Contribution limits and the looming progressive threat

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By Mario Sanchez On April 2, New Mexico Republicans and conservatives suffered a significant setback when Gov. Bill Richardson signed Senate Bill 116 into law, a bill that establishes contribution limits in state-level political campaigns for the first time. The signing of SB116 will further strengthen the stronghold of ultra-liberal, progressive Democrats on our state — unless conservatives wake up for the good of our own political survival. The 2008 election cycle marked a dramatic change in New Mexico politics, from the amount of money that was spent to the way it was raised. Democrats in swing states began taking their cue from so-called “progressive” powerhouse fundraising groups like the Democracy Alliance and ultra-wealthy donors like Quark Software founder Tim Gill, who have collectively spent over $100 million in key swing states. In New Mexico, these progressive political consultants were able to use nonprofit groups to fund negative campaigns against incumbent Republican legislators — under the guise of merely “educating” the public. Continue Reading

Film incentives need to be investigated, not repealed

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By Benjamin Rodefer I wanted to respond to the ongoing discussion about the state’s film incentives. There has been call for their immediate repeal. I believe that would be entirely premature and misguided. In these extraordinarily difficult times, how can we blindly risk losing thousands of high paying jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars, money so essential to the stability and future of our economy? What we should do, though, is investigate further the efficacy of these incentives, which is precisely why I introduced and we passed in the last session House Memorial 112, creating the new interim Film, Art and Culture Committee. Continue Reading

The difficulties warriors face amid civilians

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I didn’t understand until my friend’s death how dramatically war changes people. That’s why it’s important for civilians to become aware of the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. By Scott Krahling My friend Kyle was a colleague at work and a neighbor, as well. For over a year, I considered him one of my closest friends, and the time I spent with him helped me realize many things. His death — by suicide — helped me realize many more. Continue Reading

The giveaway that keeps on taking

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By Sen. Steve FischmannOne of the proudest accomplishments in my first session as a state senator was helping build the coalition that defeated bonding for the $408 million SunCal Tax Increment Development District (TIDD) subsidy near Albuquerque. TIDD subsidies utilize future state and local tax revenues to pay off bonds used to finance real estate development projects.Tax Increment financing can be useful. Unfortunately, in cases like SunCal, TIDDs have been perverted into a tool that pours taxpayer money into the private projects of a few well-connected developers, and they require no public benefit in return. Developers have no real accountability to achieve the benefits they claim, and in practice have fallen woefully short all around the country.When I pay taxes I expect the money to go to public services like police, fire, parks, courts and education. State government goes way beyond its charter when it picks and chooses specific companies for giveaways to support speculative investments. Continue Reading

Film incentives are a serious public policy problem

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By Rep. Dennis Kintigh At one point during this past legislative session a flood of e-mails, phone calls and office visits deluged the state capitol, begging, pleading, and on rare occasions demanding that a particular piece of legislation be stopped. We were warned that, should this particular bill be allowed to become law, the effect would be catastrophic for New Mexico. I am not referring to a sweeping piece of social legislation such as domestic partner benefits, the Freedom of Choice Act or the death penalty repeal. Rather, the bill that produced this tsunami of reaction was a revenue bill — my revenue bill. House Bill 725 would have repealed the film production expense rebate. Continue Reading

New programs make solar a good investment

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By Bill McCamley and Mark Westbrock “To truly transform our economy, protect our security and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy.” – President Barack Obama Communities in the State of New Mexico receive more direct sunlight every year than almost anywhere else in the world. This resource gives homeowners a chance to provide power to their homes through solar energy, allowing them to save money over the long term and contribute to the nation’s renewable energy infrastructure. However, two major problems have hampered the spread of individual solar systems: high up-front costs and the inability of solar owners to link the value of solar equipment to the value of their home. Recent policy developments at the local, state and federal levels seek to remedy these issues. The first of these is a new program implemented by the N.M. Public Regulation Commission available to all PNM and El Paso Electric customers. Continue Reading

Changing how New Mexico does business

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By Sen. Michael Sanchez Our life experiences shape who we are and what we believe. As for myself, I was born and raised in the small farming community of Belen. My siblings Raymond, Regina, Gloria and I came from a tight-knit family and, like most kids at a young age, our parents, Gil and Priscilla, seemed larger than life. They worked hard as the owners of a bakery and restaurant and dedicated their lives to our family and our community. They taught us strong New Mexican values, instilling a deep sense of what was right and wrong, and never taught us to hate anyone. Continue Reading

A lesson from Rev. Harvey to the choir

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By Michael Ray Huerta “We must destroy the myths once and for all, shatter them. We must continue to speak out, and most importantly, every gay person must come out. As difficult as it is you must tell your immediate family, you must tell your relatives, you must tell your friends, if indeed they are your friends, you must tell your neighbors, you must tell the people you work with, you must tell the people in the stores you shop in, and once they realize that we are indeed their children, that we are indeed everywhere, every myth, every lie, every innuendo will be destroyed once and for all.” -Harvey Milk on June 25, 1978 Harvey Milk believed in a simple principle: the more of us they know, the more accepted we’ll become. Today, this is especially true in New Mexico. A short time ago, our elected officials voted against providing same sex couples with equal domestic partner rights and benefits. Continue Reading

