President Vivien called our Club meeting to order at 12 Noon. She led the members in the Pledge of Allegiance & 4-way test. A moment of silence and reflection followed.
Guests: Julia Huested, guest of Emily
March is – “World Understanding Month”
Only one pin or name badge fine was imposed today.
Announcements/Sad-Happy-Brag Bucks:
Cheryl parted with 2 bucks to thank Emily for her work on our service projects and to thank Fofo for the great field trip and luncheon last week.
Vivien coughed up $5. She owed $2 for previous weeks. Her daughter is moving her family to Houston from London. The rest was “for the pot”.
Mary signed a check for $83 !! One for each ??? Her book is finished!
Karen & her President-Elect are happy to be back home.
Gloria found $3. One for a great time with daughter, one for a 24 hour delay in getting back to the USA, another for niece who visited and baked a cake (of which we all had a sample) and the last (sad) for having her computer hacked!
Michael managed to find $2… One for the great job that Gloria did, in changing all of their accounts, to protect them from the hacker and the second for finishing his trip #5 to Ghana.
Pat’s happy to have her home back after hosting 6x family members as house guests.
Sgt-at-Arms Cheryl presented our weekly trivia questions:
State Trivia: What were the first 3 States in the Union? Delaware, Pennsylvania & New Jersey.
The 2nd 3 states were Massachusetts, Georgia & Connecticut.
When Rotary started up (in 1905) how many states were there? 45 !
Which vote for only Democrats today? American Samoa!
Why is march “special”? No, not for St. Patty’s day… It’s Girl Scout Cookie Month !!!
The Polio Plus loose change jar made a trip around the room.
Club, District & R.I. News and Business:
At our 17 March meeting, Julia will give her new member Bio (15 mins).
AND, there’ll be a presentation of an Honorary Member certificate to Tom Gallagher.
After a long, slow & painful death, Emily’s computer will rise from the dead tomorrow!!!
Karen says that she’ll run again for election!
Dave reminded us once again, that our yearly EREY donations to the Rotary International Foundation, for whatever the amount that you can afford, should take the form of a check written to “The Rotary Foundation”. Also note on the check that it’s for “Annual Fund Share”. Your donation will be credited to your Paul Harris Fellow Recognition. Give your checks to Gloria, ASAP. You should really note your Rotary membership number on that check.
Please remember our work day scheduled at the Rock at Noonday, 12 March, 10:30 AM to 1:15 PM.
Donna’s looking for one Club to host the Brazilian RFE group on April 14 - 24. District needs six host families and the group will be with the club for three to four nights.
An RFE group is going to District 4845 (Paraguay and NE Argentina) from April 21 to May 2, 2020. .
During June 12-26, 2020, our District will host a Rotary Friendship Exchange group from Australia. Interested in providing a place for them to stay? Respond to Donna at pedaceabq@aol.com or to Regina at raeguest65@swcp.com.
Our President-Elect Allan goes to PETS in Ruidoso in March!
Club members provide program speakers for each month of the Rotary Year:
March– Judy & Libby April– Dave May– Emily June– Pam
What ??? There are no March Club member birthday anniversary celebrants.
Today’s Program: Overview of the 2020 Santa Fe legislature.
Libby introduced Club member and State Representative (District 58) Karen Bash
So, what Did the Legislature Do?
The 2020 Legislative Session started on 21 January and ended on 20 February. Lawmakers passed the $7.6 billion budget with a few hours to spare and also sent 88 bills out of 727 bills that were introduced, to the governor’s desk.
Our Lawmakers main focus was on the budget, but they also made time to cover everything from guns to healthcare and education.
“From public safety, to the environment, to education, including early childhood education from cradle to career and healthcare. There isn’t a single area where this state requires attention in that they didn’t pay attention to in this legislative session,” said Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
About half of the budget is going towards public education, which includes a 4% raise for teachers. Lawmakers also added in a very trimmed-down version of the governor’s plan for free college into the budget, $10 million will go towards that.
A controversial victory for the governor was passing the “Red-Flag” gun control law.
In the final version of the budget, $75 million for road infrastructure was cut. That money was put in the Rainy Day Fund. That fund has around $2 Billion kept in reserve.
Health care was a big talk this session. This year, lawmakers sent a bill to the Governor that would cap insulin’s co-payment to $25 dollars, which would be the lowest in the country.
This year’s approved budget is $500 million more than last year. All that extra money came from the oil boom.
Some of the other bills that passed, included the early childhood fund bill.
Legislators rejected a proposal that called for sharply increasing the gasoline tax as part of an effort to reduce pollution and improve New Mexico’s roads. The proposal would have raised about $300 million in new revenue a year – with the proceeds split among road improvements, investments in “clean” transportation projects and tax rebates to help low-income New Mexicans.
A proposal to restructure the Public Regulation Commission died in the Senate Corporations and Transportation Committee.
At this time, Recreational marijuana is out of reach for New Mexico. A bill in New Mexico’s Legislature that would have legalized recreational marijuana was rejected by a committee in the Senate, killing it for this legislative session
A plan that would increase contributions from public workers and the state to the Public Employees Retirement Association to get the pension system on a path to solvency has been approved.
A bill that would permit New Mexico to import prescription drugs from Canada has also been passed into law. The House unanimously approved Senate Bill 1, which calls for the state to create a plan for Canadian drug imports, late Sunday night in a 68-0 vote after the Senate previously passed the measure.
Since NM is one of the most difficult to count for the Census, a bill was passed to use $8 million to campaign for and advertise the need to answer your census form.
Eight new judgeship positions were created in the State.
The age for foster care was increased from the age of 18 to the age of 21.
NO tax credit yet, for electric vehicles.
NO paid legislature, yet.
The Governor has until 11 March to sign the passed bills.
In appreciation of her service and for today’s program, President Vivien presented Karen with the packet of Fofo’s lemonade mix.
There being no further Rotary business, at 1:00 PM our meeting was concluded and we had to leave.
Programs, Happenings and Stuff & Such:
8 Mar Daylight Savings Time Begins
10 Mar Board Meeting at 10:30 AM
10 Mar Regular Meeting
12 Mar Work day scheduled at the Rock at Noonday, 10:30 AM to 1:15 PM
17 Mar Regular Meeting
17 Mar St. Patrick’s Day – It’s Party Time.
19 March Spring Begins!
24 Mar Regular Meeting
26-27 Mar President Elect Training Seminar in Ruidoso
27-29 Mar District Conference in Ruidoso
31 Mar Regular Meeting
18 Apr Governors Ball at Sandia Resort & Casino!
10 May Mother’s Day
25 May Memorial Day
6-10 June 2020 Rotary International Convention in Honolulu
11 June King Kamehameha Day
21 June Father’s Day
23 or 30 June Installation of New Officers
1 July The new Rotary Year Begins!
12-18 July Boys RYLA
18-24 July Girls RYLA
Thanks to members for assisting with setting up & striking Club equipment used to run our meeting.