Busy time at the state capital with the legislative session set to end tomorrow. So there's little time, but Governor Martinez still has hopes that she will be signing some of the education measures into law that she has proposed. The House did pass one of those proposals yesterday that would create a new system for evaluating teachers and principals in the 2013-2014 school year and base part of the assessment on student growth and achievement. The bill now goes to the Senate.

Also, the House is looking at requiring school districts to hold back third-graders who can't read proficiently, rather than promoting them to the next class. The Senate already has approved a similar bill. The state budget has made it through the legislature as the House agreed on a voice vote to accept Senate changes to the spending plan. The bill allocates $5.6 billion in the fiscal year that starts July 1. It provides for a $220 million or 4% increase in spending. The bill doesn't spend all the revenues the state expects to collect next year, leaving nearly $37 million available for possible tax cuts.

And the governor says that's what she wants......tax cuts to help businesses and create jobs and if the Legislature doesn't agree on the tax cut proposals......she might consider vetoing the budget bill. Meanwhile, the governor's proposal to stop New Mexico from giving drivers licenses to illegal immigrants is dead in the Senate.

The Senate passed an alternative measure that continues licenses for illegal immigrants but restricts them to one year. Governor Martinez is opposes it. And The governor signed into law a bill that allows for over sized loads of hay to be transported on state roads. The new law is designed to ease the strain that drought has placed on both ranchers and their livestock over the past year.

The House has okayed a proposal to remove the state's income tax from military retirement payments. Supporters say the tax incentive will encourage military retirees to live New Mexico. The bill goes to the Senate. The senate approves a measure that lowers the sate corporate income tax rate from 7.6 % to 7.5. But the bill also changes the way large corporations are taxed. The measure would require certain corporations to combine the income of from their national operations in determining how much would be taxed in New Mexico. The bill has been sent to the house. And a bill is headed to the governor's desk that would stiffen penalties for elected officials convicted of public corruption. The measure allows for a fine equal to the salary, pension and other fringe benefits paid to the official from the time the crime occurred..... in addition to any prison sentence imposed for a felony conviction for corruption.

State republicans are filing suit to get a federal court to take over the drawing of new districts for the New Mexico House. The GOP is not happy with the state Supreme Court ruling last week ordering a retired state District Court Judge James Hall to revamp a redistricting plan that he had earlier approved.

The New Mexico House of Representatives have been busy. They have passed a bill providing a tax break for businesses that hire veterans who recently left the military. Businesses could get a $1,000 tax credit for hiring a veteran who was discharged in the past two years. And another tax break possible for those in the state who buy a plug-in electric car. The House has passed a measure to exempt buyers of electric vehicles from paying the state's excise tax, which is 3% of the purchase price. The tax break would cover cars purchased beginning this July through June 2017. The bills now go to the Senate.