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What financial ties should New Mexico lawmakers disclose?
SANTA FE, NM (KRQE) – New Mexico law requires state legislators and certain appointed officials to disclose potential conflicts of interest through public financial disclosure filings. The documents play a key role in ensuring fair play among lawmakers, but a KRQE investigation reveals that dozens of lawmakers and legislative candidates have not reported income, and some state officials who simply say that lawmakers do not always have to report, while others say reporting is necessary.
KRQE News 13 reviewed more than 200 financial disclosure statements from incumbent lawmakers and candidates running for office. While many of the documents provide detailed information about sources of income, business holdings and other potential sources of conflicting interests, dozens of individuals indicated they were employed but did not report a source of income. Some forms were signed and dated but otherwise blank.
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Disclosures
These disclosures ask for information about the candidate’s employer, their sources of income above $5,000, any consulting or lobbying they do, the real estate they own and their interest in any for-profit businesses, among several other details.
An analysis of 238 recent disclosures from candidates and incumbents in the New Mexico Legislature reveals 39 records that do not list an income. And while it is certainly possible that some legislators live off savings and earn no income, some of those same legislators who reported having no income reported that they worked for an employer.
And some records were blank except for the date and signature. KRQE contacted some of the lawmakers who submitted blank statements. Rep. Janelle Anyanonu (D-Abq.) explained that her report should be blank.
“In my case, it’s very simple. Right now, I am dedicating myself full time to my work in the legislature. I am unemployed and have no income. So, it’s exactly what it sounds like,” Anyanonu told KRQE.
Therefore, it is certainly possible that the disclosures are both vacuous and accurate. But who verifies that disclosures are accurate?
Public review
The Secretary of State is tasked with educating politicians about their duties in completing disclosure forms. And the Secretary of State contacts the New Mexico Ethics Commission and the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office when lawmakers repeatedly fail to file a disclosure, but those offices do not review all forms to ensure they are accurate.
“Our office is charged with what is called ‘voluntary compliance,’” says Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver. “In other words, ensuring that [lawmakers are] being archived and providing this public information of their own volition, but that is where our responsibility essentially ends.”
“When we are given a blank [disclosure], we will talk to this individual again and make sure this was not done in error. And if they are sure about it, we say ‘OK’ and file it,” says Toulouse Oliver.
The law allows the secretary of state to refer potential problems to the State Ethics Commission, but flagging potential problems is generally up to the public. “Any member of the public, if they believe the information provided is not accurate, can make such a complaint,” says Toulouse Oliver.
Jeremy Farris, executive director of the New Mexico Ethics Commission, confirms that it is up to the public to act as a watchdog on issues related to financial disclosures.
“There is no government body that guarantees this,” says Farris. “The way that deficiencies or instances of falsehood in a disclosure are actually detected and acted upon is really through everyone else in New Mexico – [it’s] the public, people’s political opponents – who are kind of the source of these administrative complaints,” says Farris.
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Unclear requirements
State law says lawmakers must disclose.” . . all sources of gross income exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000) for each person covered by the disclosure statement, identified by general category descriptions. . .” But New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver says there are some “gray areas.”
KRQE News 13 asked Toulouse Oliver why dozens of disclosures filed in 2024 did not list a source of income. She says in some cases it is not a required part of the form.
“What happens in these cases is that we usually have individuals who earn an income through their work, which is actually not a mandatory field on the financial disclosure statement,” says Toulouse Oliver. “So if you have a day job and get paid for it, that income doesn’t need to be reported.” But Toulouse Oliver adds that his office insists on erring and over-reporting when there are doubts about what should be reported.
“There are, I wouldn’t call them loopholes, but there are gray areas that we are doing our best to implement the law and try to resolve,” says Toulouse Oliver.
Farris with the Ethics Commission disagrees.
“Section three of the Financial Disclosure Act has no loopholes when it comes to reporting sources of income,” says Farris. “If a reporting individual has income in excess of $5,000, that individual must disclose the source of that income identified by a general category description.”
KRQE News 13 reached out to some lawmakers and candidates who reported being employed but who left their source of income blank in their disclosure. Several said it was a mistake.
Patricia Lundstrom (D-McKinley County) told KRQE that her form was supposed to indicate that she earned income from the Greater Gallup Economic Development Corp., but that her staff had some difficulty filling out the form.
