[LWVNM Action] Action Committee Meeting 9/9

[Akkana Peck]

A brief summary of today's meeting (please correct me if I got
anything wrong):

Meeting times: Most people in the survey liked Wednesday, so
our next meeting will be on a Wednesday at 5:30. We'll continue
that for a while, but we'll likely revisit it when the 2023 session
begins, when we might move back to Fridays as a good wrap-up day
when not too many legislative meetings are happening.

Reproductive Rights: Ann brought us up to date on a meeting
discussing reproductive issues and whether our state legislature
should codify the right to abortion, or other laws addressing
reproductive justice. There's no definite legislation planned yet,
but California is working on bills that maybe we could copy, and
some people had heard that Linda Lopez is working on a bill.

They also discussed some other issues related to reproductive
justice, like geofencing (a way that law enforcement can track
which phones go to a particular place, like an abortion clinic);
and the problem of Crisis Pregnancy Centers or CPCs, which are
faith-based establishments that present themselves as though
they're medical centers, but instead of offering abortions they
give out an experimental medication that they say reverses the
effect of the abortion pills.

Tax Policy: Dick described a meeting that he, Kathy and others
attended last week that discussed ways to make our tax system more
progressive while still providing more revenue.

Redistricting: Lots of interesting things happening (sorry, I wasn't
able to write down all the details) but one interesting point was a
poll of NM voters: 73% want an independent redistricting committee,
while only 12% are opposed. So if we could get it on the ballot,
it would almost certainly pass.

Voting/Elections: There's been a lot of discussion on voting bills
in the 2023 session, whether there would be one huge omnibus bill
like in 2022, or a lot of separate bills. Some legislators were
leaning toward another omnibus bill but word has come down from on
high that there shall be separate bills. Let's hope it stays that way.
Hannah and Dick will be meeting with the Secretary of State's office
to discuss what bills they want to see.

Outreach Circle: Hannah encouraged everybody to go to the app store
for their phone (either Apple or Android), install the Outreach
Circle app, set up an account, then sign up with LWVNM (which should
be the only thing that shows up if you search for New Mexico).
During the session, things happen really fast at the Roundhouse
and Hannah thinks this will be a much better way of alerting people
when things happen, or of prompting people to contact their legislators.

There was some discussion of our 2023 legislative priorities -- it's
early still, but we're likely to care a lot about bills related to
reproductive justice, voting, and modernizing the legislature.

LWVNM's Natural Resources committee will be renamed to the
Environment committee.

There was some discussion of speakers to invite to the 2023
Legislative Preview, League Day and Advocacy Workshop. Hannah and
Dick will be contacting possible speakers; if you have ideas, let
them know.

        ...Akkana