Confusion over New Mexico’s financial disclosure laws might be the reason dozens of politicians don’t report an income
SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – New Mexico law requires state lawmakers and some appointed officials to disclose potential conflicts of interests through public financial disclosure filings. The documents play a key role in ensuring fair play among lawmakers, but a KRQE investigation reveals dozens of lawmakers and legislative candidates didn’t report an income, and some state officials that simply say lawmakers don’t always have to report while others say reporting is required.
KRQE News 13 reviewed more than 200 financial disclosure statements from incumbent lawmakers and candidates running for a seat in the legislature. While many of the documents give detailed information on sources of income, business holdings, and other potential sources of conflicting interests, dozens of individuals indicated that they were employed, but didn’t report an income source. Some forms were signed and dated, but blank beyond that.
Is New Mexico on track to meet its environmental goals?
Disclosures
Those disclosures ask for information about the candidate’s employer, their sources of income over $5,000, any consulting or lobbying they do, real estate they own, and membership in any for-profit business, along with several other details.
A look at 238 recent disclosures for candidates and incumbents in the New Mexico legislature reveals 39 filings that do not list an income. And while it’s certainly possible that some lawmakers are living off savings and don’t earn income, some of those same lawmakers reporting no income did report that they worked for an employer.
And a handful of filings were blank other than a date and signature. KRQE reached out to some of the lawmakers who filed blank disclosures. Representative Janelle Anyanonu (D-Abq.) explained that her report is supposed to be blank.
“In my case, it’s very straightforward. Right now, I am devoting myself full-time to my work at the legislature. I am unemployed, and I do not have any income. So, it is exactly how it appears,” Anyanonu told KRQE.
So, it’s certainly possible for disclosures to be blank and accurate. But who checks to make sure disclosures are accurate?
Public review
The secretary of state is tasked with educating politicians on their duties to fill out disclosure forms. And the secretary of state reaches out to 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 every form to ensure they are accurate.
“Our office is charged with what’s called ‘voluntary compliance,'” Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver says. “In other words, making sure [lawmakers are] getting filed and providing that public information of their own volition, but that’s where our responsibility essentially stops.”
“When we do receive a blank [disclosure], we will circle back with that individual and make sure that wasn’t done in error. And if they’re sure about it, we go, ‘OK’ and we file it,” Toulouse Oliver says.
The law allows the secretary of state to refer potential issues to the State Ethics Commission, but flagging potential issues is generally up to the public. “Any member of the public, if they believe that the information that has been provided is not accurate, can file that complaint,” Toulouse Oliver says.
Jeremy Farris, the executive director of the New Mexico Ethics Commission, confirms that it’s up to the public to act as the watchdog for issues with financial disclosures.
“There’s no one government office that ensures that ” Farris says. “The way that deficiencies or instances of untruthfulness in a disclosure are really detected and enforced is really through everyone else in New Mexico – [it’s] the public, folks’ political opponents – that are kind of the source of those administrative complaints,” Farris says.
New Mexico lawmakers frustrated as they debate oil and gas setbacks
Unclear requirements
State law says lawmakers have to disclose “. . . all sources of gross income of more than five thousand dollars ($5,000) to each person covered in 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 an income source. She says that in some cases, it’s not a required part of the form.
“What’s going on in those cases is you typically have individuals who earn an income through their work, which is actually not a required field on the financial disclosure statement,” Toulouse Oliver says. “So, if you have a day job that you go to, and you get paid for that, that income is not required to be reported.” But Toulouse Oliver adds her office urges erring on side of over-disclosure when there are questions about what should be reported.
“There are, I wouldn’t call them, loopholes, but there are gray areas that we are doing our best in implementing the law to try and address,” Toulouse Oliver says.
Farris with the Ethics Commission disagrees.
“Section three of the Financial Disclosure Act doesn’t have any gaps with respect the reporting of sources of income,” Farris says. “If a reporting individual has income over $5,000, that individual has to 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 that left the income source blank on their disclosure. Several said it was a mistake.
