
New Mexico's legislators have a very full social calendar, with dozens of receptions over the course of the session by different interest groups—from the New Mexico Wine Growers Association (Jan. 21) to the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops (Jan. 29).
At noon EST, on Jan. 20, 2009, Barack Obama will swear the oath of office on the Lincoln Bible and deliver his inaugural speech to millions of crying, cheering and chanting spectators on the Capitol Mall.
Two hours later, at noon MST, the New Mexico Legislature will be sworn in before hundreds of family members, friends and distinguished guests. One can only hope the televised version of Obama’s speech fills them with the same spirit of unity as the live version because, as soon as the festivities are over, out comes the weaponry.
The 70 representatives and 42 senators will need to cut, chop and gouge almost half a billion dollars immediately from this year’s spending. Furthermore, they will do it under the watchful eye of Gov. Bill Richardson, whose decision to bow out of a cabinet appointment may thwart the best-laid plans of legislators and lobbyists.
In a word, UNM Professor of Political Science Christine Sierra says, the session has suddenly become “contentious.”
But for progressives, there is some reason to feel optimistic. The Republican leadership suffered major down-ballot casualties in the 2008 election season, while Democrats picked up three seats each in the state House and Senate. While new spending is unlikely, watchers do believe the new makeup could mean back-burning progressive initiatives such as increasing corporate taxes, allowing domestic partnerships, repealing the death penalty, beating back Big Oil and reforming ethics may finally come to fruition.
Here’s the lowdown on the issues at stake, the politics driving them and the opportunities the ’09 session could provide.
BUDGET: TAX & SPEND
The issues: How did we get half a billion dollars in the hole?
The answer, according to David Abbey, director of the Legislative Finance Committee: “the double whammy of oil and gas falling and the broad economic weakness.”
Last summer, natural gas prices spiked, gasoline prices topped $4 per gallon, and T Boone Pickens predicted oil would hit $200 per barrel. While American drivers emptied their wallets into their gas tanks, taxes on oil and gas were flowing steadily into the state’s coffers.
And the governor and the Legislature began spending it, basing the budget on the assumption that the prices would hold.
They did not. They plummeted back to today’s buck-something levels. Good for the driver, bad for the state. If the Legislature doesn’t come up with a “deficit reduction” plan, core services could be on their knees by next summer.
Then, once 2009’s hole is patched, the Legislature gets to start crafting next year’s budget.
The politics: “Everything’s on the table,” Rep. Lucky Varela, D-Santa Fe, vice chairman of the LFC, says. “We can’t cut some at the expense of others. Everyone has to give a little.”
The first to go will be pork projects that haven’t been started yet, including chunks of the governor’s transportation master plan. It’s likely, Varela says, that employment vacancies will remain empty as legislators search for unspent fat in every agency’s operating budget. They may even raid the reserves.
“Any time you have a situation of economic scarcity, as opposed to surplus, that’s just going to engender more contentious politics,” Professor Sierra explains. “So, with Bill Richardson coming back, with no money to really push an aggressive agenda forward, both he and the Legislature are faced with budget decisions that are going to be distasteful or painful.”
Plus, when it comes to conserving resources, the Legislature is seriously out of practice. According to Abbey, the state has grown its budget 6 to 10 percent each year for the last decade.
“Cutting 5 percent after growing 6 percent…that’s a wrenching challenge for the governor and the Legislature,” Abbey says.
Challenge, shmallenge—Sen.-elect Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, says it’s an opportunity. When everything is on the table, that also includes unpopular, controversial and powerfully opposed bills. In Wirth’s case, it’s a tax bill that would eliminate a loophole allowing multi-state corporations to pay lower rates than New Mexico-based companies. As in the past (he has introduced it four times in the House), it’s not going to be popular with fiscal conservatives and out-of-state business interests.
However, this year, the Legislature’s desperation may drown out the arguments from corporate lobbyists.
“Quite frankly, you’ve got to look at a situation like this as an opportunity to address certain things with respect to revenues that you might not be able to do in a different environment,” Wirth says. “These are the kind of things that are out there that we should seriously consider. The corporate-tax bill would generate potently $90 million. That number may be less because corporate taxes are down, but that’s an example of being creative.”
The opportunities: If you’ve got the stamina for marathon panels on complex budget maneuvering, you could attend all three days of the Legislative Finance Committee’s pre-session meeting, Jan. 14-16. However, the discussion over specific budget cuts will take place between 8:30 am and lunchtime on Jan. 15 in Room 322 of the Capitol. The LFC’s budget recommendations can be viewed online.