An opportunity to change our schools

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By Rep. Larry Larrañaga The Legislature’s ongoing debate about whether the state should adopt a new public school funding formula, and increase taxes to pay for it, has failed to address the most important issue facing New Mexico’s educational system — how to improve accountability and educational results. While there is a fierce lobbying effort underway to enact a $350-million annual tax increase because proponents claim schools need more money, many policymakers and taxpayers are asking a key question that must be answered before any tax increase is approved. The question is, since state funding for education has already increased by 57 percent over the last eight years, have statewide student performance and graduation rates increased significantly? Unfortunately, the answer is no. In turn, I believe most New Mexicans recognize that in order to improve our state’s educational system, more money is not the solution. Continue Reading

Erasing criminal pasts is a bad idea

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By Michael Corwin Women could be shot dead in cold blood because some legislators think that giving convicted criminals the legal authority to lie about their criminal pasts and conceal the facts of their crimes from public scrutiny is more important than public safety. To prevent this from happening, New Mexico’s legislators should vote no on criminal record expungement bills sponsored Antonio “Moe” Maestas (House Bill 866) and Michael Sanchez (Senate Bill 649). Failing that, Gov. Bill Richardson should wield his mighty veto pen and end this misguided legislation. Domestic abuse and murder in NM The New Mexico Female Intimate Partner Violence Death Review Team was established in 1997 “to review female homicide deaths that resulted from intimate partner violence against women.” Each year, the team publishes its findings in a publication called “Getting Away with Murder.” The study clearly shows the dangers to women involved in relationships with domestic abusers. Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of New Mexico women murdered each year by an intimate partner died from gunshot wounds. Continue Reading

A golden opportunity for change

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By Tom Taylor and Keith GardnerOn behalf of the House Republican caucus New Mexico is in the middle of a fiscal crisis and, once again, the Democrat majority refuses to make the necessary changes to ensure we have enough money for the next year. The House Republican caucus voted “no” last week on House Bill 2, the budget bill, because it will not fix New Mexico’s fiscal problems. The Legislature had a choice — use a Band Aid and temporary money or set a new course of change for the way business is done. This budget is unfair to New Mexicans and depends too heavily on the federal stimulus money that has not yet arrived. The state is gambling on the future based on overly optimistic projections of oil and gas revenues. There was a $450 million budget shortfall this year because, last August, the Legislature predicted oil and gas revenues to bring in more money than they actually did, then continued to spend that extra money without restraint. Continue Reading

Keep charities at the table, not on it

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New Mexico is on the front lines of a critical battle to reform corruption in politics. We need nonprofits to help restore democracy and faith in government. By Larry Ottinger and Aaron Dorfman America’s serious economic crisis is hurting — and will continue to hurt — the children, families and communities that are served by its more than 1.5 million nonprofit organizations. Yet, at the very time our policy-makers most need the wisdom and involvement of nonprofits and ordinary Americans, there are some government and big business cronies who like the “old boys’ network” and want to shut the people out. Take a look at New Mexico today and you will find the front lines of a critical battle to reform the corruption in politics with which Americans are rightfully fed up. Continue Reading

Meyners + Co. is successful because we’re good

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By Georgie Ortiz and Janet Pacheco-Morton In the spirit of high journalistic standards and following recent coverage referencing Meyners + Company’s entry into the realm of state government auditing for large agencies (see this Feb. 4 New Mexico Independent article), we would like to convey some of what we see as the rest of the story. We feel particularly expert on the subject, since it is we who are in large part at the real heart of Meyners + Company’s government auditing success since joining Meyners in 2004. The New Mexico Office of the State Auditor is responsible for auditing all state and local government agencies. Because of limited resources, the state auditor often contracts out the auditing function to nearly 60 different independent public accountants (IPAs). Continue Reading

Creating a responsible budget

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By Tom TaylorOn behalf of the House Republican caucus New Mexico’s state government is experiencing its most difficult budget challenge in recent memory. While the economic slowdown is playing a role, New Mexicans should also be aware that current budget problems have been made worse by the 54-percent increase in government spending and the 27-percent increase (5,700) in new government employees that have occurred during the six years of the Richardson administration. With these increases in spending and personnel, every state resident should be asking why the quality and performance of state services have not improved by 54 percent. In other words, taxpayers should be wondering what these billions of dollars in additional state spending bought. We legislators must now face the problem of balancing revenues with expenditures. Continue Reading

Same-day registration is a step toward inclusion

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By State Rep. Joe Cervantes The history of voter registration in this country has been a history of exclusion. Since the founding of our nation, the battle to include every American in the electoral process has been hard fought. Originally only wealthy, white, male property owners were allowed to vote. Though our democracy is imperfect, Americans have struggled through the years to right it. The turn of the 20th century witnessed the adoption of the 19th Amendment, which allowed women the right to vote in 1920. Continue Reading