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Building a new house of cards

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Because of a rule change, banks can now overvalue assets and falsely inflate earnings reports, all to increase lending and fool us into thinking the economy is getting better so we’ll spend, spend, spend In a stunningly foolish act, a nonprofit board that has authority over public companies’ accounting standards on Friday quietly got rid of a rule that requires banks to value their assets at what they’re currently worth. Instead, banks can now boost their books by valuing their assets at what they estimate they will be worth when the economy gets better. Seriously. The Associated Press describes it this way: “The changes, which apply to the second quarter that began this month, will allow the assets to be valued at what the banks project they might sell for in the future, rather than in the current, distressed environment.” The relaxing of the rule came from the Financial Accounting Standards Board, which is granted the authority over accounting standards by the Securities and Exchange Commission. All I want to know is, can I get some special treatment too? Continue Reading

Santa Fe lawyer is new state elections director

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The state has a new director of elections. The hiring of A.J. Salazar was announced today by Secretary of State Mary Herrera in a news release. He will begin in job on April 20 and will be paid $95,000 a year. “I look forward to having A.J. Salazar join our team here at the Secretary of State’s Office,” Herrera said in the release. “He has a reputation of being meticulous, thorough and attentive. Continue Reading

Guv OKs online database of state contracts

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Gov. Bill Richardson signed a bill today that will require the state to create an online, searchable database of all state government contracts over $20,000. Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, who pushed for the approval of House Bill 546, sponsored by Al Park, D-Albuquerque, hailed the database as a way to increase transparency in state government. “New Mexicans deserve to know who is doing business with their government. This law will enable all citizens to track state government contracts, follow the flow of public money and understand how it is being used,” Denish said in a new release. “Ethics reform in government starts with transparency, and I’m proud to have worked hard on this effort which guarantees more sunshine on the business of government.” While most bills approved in the session that just ended take effect in June or July, lawmakers decided for some reason that this bill shouldn’t take effect until Jan. Continue Reading

GRIPgate probe widens with SEC involvement

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The federal investigation into GRIPgate, the controversy surrounding the $1.6 billion transportation project, has been expanded as staffers from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have been brought into the probe, the Albuquerque Journal is reporting. SEC involvement, according to the Journal, “would indicate investigators have widened their scope to include possible securities fraud as well as the widely reported pay-to-play allegations.” Basically, what CDR Financial Products did for the state and how much it was paid is now of interest to investigators. That’s in addition to the pay-to-play allegations — that the administration of Gov. Bill Richardson traded a lucrative state bond contract for $110,000 in contributions to Richardson’s political committees and his 2006 gubernatorial campaign. The SEC team includes Denver enforcement division attorney Allison Lee, who, the Journal article states, “was part of the SEC enforcement team that successfully brought civil charges against former Richardson insider and state Game Commission Chairman Guy Riordan. From the Journal: “Riordan was barred from the securities industry and ordered to repay the state $2.2 million for paying bribes to former state Treasurer Michael Montoya to get state investment business. Continue Reading

New PAC aims to repeal death-penalty repeal

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Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White has formed a political action committee aimed at repealing the death-penalty repeal recently signed into law by Gov. Bill Richardson, and the PAC’s first TV ad is running statewide beginning Monday. Here’s the ad: The aim of Repeal the Repeal PAC, White wrote in a note on the group’s Web site, is “reinstating the death penalty in New Mexico for the most heinous crimes.” To accomplish that, it plans to: • “aggressively combat the misinformation campaign waged by the radical opponents of the death penalty and educate the public on the issue and the circumstances surrounding its repeal.” • “begin a petition drive in order to give voters the opportunity to ‘repeal the repeal’ of the death penalty at the ballot box, pursuant to the New Mexico Constitution.” • “urge voters to support candidates for the legislature and state office who will vote to reinstate the death penalty in New Mexico.” Continue Reading

Police seize Sunland Park city records

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Sunland Park has had so much scandal and controversy over the years that this might not surprise anyone, but New Mexico State Police seized documents from the city’s government on Friday as part of a criminal probe, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News. Officers were at the city offices on Friday. A complaint, according to State Police Spokesman Peter Olson, was “made by the city council.” According to the Sun-News, quoting a source in city government, payroll, finance and purchasing documents were taken, as were records from the clerk’s office. The city’s mayor, Martin Resendiz, could not be reached by the Sun-News for comment. No other details were available. Continue Reading

Most voters in poll wanted open-meetings bill signed

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The vast majority of those who voted in last week’s non-scientific poll on this site said Gov. Bill Richardson should sign a bill that would open conference committees and many other legislative meetings to the public. He did just that earlier today. Of 203 voters in the poll, 184, or 91 percent, said the governor should sign the bill, while 19, or 9 percent, said he should not. Don’t forget to vote in this week’s poll, located at the top of the right column on this page. Continue Reading