Patricia Lundstrom (D-McKinley County) told KRQE that her form should have said that she earned income from the Greater Gallup Economic Development Corp, but that her team had some difficulty filling out the form.
“My general feeling about it is that there are questions on that form that are confusing,” Lundstrom told KRQE. “I think the key is we need training on it. Obviously, I must be doing something wrong, or somebody is, and I do think that it needs to be more user-friendly.
Other lawmakers with missing information also said they thought they filled out the forms correctly, despite leaving the sources of income section blank while saying they do earn income.
So, there is confusion about what is supposed to be reported. And some, like Rep. Lundstrom also expressed concerns that the forms might not be doing much in terms of actually helping the public, given how there’s minimal double-checking or validation of the information in the disclosures.
“I’d like to know what the real purpose [of the disclosure] is – if it’s more than just meeting a state statute. You know, what is it actually used for? . . . Why are we going through the process if it’s not accurate?” Lundstrom asks.
Room for improvement
“The purpose of a financial disclosure law is to enable the public to see conflicts of interest and thus to deter conflicts of interest. Our state’s law is good, but not super at that purpose,” Farris from the Ethics Commission says.
The law requires politicians disclose their source of income, at least in broad categories – like “law practice” or “oil and gas” or “general stock market holdings” or “other” – but it doesn’t require much more detail than that, Farris says. And it does not require the disclosure of non-real estate assets or the disclosure of debts. Lawmakers also don’t have to disclose gifts on the disclosure forms.
“So, there are ways that our state’s financial disclosure laws could be improved,” Farris says. “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 (like the location and purpose of use) of real estate owned, the identity of assets over $50,000, investment details (like the name of the fund manager of investment funds), intellectual property rights owned, and the reporting of some liabilities. Gifts from lobbyists also have to be disclosed if valued over $50.
“I think New Mexico would be improved if our legislature and our cabinet secretaries and state agency heads had to make that same level of disclosure,” Farris says.
Without useful disclosures, the public is left in the dark
“The public is left in the dark when individuals who seek office don’t do the most basic of requirements. If they’re required to fill out a form. Fill it out. If they’re required to submit it by a certain date, do so, because those basics matter,” says Melanie Majors, the executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government. “We just don’t want the public left in the dark, and that’s what happens when either records aren’t available, they’re not filed correctly, or they’re incomplete.”
New Mexico’s secretary of state says her office is constantly working on improving compliance with state laws regarding disclosures. And says there has been improvements, at least in terms of lawmakers submitting forms on time.
“Compliance has really increased in the last almost seven years, since I took office as the secretary of state, since we really created a process by which to make sure there is a lot of communication between our office and prospective filers,” Toulouse Oliver says. Recently, that included setting up a table at the legislature to help lawmakers fill out their disclosures.
But even when forms are properly filled out and submitted on time, there’s only so much 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 person’s or spouse’s law firm, consulting operation or similar business is or was a registered lobbyist in the previous two years, disclose all clients represented.” In other words, if the lawmaker has personal ties to a registered lobbyist, they have to disclose. But they don’t have to disclose ties to consultants that aren’t registered lobbyists.
Cindy Nava, running as a candidate for a state senator seat, told KRQE that she works as a consultant and has clients, but Nava says she’s not required to list her clients, because she isn’t a registered lobbyist.
Representative Rod Montoya (R-San Juan) similarly reported that he did some work as a consultant recently. But his disclosure doesn’t reveal his client. He says that when he sat down with staff from the secretary of state’s office to fill out his disclosure, he doesn’t remember if they asked him about that consulting work.
Confusion about reporting requirements, inconsistencies in the filings, and minimal review of the information does not mean lawmakers are necessarily hiding anything. But it does mean voters have limited information on candidates and the 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, from the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, says.
KRQE News 13 asked Majors what voters lose 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.”
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.