This week’s guest on REPORT FROM SANTA FE is New Mexico Senator Peter Wirth (D-District 25), Majority Floor Leader of the New Mexico Senate. Wirth, who lives in Santa Fe, served in the NM House of Representatives for 4 years from 2004-2008, and was elected to the Senate in 2008 where he has served as a senator for sixteen years. He became the majority floor leader of the Senate in 2017 and works hard to effect real collaboration between Democrats and Republicans, so they can “agree to disagree without being disagreeable.”

Senator Wirth has a uniquely New Mexican family background. His maternal grandfather was John Gaw Meem, the architect who was instrumental in our Southwest style, and who helped establish “Santa Fe Style.” His paternal grandfather was a teacher at the Los Alamos Ranch School, before World War II and before Oppenheimer transformed the Ranch School into the Los Alamos Laboratory, home of the Manhattan Project.

The 30-Day Legislative Session is a main topic of discussion in this interview and the senator talks about what kind of bills are considered “germane” in the Short Session. Appropriate bills are those having to do with state finances, taxing and spending, the budget, as well as bills relating to issues that the Governor includes in her “Call” for the Session.

Senator Wirth describes the bills he is introducing this session, among them public safety gun bills, an omnibus tax package, and water bills such as the Water Trust Fund and a bill to protect state waters.