New Mexico's new laws to take effect on Wednesday

SANTA FE ? Public officials in New Mexico who commit a felony will have more to lose starting Wednesday.

Those convicted in public corruption cases could be required to repay their salaries and forfeit their accumulated state pension benefits.

A new state law gives judges the authority to increase the basic sentence by adding those penalties.

Legislators approved the bill without any dissenting votes and Gov. Susana Martinez signed it in February.

The corruption crackdown is one of 19 state laws that go into effect Wednesday.

Another of the new laws creates a fund to cover the costs of New Mexico's medical marijuana program.

Companies licensed to provide cannabis for medical treatment pay the state fees of $10,000 to $30,000 a year. Rather than that money going into the state's general account, it will be maintained by the Department of Health to pay for administration of the medical marijuana program.

"It means the few New Mexico taxpayers who objected to their money going toward the medical marijuana program no longer have to worry," said the bill's sponsor, Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque.

New Mexico has about 4,300 patients registered to use medical marijuana.

Also going on the books is a law to improve care for stroke patients, especially residents of rural areas.

It authorizes the state Department of Health to certify any acute-care hospital as a primary or comprehensive stroke center, provided that the hospital is accredited.

"The result will be more access to critical care," said one of the bill's sponsors, Sen. Howie Morales, D-Silver City. He teamed up with Republican Rep. Conrad James of Albuquerque to write the bill.

It allows the secretary of health to adopt rules to assist and encourage primary stroke centers to enter into coordinated care agreements with other health-care providers throughout the state.

This will be accomplished without any increase in the state's costs, Morales said.

Other new laws include:

? Turning the K-3 Plus pilot project into a permanent program of the state Public Education Department. The program adds a minimum of 25 instructional days for disadvantaged students in grades K-3.

Legislative analysts say third-graders who participated in K-3 Plus for at least a year gained 7.5 points in reading, 43 points in writing and 12 points in math compared to those who did not enter the program.

? Extending for five more years a tax break at New Mexico State University.

It is a deduction from the gross receipts tax for gate admissions at non-athletic events. Legislators first granted the tax exception in 2007 because administrators at NMSU said they were at a competitive disadvantage with the University of Texas at El Paso in booking entertainment.

The new deduction on gross receipts taxes for NMSU lasts through June 30, 2017. Rep. Mary Helen Garcia, D-Las Cruces, and Sen. Carlos Cisneros, D-Questa, sponsored the bill.

? Increasing from two to four the number of hunting permits for bighorn rams that will be raffled or sold through a lottery.

The stakes are high. A lottery for one bighorn hunting permit once brought the state $190,000, according to the Department of Game and Fish.

Sen. William Sharer, R-Farmington, sponsored the bill. Legislators estimate bighorn permits and attendant federal matching funds will bring the state about $800,000. All of the money will go back into programs to help the bighorn sheep grow stronger in New Mexico. Bighorns were removed last year from the state's endangered species list.

? Clarifying a tax break for a uranium enrichment plant near Eunice. With this change, the plant's utility customers will not be taxed if they sell a uranium compound before it is enriched.

Utility companies send uranium hexafluoride to the plant as part of a process for producing nuclear power plant fuel.

? Elimination of the Office of Child Development in the Children, Youth and Families Department.

? Making the New Mexico School for the Deaf and the New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired eligible to seek money for certain capital projects. Sen. Cynthia Nava, D-Las Cruces, sponsored this bill.

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