COVID-19 by the numbers
New Mexico health officials yesterday reported 209 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the statewide total so far to 187,238. The state has designated 158,616 of those cases as recovered. Bernalillo County had 85 new cases, followed by Doña Ana County with 37 and Sandoval and Santa Fe counties with 12.
The state also announced 19 additional deaths. According to the health department, those deaths included 14 New Mexicans who appear to have died in Texas—the state says it received death certificates from Texas on March 8 for deaths that occurred between Jan. 20 and Feb. 20. There have now been 3,830 total fatalities.
As of yesterday, 128 people were hospitalized with COVID-19.
Santa Fe County appears to be poised to turn green today when the health department reassesses counties for case and test positivity rates over the last 14 days. Under the state's red-to-green public health law, counties with fewer than eight cases per 100,000 and a test positivity rate of less than 5% are classified as green and allowed larger business capacities and other activities. For instance, indoor dining would increase from 33% to 50% capacity. SFR's napkin math (which should be taken with a grain of salt) would indicate Santa Fe County will meet both criteria with a case rate just over 7 cases per 100,000 over the last 14 days, based on the daily raw reporting from the last two weeks. Santa Fe County's test positivity rate appears to be in the area of 1.5%. Fingers crossed.
You can read all of SFR's COVID-19 coverage here. If you've had experiences with COVID-19, we would like to hear from you.
Cheers
House Bill 255, which legalizes home alcohol delivery in New Mexico and creates a new class of liquor licenses, is now heading to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's desk, following House concurrence yesterday of amendments made in the Senate. According to a news release, those amendments include banning the sale of miniature liquor bottles; removing the 2% consumer excise tax on individual drink sales; clarifying ID checks are mandatory at time of alcohol delivery; and prohibiting wine and spirit sales at gas stations in McKinley County, due to its history of high numbers of alcohol-related deaths. The amendments also call for the health department to study the impact of alcohol delivery in the state. "Alcohol delivery is something consumers have come to expect in many places around the country," co-sponsor Rep. Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, said in a statement. "It has the potential to reduce driving under the influence and provides an important revenue stream for our struggling businesses." The governor yesterday signed another alcohol-related bill, Senate Bill 2, which waives the next annual fee for renewed liquor licenses and for all new licenses issued in 2021.
And then there were two cannabis bills
Legislators on the Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee voted yesterday in favor of two bills that would legalize recreational cannabis in New Mexico, both of which will now move to the Senate Judiciary with 10 days left in the session. House Bill 12 and Senate Bill 388 have key differences in their taxation strategies, with HB12 imposing taxes up to 20% versus a max of 12% from SB 388. Financial forecasts vary for how much revenue cannabis would generate for the state, with economic analyst Kelly O'Donnell estimating $318 million in year one, $800 million in year four and $1.1 billion by year five. The Legislative Finance Committee's March 2 fiscal impact statement projects tax revenue in fiscal year 2022 would amount to $20 million and rise to $50 million by the third year. O'Donnell tells SFR her analysis takes into account revenue from other states. "I anticipate those being a very significant part of the size of the New Mexico market," she says, "just from observing what has happened in Colorado and from observing that we have this very long border with Texas, and Texas is one of the states that has not legalized and is probably not going to do so in the very near future."
Councilor Lindell announces re-election campaign
Santa Fe District 1 City Councilor Signe Lindell, 66, says she's running for a third term—the first councilor of four whose terms are expiring to announce intentions for the November municipal election. Lindell has served as mayor pro tem since 2016, and won her last re-election campaign by approximately 70%. She says her agenda, if re-elected, will include developing the Midtown Campus; post-pandemic economic recovery; and animal welfare, among other issues. Lindell's announcement follows Mayor Alan Webber's recent news that he, too, will run for re-election. That race has yet to draw any open competitors, and Webber's fundraising two years ago—he set a record with more than $300,000 in contributions—could limit the field. One rumored candidate, City Councilor JoAnne Vigil Coppler, has yet to say if she'll seek re-election to represent District 4 or run for mayor, but offered SFR some thoughts on what type of mayor Santa Fe needs: "I really think that Santa Fe needs a mayor who can unite the community, because, at this time, I think we're really divided where we find ourselves now, and I don't think that's a good thing," she said. "I think we need a mayor who can give us a little better quality of life and preserve what we know our strengths to be…I certainly would want to be that kind of mayor should I go for it."