“My general feeling about this is that there are questions on this form that are confusing,” Lundstrom told KRQE. “I think the key is we need training on this. Obviously I must be doing something wrong, or someone else is, and I think this needs to be easier to use.
Other lawmakers with missing information also said they thought they filled out the forms correctly, despite leaving the sources of income section blank when saying they earn income.
Therefore, there is confusion about what should be reported. And some, like Rep. Lundstrom, have also expressed concerns that the forms may not be doing much in terms of actually helping the public, given the way there is minimal double-checking or validation of information in disclosures.
“I would like to know what the real purpose is [of the disclosure] it is – if it’s more than just complying with a state law. You know, what is it actually used for? . . . Why are we going through the process if we don’t have to?” Lundstrom asks.
Room for improvement
“The purpose of a financial disclosure law is to allow the public to see conflicts of interest and thereby deter conflicts of interest. Our state’s law is good, but not excellent for this purpose,” says Farris, of the Ethics Commission.
The law requires politicians to disclose their source of income, at least in broad categories – such as “law” or “oil and gas” or “general stock market holdings” or “other” – but does not require much more detail than that. That’s it, says Farris. And it does not require disclosure of non-real estate assets or disclosure of debts. Lawmakers also do not have to disclose gifts on disclosure forms.
“So there are ways to improve our state’s financial disclosure laws,” says Farris. “A good counterpoint to the state’s financial disclosure statute is Albuquerque’s financial disclosure ordinance.”
In 2022, the city of Albuquerque revised its disclosure requirements for elected officials. In addition to the information required by state law, the city also requires details (such as the location and purpose of use) of the properties owned, the identity of assets over $50,000, investment details (such as the name of the investment fund manager ), intellectual property rights held and the communication of some responsibilities. Gifts from lobbyists must also be disclosed if valued above $50.
“I think New Mexico would be better off if our legislature and our cabinet secretaries and heads of state agencies had to do the same level of outreach,” Farris says.
Without useful disclosures, the public is left in the dark
“The public is left in the dark when individuals seeking positions do not meet the most basic requirements. If they are required to fill out a form. Fill it in. If they are required to submit it by a certain date, do so, because these basics matter,” says Melanie Majors, executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government. “We simply don’t want the public to be left in the dark, and that’s what happens when records aren’t available, aren’t filed properly or are incomplete.”
New Mexico’s Secretary of State says her office is constantly working to improve compliance with state laws regarding disclosures. And she says there have been improvements, at least in terms of lawmakers submitting forms on time.
“Compliance has really increased over the last almost seven years since I took office as secretary of state, as we’ve really created a process to make sure there’s a lot of communication between our office and potential filers,” says Toulouse Oliver. Recently, that included creating a desk in the legislature to help lawmakers fill out their disclosures.
But even when forms are properly completed and submitted on time, there is a limit to what they can reveal in terms of potential conflicts of interest.
For example, the disclosure form says: “If the spouse or a person in the reporting party’s or spouse’s law firm, consulting operation, or similar business is or has been a registered lobbyist within the previous two years, disclose all clients represented.” In other words, if a lawmaker has personal ties to a registered lobbyist, he or she will have to disclose it. But they do not have to disclose ties to consultants who are not registered lobbyists.
Cindy Nava, a candidate for state senator, told KRQE that she works as a consultant and has clients, but Nava says she is not required to list her clients because she is not a registered lobbyist.
Rep. Rod Montoya (R-San Juan) similarly reported that he has done some work as a consultant recently. But his disclosure does not reveal his client. He says that when he sat down with officials from the Secretary of State’s office to fill out his statement, he doesn’t remember if they asked him about that consulting work.
Confusion over reporting requirements, inconsistencies in records, and minimal review of information do not mean that lawmakers are necessarily hiding something. But it means voters have limited information about candidates and elected officials operating in the state.
“If you don’t have all the information to make a decision, then what kind of decision are you making?” Melanie Majors of the New Mexico Open Government Foundation says.
KRQE News 13 asked Majors what voters miss out on if there isn’t accurate information about lawmakers. Here is her response:
“I’m not sure what voters lose. But we know what they gain when they have transparency and accountability. They know information about the candidate. They know information about the issues. They have facts, figures, basic information that helps them make a decision.”