Regular Legislation Session in January

The weather will be cold and snowy in Santa Fe and the mood in the state house and senate will not be any warmer. We will be faced with closing the budget holes without harming Medicaid or Education in our state. Republicans and state senators like Jennings and Smith will want large cuts and even larger classroom sizes in order to prevent tax increases to the very richest New Mexicans.

These individuals have grown fat over the past few years on oil and gas revenues but now we are faced with a new harsher reality which means tighten our belts and their in order to balance our state budget. This will not be an easy task since they don’t see the need to tighten their own belts anytime in the near future.

Parents should be asking why salaries should not be capped at say $80,000 for state workers and educational administration after all if it is good enough for the state auditor and treasurer why not other state workers. I see some very good people in both the state auditor’s and state treasurer’s positions so how would it harm any other position in this state. If the governor wants to move any of the current exempt workers into permanent position then they should look at serious salaries cuts in order to achieve job security.

We must start pushing for increase taxes in liquor, tobacco, and sodas. We should look at luxury taxes on high end products while protecting small businesses which produce jobs and provide for the basics in our state’s economy. Green jobs should be encouraged in order to bring in more tax revenues that will not go away in the near future.

Diverse small business growth should be strongly encouraged while loop holes for large businesses should be closely look at in order to see if they are producing jobs and tax revenues within the state. We should look at large businesses and how their current salary structure is either helping or harming government programs to support low income individuals and find ways to push large businesses to shoulder their fair share of cost when it comes to their workers benefits. The state at this point in time cannot afford to be providing those benefits for workers of large businesses while they take their profits out of the state.

We should look at ways to bring in new revenues while reducing waste and inefficiencies in our current governmental systems. Education will also have to work at lessen cost to achieve quality education for our children. Administration must be cut in ways that will protect the system for our children. Meetings and travel should be restricted to items that improve the classroom and not just provides a free vacation for top administrators.