Tracy Dingmann
Twelve days after it was due to the governor, the office of Gov. Susana Martinez has at last released the final report of the Small-Business Friendly Task Force.
With its utilitarian name, you might think it wouldn’t be a very exciting report.
But within that 13-page document (read it here) are dozens of recommendations for the governor to rescind, revise or repeal environmental, labor, construction and various other public health regulations that exist to protect us all.
Oh, I’d call that exciting – but not in a good way. Here’s why.
The task force’s final report to the governor contains much of the same language of the group’s midpoint report, a public document I was able to obtain in February only after filing a request under the state’s Inspection of Public Information Act.
The governor formed the task force minutes after taking office on Jan. 1. She said later that she did so to protect the “mom and pop” small businesses of New Mexico from excessive “red tape.” She asked the task force to evaluate each state regulation for its economic impact.
What made the cut?
Rolling back all state rules and regulations so as not to exceed federal standards? That’s in the final report.
Setting up a whistleblower hotline within the Economic Development Department so businesses aggrieved about being reported for environmental abuses can report on the Environmental Department employees who reported them? That’s in the final report.
Wiping out the rules put in place by the state’s Water Quality Control Commission to regulate dairy waste and protect drinking water wells? That’s still in there.
Revising and/or rescinding the pit rule, surface waste management rules, general mining regulations and any carbon cap proposals previously passed by the state? All still in there.
Fast-tracking environmental permitting? In there.
The ominous-sounding passage about mid-level Environment Department classified managers who are left over from previous administrations (and can’t be summarily fired) being a problem because they have an “anti-business agenda?” That stayed in too – though exactly what the task force thinks Martinez can or should do about them is still a mystery.
New stuff
There’s some new stuff in the final report as well.
Rolling back state child-care regulations to 2001 standards? The task force endorses it.
Revising state labor laws to re-categorize specific categories of workers under the Public Works Minimum Wage Act in an attempt to reduce the prevailing wage the government pays to workers on public works projects? It’s in there.
Consolidating mechanical, electrical and plumbing inspections? The task force says the governor should do it.
Why ask questions?
Why should any of us care about this? Quite simply, because these and many more of the regulations that the task force is targeting for radical change touch every single one of us in some way. Want clean water to drink? Want clean air to breathe? If you’re a state Environment Department employee, want to do your job without worrying about being the subject of a secret complaint?
That’s one reason. But there’s more.
Who are these people who are advising the governor on these rules? I found out back in February (again, only after making a public information request) that the task force consists of a number of lobbyists for large, out of state corporations, as well as some owners of local businesses – none of which could be considered “mom and pops.”
The interests they represent lean heavily toward dairy, mining and the oil and gas industry – all of which have strenuously objected to nearly every kind of rule or regulation, no matter how much evidence is there to show that it is reasonable and needed for basic public health and protection.
Many of these folks made large contributions to Martinez when she was running for governor. When you consider that Gov. Martinez’s main tactic when running for office was shaming the other side for alleged “pay to play” tactics, I’d say that’s another reason to care.
Here’s one more: What criteria did this influential group use to determine which rules should be rolled back or changed? What expertise do the task force members have to be making such important recommendations?
How much of what the task force is recommending is even possible – and how much of it would simply be setting the state up for a series of costly lawsuits? After the midpoint report was made public, many New Mexicans in the position to know said much of what the task force wants to see happen is unconstitutional or otherwise illegal.
And finally, what are the interests of the people on the task force? A preamble to the final report notes that the members of the task force “collectively” represent more than 10,000 businesses across the state. What does that even mean? Who are those businesses, and why are the people who represent them so dead set on rolling back regulations that just happen to be wildly unpopular with certain industries and cost business owners money to implement?
Maybe, if you live in New Mexico and work in oil and gas or mining or dairy, this is all just fine with you.
But I don’t. I just live here and care about raising my kids surrounded by clean water and air and land. If that makes me part of a “special interest group,” as Gov. Martinez calls people like me, then so be it.
I’m proud to be in that special interest group. Too bad that it will never get me or people like me a seat at her table when she’s deciding which rules to keep or throw out.
Tracy Dingmann is an independent investigative blogger and commentator. She is a former newspaper reporter and columnist for the New Mexico Independent who most recently was new media director for the Center for Civic Policy.