{"id":10111,"date":"2009-12-10T06:00:38","date_gmt":"2009-12-10T13:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=10111"},"modified":"2009-12-10T15:07:48","modified_gmt":"2009-12-10T22:07:48","slug":"ag-can%e2%80%99t-fully-account-for-costs-of-nonprofit-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/12\/ag-can%e2%80%99t-fully-account-for-costs-of-nonprofit-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"AG can\u2019t fully account for cost of nonprofit lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Attorney

Attorney General Gary King (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Attorney General Gary King\u2019s<\/a> office can\u2019t say how much taxpayer money has been spent on litigation with two nonprofits even as King appeals a judge\u2019s ruling against his attempt to force the nonprofits to register as political action committees.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because attorneys who work in the AG\u2019s office are on staff and don\u2019t record billable hours, so there\u2019s no accounting of how much time and, therefore, taxpayer money they\u2019ve spent on the case.<\/p>\n

The time lawyers spend working on the case \u201cdoes not apply as our attorneys do not track their time and are not paid by case or billable hours,\u201d Lyn Payne, the office\u2019s records custodian, wrote in an e-mail. That came in response to a records request asking for an account of all costs the AG\u2019s office has incurred in the course of the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

But clearly taxpayer money goes to the salaries of the office\u2019s employees who are working on the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Payne could identify two tangible costs \u2013 the $455 filing fee paid to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver to appeal State District Judge Judith Herrera\u2019s recent ruling<\/a> against the AG\u2019s office, and the $72,000 Herrera has ordered the state to pay<\/a> the Center for Civic Policy<\/a> (CCP) and SouthWest Organizing Project<\/a> (SWOP) to reimburse the organizations for the attorney fees and other costs they have incurred in the course of trying to stop the AG and secretary of state from forcing them to register as PACs.<\/p>\n

\u201cTens of thousands of dollars were wasted (on the litigation with the AG), while at the same time a deficit prompted talk of cutting education and health care for the most vulnerable New Mexicans. That\u2019s a shame,\u201d said Matt Brix, CCP\u2019s chief operating officer. \u201cTo make matters worse,\u00a0the final price tag for New Mexico taxpayers may never be known because Attorney General King\u2019s office cannot account for how much staff time they poured into this frivolous pursuit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The history<\/h3>\n

The nonprofits have contended from the start of their battle with King and Secretary of State Mary Herrera<\/a> that the attempt to force them to register as PACs was unconstitutional. In early August, Judge Herrera issued a\u00a030-page decision<\/a> stating that mailers\u00a0like this one<\/a> sent out by SWOP and New Mexico Youth Organized (NMYO) \u2014 which is a project of CCP \u2013 two to three months before last year\u2019s June primary don\u2019t meet the narrow definition in federal law of political activity and thus can\u2019t be regulated as such.<\/p>\n

King has said the mailers cross the line between issue advocacy and political campaigning as defined by the state\u2019s\u00a0Campaign Reporting Act<\/a>, alleging that they were designed to help progressive legislative candidates win elections.<\/p>\n

In addition to contending that the mailers were about an upcoming special session of the Legislature, not an election, the nonprofits have said all along that federal law trumps state law.<\/p>\n

The nonprofits assert \u2013 and Judge Herrera agrees \u2013 that the attempt to force them to register as PACs violates their First Amendment right to free speech. PACs have to publicly disclose information about donations, while nonprofits do not.<\/p>\n

King has said the case has nothing to do with the First Amendment, because his office is \u201cnot trying to control the content of political ads.\u201d He says it\u2019s about \u201cvoters having the right to know who is paying for political advertising.\u201d<\/p>\n

Appeal already filed<\/h3>\n

King\u2019s office has already filed its appeal with the 10th Circuit Court in Denver, spokesman Phil Sisneros said. He doesn\u2019t expect a decision from the court until sometime next year.<\/p>\n

The AG\u2019s office plans to pay the $72,000 that Judge Herrera ordered, Sisneros said, knowing that if the AG prevails in the lawsuit that money will be paid back.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur issue in this case is on the merits, and if we win, the attorneys\u2019 fees will come back to the state,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In a recent news release that came after Judge Herrera ordered the state to pay the nonprofits\u2019 litigation costs, the nonprofits complained that the AG is appealing the case \u201cdespite the\u00a0decisive victory\u00a0in\u00a0district court\u00a0and despite the clearly settled law in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is upsetting that state money is being spent on frivolous pursuits like this when a deficit is prompting discussion of cutting education and health care for children,\u201d SWOP communications director George Lujan said in the news release.<\/p>\n

By way of disclosure, I also write for the <\/em>New Mexico Independent<\/em><\/a>, which is owned by the <\/em>Center for Independent Media<\/em><\/a> in Washington. When the group was starting up its New Mexico news site last year, CCP helped it locate funding sources. In addition, one of my colleagues at NMI, Marjorie Childress, works for SWOP. Neither organization has tried to use those facts to influence anything I have written.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attorney General Gary King\u2019s office can\u2019t say how much taxpayer money has been spent on litigation with two nonprofits even as King appeals a judge\u2019s ruling against his attempt to force the nonprofits to register as political action committees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[113,107],"class_list":["post-10111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-nonprofits","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}