GOP Attack Ad Fact Check

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This attack ad is 100% false.  This attack add references SB 14, which did not pass. It was an environmental bill known as the "clean fuel standards bill" introduced by Senator Mimi Stewart. A clean fuel standard law would apply to retailers of gasoline, like gas stations, not the consumer. The intent of the bill was to bring economic and health benefits to New Mexico. Here are details of the legislation, which did not pass: 

·The bill would have created jobs in rural and urban communities across the state;

· Specifically the clean fuel standard would contribute up to $470 million in capital investments in New Mexico, per a report from Lujan Grisham’s office, creating 1,600 permanent jobs and 4,100 construction jobs by 2030. 

· The bill would have increased consumer's fuel options; 

· Studies in states that already have clean fuel standards in place demonstrate that the standard has next-to-no impact on the price consumers pay for gas at the pump;

· New Mexico would have been the first state in the southwest to implement a clean fuel standard, setting us ahead of the curve economically and environmentally; 

· It would have reduced the carbon intensity of transportation fuels;

· It would have improved the health of our communities and the quality of our air;

· If implemented, a clean fuel standard would reduce emissions by an estimated 18.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide – equivalent to taking 570,000 cars off the road for a year.

This attack ad is 100% false. It references HB 75, which is legislation from 2021. Representative Herndon was not yet serving in the legislature in 2021, and therefore could not have even voted on this bill.

This attack ad is false.  It references HB 81 (which died before the Senate could vote), which would have allowed courts to permit monthly installment payments for fines imposed on indigent people. 

HB 81 proposed that courts be able to reduce and waive court taxes on low-income New Mexicans, while maintaining judges’ discretion to impose probation, jail, or other sanctions. 

With law enforcement already stretched thin it is irresponsible to use our limited public safety resources to chase uncollectible debts. The state’s counties spend at least 41 cents to collect a single dollar of fine and fee revenue — 115 times more than the IRS spends to collect a dollar of income tax.

If a person can pay a court fine, but not all at once, the court would allow installments in some cases. A Brennan Center for Justice study found that from 2012 through 2016, Bernalillo County lost money while trying to collect more than $4 million in fines.

This attack ad is mostly false. It references a floor amendment to HB 69 that was voted down. HB 69 was a popular bill that received large bipartisan support (62-5). The legislation specifically addressed chop shops across the state of New Mexico making it a felony to operate one. 

To streamline the many proposed crime bills at the 2022 session, Rep. Herndon, Rep. Dixon, and Rep. Matthews negotiated amongst lawmakers to create a larger omnibus crime package, which included many of the smaller bills like HB 69. Achievements of the legislation include:

• $50 million to establish a law enforcement officer recruitment fund
• adding more police officers now
• outlawing chop shops
• toughening penalties for threatening to shoot people
• ending the statute of limitations on murder

Read the final version here of House Bill 68.