Pay State Legislators $25,000 a year

Steven Robert Allen, executive director of Common Cause, a government watchdog group said “We’d be talking about a barely livable wage.” He was speaking about $25,000 a year for Legislative Compensation. Try explaining that to the state Legislators who at present insist on paying instructional support staff at CNM and Educational Assistances all over the state in K-12 under $25,000 a year. Where is the government watchdog group when it comes to that issue? I and I hope no other individual in this state would be willing to give them one red dime more in compensation until they find a way to support our educational system in this state. With our state facing a budget shortfall that will be cutting into funding for educational quality in this state why should we even be thinking about paying legislators more in income?

I understand that at present you have to be retired or run your own company just to be able to afford becoming a legislator but with a state as poor as New Mexico we cannot begin to afford to pay for government officials. This limits who can run for office and what issues they are willing to support but that is why we do provide some limited compensation for working individuals. I think that we should put forth a bill that required businesses to give employees time off without pay from their regular position if they were elected to one of these positions. This would be the same as requiring businesses to give people time off to serve as a juror in a court case or to do military serve. I think that the voting public would be able to support such a bill after all it is a form of public serve just like military serve. As for the cost of living in Santa Fe, with the railrunner starting on December 16 of this year most legislators can now stay in Albuquerque and communte to Santa Fe which will make it a lot cheaper.