Guv signs open conference committee bill

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This article has been updated.Despite what he calls its “flaws,” Gov. Bill Richardson signed today a bill that will open conference committees and other legislative meetings to the public. “I have always maintained that this is a decision that should be made by the Legislature, without involvement by the executive branch,” Richardson said in a news release. “Nevertheless, the Legislature chose this path and I have signed the bill out of respect for its desire to further open the committee process to the public.” Richardson has said for years that he supported opening conference committees — meetings formed by legislative leaders to reconcile differences between versions of bills passed by the House and Senate. He pledged late in the session to sign House Bill 393, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, if the Legislature passed it, but after the bill was approved, he backpedaled on the pledge, saying “loopholes” in the bill concerned him. The loophole is that the bill allows the Legislature, by a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers, to override the law and re-close the meetings. Continue Reading

Guv signs e-mail records request bill

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The governor signed into law today a bill that requires government agencies in New Mexico to accept requests for public records via e-mail and fax. House Bill 598, sponsored by Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, will take effect in mid-June. Cervantes’ bill came in response to New Mexico State University’s assertion in 2007 that records requests I filed weren’t valid because they were sent via e-mail. The attorney general considered the issue and said that, though his office and the vast majority of state agencies treat e-mail requests as valid, state law doesn’t explicitly require that they be treated as valid. Currently, the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act requires response to “oral” and “written” requests for public records, but there’s no clear definition of what constitutes writing. Continue Reading

Beware the fury of enraged citizens

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© 2009 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. It is hard for our local, state and national leaders to understand the fury of enraged citizens. A local politician was startled when I said, “Go against the wishes of the people at your own political risk.” We were discussing the introduction of “red-light cameras” to our city. I predicted that if they were adopted in this faltering economy, no one voting for these cameras would ever be re-elected. The cameras were adopted and are now in use. I hope each councilor and the mayor enjoy their remaining days in office, since they will all be defeated because they ignored what their citizens feel is proper. Continue Reading

Momentum for reform was ‘too great’ to resist

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Though there’s more to do, lawmakers who pushed ethics and transparency measures this year say the successes were significant Campaign contribution limits. Webcasting. Open conference committees. Additional campaign reporting. By any measure, the legislative session that just ended was the most successful in recent memory for ethics-reform advocates who have been pushing for years to fundamentally change the way state government does business. Continue Reading

Guv pressured anew to sign open-meetings bill

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Gov. Bill Richardson might not have been feeling much public pressure yesterday to sign a bill that would open conference committees and other legislative meetings to the public, but he’s certainly feeling it today. Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said on Wednesday that, other than media pressure, his office had seen “very little public interest” in House Bill 393, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces. Since news reports about that circulated, the number of calls and e-mails to Richardson’s office has increased, Gallegos confirmed today. One of those e-mails was from Violet and Ronald Cauthon of Las Cruces. “You are under the impression that only media figures want open government,” they wrote in their letter, which they provided to me. Continue Reading

Guv signs contribution-limits, reporting bills

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As expected, Gov. Bill Richardson signed bills today that will enact campaign contribution limits and require more frequent filing of campaign finance reports. The contribution-limit bill is Senate Bill 116, sponsored by Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque. It will limit contributions to non-statewide candidates for office — including legislative candidates — to $2,300 per election from any entity except a political committee, which could give a maximum of $5,000 to non-statewide candidates. It will limit contributions to statewide candidates for office, political action committees and political parties to $5,000 per election from individuals and groups. There are two elections — a primary and a general — in each election cycle. Continue Reading

Guv might put Cruces reps. in tough spot on TIDDs

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Gov. Bill Richardson is considering serving up a TIDD combo plate to lawmakers in a special session later this year, and that could put some House members from Las Cruces in a tough spot. Two very different proposals to use the controversial tax increment development district financing to fund projects died in the legislative session that just ended. One would have provided up to $7.25 million to fund redevelopment of Las Cruces’ downtown by committing a percentage of gross receipts tax revenue collected in the area to repay bonds. It’s a project that’s a local-government effort. The second, a proposal to provide $408 million for the massive SunCal development on Albuquerque’s west side, is a developer-driven project to build an entirely new development. Continue Reading

Marking this site’s third anniversary

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A couple of weeks ago, March 20 passed with me failing to recognize that it was the third anniversary of this site. Let me remedy that now. Heath Haussamen on New Mexico Politics — which I more commonly refer to these days as nmpolitics.net — has stayed strong through three years that have been among the most tumultuous in the history of the news business. I’m proud of that, but also remain humbled at the support the site has received ever since my wife and I decided to go with this crazy dream to quit newspapers and head down this road more than three years ago. What turbulent times these have been. Continue Reading