City kicks off budget hearings
Have ideas for how the City of Santa Fe should allocate its funds next year? According to a city news release, officials purportedly would like to hear them during a "listening session" in the evening portion of tonight's City Council meeting. That segment will include a presentation on the budget by Finance Director Mary McCoy and will begin no earlier than 6 pm. Instructions for accessing the virtual meeting can be found here. The city recommends citizens interested in participating consider questions such as these: Do you have ideas for advancing the city's bold sustainability goals? For public health and safety? For equity? City government strives to be increasingly user-friendly; do you have ideas for streamlining operations and enhancing services? The next budget will be designed in part to boost the recovery from the pandemic. What particular investments will have the most impact? What sort of quality-of-life investments you would like to see?
Listen up
Catch up on local government affairs with the most recent episode of Your NM Government, a collaboration between SFR, KUNM and New Mexico PBS. Yesterday's program includes the latest on vaccination efforts for state educators, as well as updates on House Bill 20, creating paid sick leave for all New Mexico workers; Senate Joint Resolution 22, which would allow for ranked choice voting in state elections; and Senate Bill 94, which would allow student athletes at New Mexico colleges and universities to earn money or other compensation from the use of their name, image or likeness.
AMP Concerts takes over Bandstand series
After close to 20 years, Santa Fe-nonprofit Outside In will no longer produce the Santa Fe Bandstand summer music series it launched in 2003. Rather, AMP Concerts will assume that role. "We never had any interest in taking on the series as long as Outside In and [Executive Director] Michael Dellheim wanted to do it," AMP's director of Santa Fe operations, Jamie Lenfestey, tells SFR. "I wouldn't say we're taking it over; we're going to assume stewardship of the series, and it's possible the name will change." A social media post from Dellheim states that the City of Santa Fe "selected a new vendor" for the series, and the city's top tourism official cites finances as one possible reason for the change. Historically, the series' funding has come from a mix of the city's 1% lodger's tax and Outside In's fundraising. AMP Concerts will take over duties related to securing sponsorships and potential private funding, and City of Santa Fe Tourism Director Randy Randall says the city's share will be limited due to pandemic-induced financial restraints. "I think [AMP] recognized that fundraising is going to be more difficult," Randall tells SFR. "But they're willing to be more flexible as to how we approach the Plaza music series and how it might be scaled based on what level of fundraising can be achieved. But I think AMP has presented some really new ideas and some new ways to reinvent the music scene a little bit so it's more of an integrated program for Santa Fe."
Breaking the mold
The Museum of Indian Arts & Culture launches a new pottery demonstration series on Zoom starting at 10 am today, with the first demonstration featuring Santa Fe clay artist Randall "Randy" Chitto, a past winner of the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts Fellowship and a Dubin Fellow at the School for Advanced Research. Chitto's work has appeared at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Denver Art Museum and the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington. The event is one of several online events happening at state museums and centers in the coming week, including the Poetry Out Loud state finals via Zoom at 1 pm, March 14, and the latest online lecture in the series Tertulia Histórica Albuquerque: "From Sea To Sand: Holy Week Traditions of Spain, New Mexico and the Philippines" via Zoom on March 20. You can find the details for these and other events here.
Giddy-up!
Hollywood loves Westerns again, according to the Wall Street Journal, and that's good news for Western states, including New Mexico. As an example, the story cites The Harder They Fall, starring Idris Elba, which was shot here and is one of several Western projects "boosting business for horse wranglers and local economies," WSJ says. Westerns mean "crews trained in horse wrangling and cattle herding have seen work pick up." In New Mexico, according to data from the state film commission, Western-themed content has generated more than $1 billion in economic activity since 2000. Netflix's presence in Albuquerque is a driving factor in that boom, with is expected to continue with a recent announcement that it will invest another $1 billion here. As for why Westerns, apparently it is easier to trim production costs because "mountains are free," Thomas Bezucha, director of Universal Pictures' neo-Western Let Him Go, says. And, then, there's the pandemic. "The Western myth of rugged individualism…has regained an odd popularity in 2020 during the pandemic," author and screenwriter Larry McMurtry says.
Spring “breeze”
Today looks sunny, with a high near 53 degrees and breezy—with a west wind 10 to 15 mph increasing to 20 to 25 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph, at which point they will no longer just be breezy.
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