As a crowd rallied to oppose the latest attempt to repeal the state's immigrant driver's license law this morning, Republican House members unveiled an ideological plan for the next 100 years in New Mexico.
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Dubbed the "Republican Centennial Plan for New Mexico," the blueprint calls for less government, better education and an end to government corruption and waste.
"We are being regulated to death," Hose Minority Leader Tom Taylor, R-San Juan, said at the press conference. "This plan is a new plan for the century. We've spent the past 100 years without balance in New Mexico."
Among the challenges for the next 100 years, Taylor says, is making the state legislature is more accessible to the public. Another is changing "the very foundation" of public education.
"If it was up to me, I'd undo 90 percent of the regulations in education," Taylor says.
To curb waste, Taylor expressed interest in a House Republican Caucus-funded private audit of several state agencies.
When pressed for specific bills this session, he pointed to Gov. Susana Martinez' bill to end "social promotion," which would hold back third graders who don't meet proper reading levels.
Taylor adds that Republicans would soon be working to strengthen penalties for public officials involved in corruption.
"I think if anyone breaks those rules, they ought to lose their pensions," he says. "We ought to banish them from state government."
But he has no plans to introduce anti-corruption measures this year. Only Martinez has the authority to allow bills unrelated to the state budget to be heard this session.
The Republicans' announcement came one day after Senate Democrats unveiled a "jobs" plan.
