His Poorest Constituents Needed Relief on Power Bills. Block Voted No, Twice.

ALAMOGORDO — Twice in 2025, Rep. John Block had the chance to back a path to lower electric bills for the poorest households in his own district. Twice he voted no.

This summer those households opened PNM bills that had doubled and tripled. One topped $1,900. A 73-year-old lifelong resident watched his climb from $70 to $172.

House Bill 91 was written for people like them, in a county where nearly one in five residents lives in poverty and nearly one in five is 65 or older. Block, R-Alamogordo, was the only member of his committee to oppose it, and he voted against it again on the House floor. It became law over his objection.

The vote

House Bill 91, the Public Utility Rate Structures Act, passed the New Mexico House 42-25 on Feb. 25, 2025. Block voted no, according to the official House roll call.

It was his second no in what should be consumer friendly protections on utilities or PNM bills. On Feb. 7, 2025, the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee sent the bill forward 8-1. The committee report records Block as the lone vote against.

The bill does not set a rate. It lets investor-owned utilities, including PNM, design a lower rate or an assistance program for low-income customers and take it to the Public Regulation Commission, which must approve it before it takes effect.

On the House floor, Block argued it was not just for one customer to pay a different rate than another based only on income, according to NM Political Report's account of the debate. Other Republicans said the discount would shift costs onto middle-income households that are also struggling.

The Senate passed the bill 26-16 on March 20, 2025. The governor signed it on April 11, 2025.

Who is exposed

Nearly one in five Otero County residents lives below the poverty line, and nearly one in five is 65 or older. Those are the households a low-income rate is built for, and the ones with the least room to absorb a doubled bill.

About 12,600 county residents, or 19.3%, live below the poverty line, according to Census Bureau survey data. About 12,800, or 18.3%, are 65 or older.

Among those seniors, 12.9% live below the poverty line. In 12.7% of the county's households, a person 65 or older lives alone. The median household income is $55,876.

The county's poverty rate is nearly double the national rate of 10.6% in the same Census table. Its median household income runs about two-thirds of the national figure.

These are county numbers. District 51 covers a large part of Otero County, centered on Alamogordo, but not all of it, and the Census does not publish this profile by House district.

The scale of the billing problem is also on record. PNM told the PRC that 8,764 meters are in the affected area, many of them put on estimated or delayed billing after July 21, Alamogordo Town News reported.

The bills

The spike has a documented cause, and it is not a vote. PNM told regulators in July that it was short of meter readers in Alamogordo and Ruidoso, according to the PRC. The shortage produced more estimated bills and, for some customers, delayed ones.

At the PRC's Sept. 29 town hall at the Sgt. Willie Estrada Memorial Civic Center, residents brought bills that had doubled or tripled. One topped $1,900, NM Political Report reported. A 73-year-old lifelong resident said his bill went from $70 to $172.

Several residents said PNM billed two months on one statement, which pushed their usage into the highest-priced tier. PRC staff also pointed to a two-stage rate increase that took effect in summer 2025 and April 2026, and conceded it was not well communicated, according to Alamogordo Town News. A record heat wave in early August added to usage, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

PNM has suspended disconnections and late fees for affected customers, is offering payment arrangements, and has promised true-up bills once actual readings are in. Corrections may keep landing on statements through October, the PRC told KRQE. The PRC docket is case 26-0000147.

None of that traces to House Bill 91. Block's vote did not cause a meter-reader shortage, a heat wave or a rate case.

What the vote shows is where he stood: when the Legislature created a path to lower bills for the poorest customers, the representative for Alamogordo voted against the interests of his own constituents, twice.

The two arguments

Grace Nagamine, the independent challenging Block on Nov. 3, has campaigned on the bills since August. That month she published step-by-step instructions for filing complaints with the PRC and the attorney general.

Her case against Block on this vote is narrow. The Legislature offered a tool aimed at low-income households. He opposed it in committee and on the floor. The households it was written for are the ones now holding the largest bills relative to income.

Block's case is the one he made in 2025. A discount for one group is paid for by everyone else on the system, and a household just above the income cutoff can be struggling too. Opponents of the bill, including the group Better Together New Mexico, told lawmakers that fixed-income customers who do not qualify would end up subsidizing those who do.

Block attended the Sept. 29 town hall. One resident who spoke called his presence political theater with the election weeks away, Alamogordo Town News reported.

Early voting began Oct. 6. True-up bills are expected to keep arriving through the month. Do we want a state representative that does not vote to lower the bills for his constituents? Isn’t it time to expel the incumbents? Are you better off now than you were 2 years ago economically? If not vote out the incumbents. 

Sources

1. New Mexico Legislature, House roll call on HB 91, Feb. 25, 2025: official roll call2. New Mexico Legislature, House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee report on HB 91, Feb. 7, 2025: committee report3. NM Political Report, Feb. 25, 2025, on the House debate and what the bill does: Bill paving the way for low-income utility rates passes House4. Open States, HB 91 Senate vote and signing date: bill history5. U.S. Census Bureau, share of residents 65 and older and national comparisons: QuickFacts, Otero County and United States6. U.S. Census Bureau, median household income: QuickFacts, Otero County7. Data USA, poverty rate and count from the 2020-2024 American Community Survey: Otero County profile8. Social Explorer, poverty among residents 65 and older from the 2024 American Community Survey: Otero County report9. Wikipedia summary of 2020 Census household figures, for seniors living alone: Otero County, New Mexico10. New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, Sept. 23, 2026, on the meter-reader shortage and docket: town hall notice11. NM Political Report, Sept. 29, 2026, on the town hall and residents' bills: Shocked by ‘extreme’ PNM bills, Alamogordo residents demand answers12. Alamogordo Town News, on the town hall, the rate increase and Block's attendance: Alamogordo residents press regulators over soaring PNM bills13. Alamogordo Town News, on the 8,764 meters and the July 21 start of estimates: Special Report: Why Your PNM Bill is So High This Month?14. Alamogordo Town News, Aug. 16, 2026, on Nagamine's complaint instructions: PNM Billing Crisis Demands Accountability15. Albuquerque Journal, on the August heat wave and PNM's true-up pledge: PNM begins smart meter rollout amid billing complaints, heat-driven demand16. KRQE, on suspended fees and bills through October: PNM says meter reader shortage being resolved17. Better Together New Mexico, February 2025 written testimony against HB 91: testimony

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