No budget pork for the Hard Working Poor

More News from the New Mexico State Central Committee Meeting

One of the other speakers for the meeting was The DNC Chairperson-at-Large and AFT-NM President Christine Trujillo. She gave a short history of how the Unions have developed in New Mexico. She also spoke about all of the hard work that educational employee’s union members have finished for New Mexico State Senators who then turned around and gave them a 2% raise when inflation is looking more like 4.5% this year. It just goes to show that no good deed ever goes unpunished when it comes to the working poor in this state.

These same Senators are being courted by well paid lobbyist funded by College and University Presidents who make over two hundred thousand dollar salaries a year. Somehow I don’t get the feeling that they care much about employees earning less than $25,000. People who have small worries like how to feed their children and put gas in their cars in order to get to work everyday.

My own College President sent out an email last week with this extra little bit of good news for employees earning under $25,000 a year.

“On another topic, the state legislative session ended last week and the General Appropriation Act was approved at all levels with a 2 percent salary increase for higher education faculty and staff.

The General Appropriation Act also assumes a 2 percent “tuition credit,” which expects higher education institutions to make up for reductions in state funding by increasing tuition by 2 percent. In an Albuquerque Journal story today, it was suggested that colleges and universities would likely raise tuition by an average of 7 percent to cover costs that the state won’t be funding during a tight budget year.

As we stay focused on student success, I remain committed to keeping our tuition rates low and access for students high. I will continue to focus our efforts on limiting a potential tuition increase to no more than the state’s 2 percent assumption.”

So tell me again how a 130 million dollar budget surplus is a tight budget year? The Colleges and Universities lobbyists managed to get support for statewide $140 million General Obligations Bond that will build more buildings at a time of decreasing enrollment but somehow they forgot to speak well of the people who work everyday in those bright shiny new buildings. Somehow I don’t get the feeling that the College and University President funded lobbyists will knock down the doors to speak to ex-state senators after next June. Public Servants should never forget the hard working poor that put them into office in the first place. Our frying pans are empty; no pork for the hard working poor, but those same empty frying pans will make good weapons. We may not be able to afford $100 plate dinners but we do have hands and feet to get out the vote to replace those State Sanators.