Today I spoke to a legislative committee in NM that was considering revising the extremely complicated and burdensome Cottage Food regulations in favor of regulations that mimic those of ND and WY. The Bill is HB177 and it was tabled today which means they aren't even going to send it to a vote.
In ND and WY, under their Cottage Food laws, I was able to just start baking as long as I followed the relatively simple to follow rules. Let me premise this by saying I'm a paralegal and currently getting my masters degree in law. Reading regulations is what I did for a living and I've had to read and interpret many very complicated legal regulations in my career. However, to figure out the NM Cottage Food regulations is time consuming and extremely confusing. It wasn't until I spoke with an attorney who deals with these regulations all over the country that I didn't feel stupid for not being able to navigate them. She said they are extremely complicated and confusing. They are so complicated that they are almost impossible to follow.
In NM the Cottage Food regulations, which are meant for home producers, are akin to those of commercial licensing requirements and it completely defeats the purpose of these types of regulations. Their purpose typically is to encourage small business start-up and growth. New Mexico's regulations stifle that. The only thing they encourage is for people to operate outside of the law.
Well that's not something I'm willing to do. For those of you who have been waiting for me to just start baking, that won't be happening anytime soon. Nobody is more sorry about that than me. I have been without an income since coming to NM from ND.
Right now, with my class load this semester, I don't have time to even start the obnoxiously long licensing process for Cottage Food producers. I will when the semester is over.
If you would like this to change, here is the link to the Bill.
If you would like to support this legislation, please call your state representative and demand they do something to get this bill through. Please e-mail every single committee member and ask them to revisit this bill immediately. Thank you for your support.
Here is the link for the bill:
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