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ENERGY: KILLING DRILLING
The issues: In 2008, environmental and NIMBY anti-drilling activists in north-central New Mexico scored major victories against oil, in many cases fully impeding even exploration. County governments in Santa Fe, Rio Arriba and Mora counties passed moratoria on new oil wells. Meanwhile, the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Departments’ Oil Conservation Division passed some of the strictest (and most costly) regulations in the country for drilling-operation waste pits.
In the 2009 session, it’s the oil industry’s turn to push back. The New Mexico Oil & Gas Accountability Project is telling activists to prepare to play defense. Deregulation is almost certainly on the agenda.
The politics: Already, Sen. Carroll H Leavell, R-Eddy, has introduced SB 17, a bill that would negate all local government authority over drilling operations and make it the sole responsibility of the state’s Oil Conservation Division. That would mean that what’s good for oil-friendly Farmington would also hold for oil-hypersensitive Santa Fe. Combine that with a budget measure similar to last session’s, when oil interests attempted to gut the Oil Conservation Division’s budget, and suddenly there’s no real oversight.
“The idea that we have somehow over-regulated natural resources, oil and gas in particular, and we need to pull back from that regulation—I think that’s the wrong approach,” Wirth, who served on the House Energy & Natural Resources Committee, says. “I think what we’ve seen on Wall Street is an example of what happens when you don’t have balanced regulation and oversight.”
But the Democrats don’t have a united front on this issue. Although Rep. Jim Trujillo, D-Santa Fe, opposes drilling in the Galisteo Basin, as vice chairman of the House Energy & Natural Resources Committee, he wants to consider rewriting the pit rule in order to spur oil production.
“I kinda agree that it should be a legislative issue,” Trujillo says. “Because it’s so expensive to implement, we’re hindering the production of more oil. I don’t want to contaminate water, but I want to see data. I want to see the hard proof.”
More drilling means more revenue for the state budget, so only time will tell whether that will trump environmental interests with the new Democratic makeup.
The opportunities: “We’re at a bit of a disadvantage, whereas the oil and gas industry lobbyists…there are several of them, and they’re able to be there each and every single day,” Earthworks Oil & Gas Accountability Project Executive Director Gwen Lachelt says. “We’re at this point trying to boost our capacity so we can have that kind of presence.”
In late 2007, local anti-drilling activists developed an online alert network in order to round up crowds to attend public meetings on the Galisteo Basin. A year and a quarter later, DrillingSantaFe.com is still the best way to keep up-to-date on public hearings. You can also join their Listserv by shooting an e-mail.
Other important clearing houses of information are the Oil & Gas Accountability Project’s Web site and Common Ground United’s legislative and call-to-action pages.
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HUMAN RIGHTS: THE TWO DPs
The issues: In December 1948, the United Nations passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Sixty years later, the concept has grown to include issues such as capital punishment and gay rights, which are covered only implicitly—that is, by interpretation—in the official document.
This session, both a repeal of the death penalty and implementation of domestic-partnership legislation are expected to have strong showings because of the Legislature’s progressive tilt. The bills have had similar journeys, introduced year after year, only to die in the Senate. This time they will run concurrently, moving through both the Senate and House’s Public Affairs and Judiciary committees.
The capital-punishment abolition bill would replace the death sentence with life without possibility of parole.
Domestic-partnership advocates are highlighting the elements in the bill that transcend sexual orientation: Heterosexual individuals who don’t want to get married but want to share benefits, inheritance rights and next-of-kin hospital visitation would also have domestic-partnership options.
The politics: This time, the death-penalty repeal’s sponsor, Rep. Gail Chasey, D-Bernalillo, says she has the votes in the Senate. The question is whether Richardson will block it.
“Our problem in the past getting it to the Senate floor has really been that the governor preferred not to have to deal with this issue…I think his political concerns were paramount,” Chasey says. The New Mexico District Attorney’s Association plans to oppose the measure, but Chasey and the New Mexico Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty say they may have worn Richardson down. Plus, there’s a budget angle: Death penalty cases cost prosecutors and public defenders millions to take to trial each year.
“Obviously, [Richardson’s return] changes our strategy a little bit, but not as much as people might think,” Coalition Coordinator Viki Elkey says. “We still think there’s a chance that Richardson could support this issue. We’ve got more votes in the House and Senate than we’ve ever had. We really feel like 2009 is the year.”
Equality New Mexico lobbyist Linda Siegle also is counting on more votes in favor of domestic partnerships than in years past. Rep. Mimi Stewart, D-Bernalillo, is sponsoring HB 21 in the House, and Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Bernalillo, is sponsoring SB 12 in the Senate.
