Two Bills highlighted in Albuquerque Journal

Two bills sponsored by Representative Cates are highlighted in the Business section of the 13 Jan 25 Albuquerque Journal: on Ticket Scalping and on Healthcare appropriations.

From the Journal:

Economy

New Mexico could join about half a dozen other states that have laws aiming to prevent ticket scalping.

Ticket scalping is selling, offering for sale or attempting to sell any ticket, privilege, license, admission or pass to events at a price greater than what’s charged at the place of admission or printed on the ticket, according to new legislation filed by Rep. Kathleen Cates, D-Corrales.

Her bill would prevent ticket scalping at any event presented by the state, a political subdivision of the state or a nonprofit formally recognized as tax-exempt. That would be in addition to college athletic events that already prohibit ticket scalping.

Anyone who commits ticket scalping would be guilty of a misdemeanor and face a fine of up to $500 or imprisonment of less than one year, or both, under the legislation.

The bill wouldn’t prohibit charging fees for services connected with the sale of a ticket or pass, if the fee is allowed under a contract between the ticket seller and the event sponsor or promoter.

Health care

Cates also has a two-sentence House bill that would appropriate $6.3 million from the general fund to the state’s health care authority to provide rate increases in fiscal year 2026 to service providers that receive reimbursement from certain Medicaid waiver programs. If it garners support, it’s likely the bill in the session could be scrapped and instead included directly in the budget.

Voters could also have the opportunity in a future election to amend the state constitution to specify how public employees’ retiree health care funds are used and managed, if the Legislature passes a resolution introduced by Sen. Bobby Gonzales, D-Ranchos de Taos.

The resolution would only allow expenditures from a retiree health care trust fund for the benefit of its beneficiaries and for expenses of administering the public employees retiree health care system.

“The trust fund shall never be used, diverted, loaned, assigned, pledged, invested, encumbered or appropriated for any other purpose,” the prefiled legislation states. The retiree health care trust fund itself would be comprised of funds, assets, proceeds, income, contributions, gifts and payments from any source paid into or held by a public employees’ retiree health care system.