Supported by industry, SJR 7 (Ingle, Legislative Review of Regulatory Rules) would weaken the separation of powers between the Executive and Legislative branches and threaten key environmental, health and safety protections by placing on the 2008 general election ballot an Amendment to the New Mexico State Constitution to allow the legislature to override rulemaking authority of the Executive Branch.
Areas impacted include, but
are not limited, to: groundwater protection, land and river contamination,
clean air, safety conditions and sanitation in nursing homes, restaurants,
foster homes, meatpacking and more.
SJR 7 would bottleneck
regulations and rules passed by state agencies and commissions intended to
protect public health and welfare, worker safety and the environment.
The legislature
would need to review and approve all rules passed by all agencies. Some of
these rules involve volumes of data and public comment. For example, the Clean
Cars rulemaking involved 2 months of public and stakeholder comment, more than
2000 written public comments, dozens of hours of technical testimony and
thousands of pages of data and technical information.
During the last
fiscal year, there were approximately 560 rules repealed, amended or newly
adopted. During the prior fiscal year, there were approximately 680. In future
years, SJR 7 would require legislative review for all of these.
