Task force recommends compensating legislators

Compensating legislators is one of three proposals that will be recommended to Gov. Bill Richardson by the state ethics task force.

The group opted Tuesday to proceed with three recommendations. In addition to compensation for lawmakers, they include the creation of an independent ethics commission and an appointed state treasurer and auditor, according to an article from the Associated Press that you can read via the Albuquerque Journal.

Details of all three proposals, some of them controversial, will be worked out later.

The task force’s members agreed that the New Mexico Constitution should be changed to give lawmakers some sort of compensation, whether it be a salary or reimbursement of expenses or some combination, but only if the law is also changed to ban the use of campaign funds for anything other than campaigning, the Associated Press reported.

House and Senate members currently get per diem and mileage reimbursements. That would not change under the proposal.

Garrey Carruthers, co-chair of the task force, said it’s time for New Mexico to “grow up as a state” and compensate lawmakers.

“We’re trying to run a multi-billion-dollar business with free labor,” Carruthers told the news service. “I wouldn’t run a business that way.”

The task force will also recommend the creation of an independent ethics commission that would investigate complaints against state elected officials and employees. The eight-member commission would have authority to censure, reprimand and impose fines but not to remove officials from office or strip them of pensions, the news service reported.

Judicial Standards Commission Director Jim Noel said the ethics commission, whose members would be appointed by the governor and legislative leaders, should have funding and powers similar to that of the board for which he works, and should also conduct mandatory training for state officials.

The third proposal endorsed by the task force – that the treasurer and auditor be appointed, rather than elected, positions, also requires a change in the constitution. That would make it easier to remove “an elected official who is engaged in misconduct,” the news service quoted state Treasurer Doug Brown as saying.

The task force will make recommendations to the governor in October. Richardson says he’ll consider their recommendations before making proposals to the legislature in January.