{"id":121810,"date":"2016-01-30T15:57:53","date_gmt":"2016-01-30T22:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=121810"},"modified":"2016-01-30T17:49:47","modified_gmt":"2016-01-31T00:49:47","slug":"proposed-amendment-to-give-lawmakers-a-salary-clears-house-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/01\/proposed-amendment-to-give-lawmakers-a-salary-clears-house-committee\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed amendment to give lawmakers a salary clears House committee"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_56542\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-56542\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-771x504.jpg\" alt=\"A statue outside the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.\" width=\"771\" height=\"504\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-771x504.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-336x220.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-768x502.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-1170x764.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rep. Terry McMillan is proposing that legislators be paid no more than $45,000 a year. That figure is about $4,000 more than the median household income in New Mexico last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>New Mexico is America&#8217;s last holdout, the only state that doesn&#8217;t pay its legislators a base salary.<\/p>\n<p>A proposed constitutional amendment to change that made it through its first legislative committee <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_1987711165\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Saturday<\/span><\/span>, advancing without a recommendation for approval.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.santafenewmexican.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a>. NMPolitics.net is paying for the rights to publish articles about the 2016 legislative session from the newspaper. Help us cover the cost by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2015\/10\/nmpolitics-net-cant-exist-without-your-financial-support\/\" target=\"_blank\">making a donation to NMPolitics.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>McMillan&#8217;s argument<\/h3>\n<p>Read Rep. Terry McMillan&#8217;s commentary in which he explains why he believes New Mexico should pay state legislators <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/01\/the-case-for-paying-new-mexicos-state-legislators\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Rep. Terry McMillan, R-Las Cruces, is sponsoring <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov\/lcs\/legislation.aspx?chamber=H&amp;legtype=JR&amp;legno=3&amp;year=16\" target=\"_blank\">the bill<\/a>. A surgeon, McMillan told members of the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee that New Mexico&#8217;s old-fashioned system of a nonsalaried Legislature ought to be scrapped.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When we pay someone, we expect a higher degree of reliability, productivity and professionalism,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Antonio &#8220;Moe&#8221; Maestas, D-Albuquerque, said he supports McMillan&#8217;s bill because it would increase the pool of talent for seats in the 42-member state Senate and 70-member House of Representatives.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We romanticize about the citizen Legislature, but in reality it&#8217;s not that because so few people can afford to serve,&#8221; said Maestas, an attorney.<\/p>\n<p>Retirees and school district employees who receive leave from their jobs are both heavily represented in the Legislature.<\/p>\n<p>McMillan is proposing that legislators be paid no more than the median household income in a New Mexico household. Last year, that was about $41,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.<\/p>\n<p>Paying legislators a base salary of $41,000 would cost about $4.6 million annually. McMillan, though, has structured his proposal so that a lower salary schedule could be established.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Legislators now receive $163 a day for expenses when they are in session or on official business. They also can receive a state pension calculated on the amount they receive for expenses and their years of service.<\/p>\n<p>McMillan&#8217;s bill survived its first committee, but it has long way to go to become law.<\/p>\n<p>His measure would have to receive support from a majority of those elected in the House and Senate. Then the proposal would be placed on the ballot in November for voters to make the final decision.<\/p>\n<p>Because this is an election year in which all 112 legislative seats will be filled, many lawmakers may be reluctant to support a salary for themselves for fear of alienating voters. In addition, New Mexico&#8217;s hopes of having more money to run state operations have diminished because of declining revenue from the oil industry that is critical to the state economy.<\/p>\n<p><em>Contact Milan Simonich at 986-3080 or <a href=\"mailto:msimonich@sfnewmexican.com\">msimonich@sfnewmexican.com<\/a>. Follow his Ringside Seat column at <a href=\"http:\/\/santafenewmexican.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\">santafenewmexican.com<\/a>. A prior version of this article misstated the actual amount of pay McMillan is proposing, and the article has been corrected.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Mexico is America&#8217;s last holdout, the only state that doesn&#8217;t pay its legislators a base salary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3250,107],"class_list":["post-121810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2016-legislative-session","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121810","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=121810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}