“The public is not ready for same-sex marriage and we think it’s very important to get benefits for people right now,” Siegle says. “We can probably pass a domestic-partner bill this session. We have absolutely no chance of passing a same-sex marriage bill.”
Both Richardson and Lt. Gov. Diane Denish have been strong advocates of the measure, so the immediate roadblock could be the current Senate.
“I’m optimistic, but I wouldn’t say confident,” Siegle says. “There are many factors that could waylay this, including who the Senate leadership is.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Jennings, D-Chavez, is against domestic partnerships. But the conservative Democrat, who took fire for recording robocalls for a Roswell Republican, is being challenged by the Democratic caucus’ nominee, Sen. Carlos Cisneros, D-Los Alamos, who supports it.
“You never know until the vote actually happens, but it looks like we probably have the votes in the Senate,” Siegle says.
The opportunities: Mark your calendar.
Feb. 9: Anti-death penalty activists, speakers and performers will rally from 12-4 pm in the Capitol Rotunda. Sign up in advance at nmrepeal.org for a free T-shirt.
Feb. 16: Equality New Mexico hosts its lobby day at the Capitol. The organization also encourages citizens to share their stories, sign up to volunteer or donate at its Web site.
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ETHICS
The issue: In the spring of 2007, nearly two years ago, Richardson gave the Legislature a heads-up that he was going to call them back into special session to tackle ethics reform. For various reasons, the session was pushed to the back burner.
So, perhaps there is a silver lining to the pay-to-play scandal hanging around Richardson’s neck: The recommendations put forth by his Task Force on Election Reform might finally be seriously considered.
These include limits on campaign contributions, the creation of an independent commission and public campaign financing. The problem is, some of these ideas take money.
The politics: “One would presume that given Richardson’s disappointment rising out of the wheeling and dealing that lacks transparency and accountability, he would see that it would be in everybody’s benefit that we inject mechanisms of transparency and accountability into the electoral process,” Professor Sierra says. “I just don’t know that he’s going to go there.”
But you can count on the attorney general and certain members of the Legislature going there.
“Getting campaign-contribution limits finally passed has been [at the] top of the list for some time,” Common Cause Executive Director Steve Allen says. “It’s even more obvious now that the state needs this. There’s only a handful of states—Illinois being another one—that don’t have some kind of campaign contribution limits.”
Attorney General Gary King’s office is drafting up that legislation, as well as a bill to create an independent ethics oversight committee. Simultaneously, freshman Rep.-elect Eric Griego, D-Bernalillio, will spearhead a public campaign-finance initiative similar to the one he got passed in Albuquerque as a city councilor.
“When I did it at the city of Albuquerque, I couldn’t get anybody, including some of the advocates, to support it,” Griego says. “In the end, I got a watered-down version on the ballot and the voters passed it overwhelmingly. This time, I have to say there has been similar reluctance on the part of advocacy groups and certain members of the Legislature.”
The problem may be that it would require new spending in an already hurting budget. A hybrid system that allows candidates to collect small donations to augment public funds could be a successful compromise. Griego is also eyeing corporate-tax loopholes (watch out, Wirth).
“I don’t think we can do it for free,” Griego says. “I’m going to introduce, and I don’t care if it’s dead on arrival.”
Griego also has a bill to bar legislators from becoming lobbyists within a year of leaving office.
The Office of the Secretary of State also is asking for a few tweaks related to ethics law. For one, the office found itself struggling with vague language in the Voter Action Act, the public funding law for Public Regulation Commission races, when trying to fine Democratic candidate Jerome Block Jr. for misusing and misreporting campaign funds. The SOS also wants the Legislature to reapprove $176,500 granted the previous session to build a new online campaign-finance database.
Even with a tight budget, Deputy Chairman of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee Varela says he can imagine setting aside money for ethics reform.
“Given the recent events with the pay-to-play, this may be a major issue,” Varela says. “Now that we’re under investigation in New Mexico, I think this will highlight campaign reform. I don’t think it’s something that will be on the back burner.”
At least not for the governor, who released a press release reiterating his support for passing comprehensive ethics reform this session.
The opportunities: Good government organization Center for Civic Policy has been keeping an eye on ethics reform and its sister organization, Center for Civic Action, maintains a blog at clearlynewmexico.com.
Common Cause New Mexico will also be lobbying for ethics reform at the Capitol. Their Web site provides form letters and reports. (They’re also raising money for public campaign-finance lobbying thanks to a $25,000 matching-fund program.)
You can also serve as a government watchdog yourself, using SFR’s campaign-finance links.
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