ban the practice of double dipping passed both bodies and is going to the Governor.