New Mexico Legislature 2019

Ok, here we go again. I always meet this day with both hope and fear. Hope that good bills will be passed that help the voting public of this state and fear that educational administration and their high paid lobbyists will find a way to screw the people who work with students. 

Most years both happen. Early childhood education will get much needed funding. New plans will be put into place to build back the cuts that have occurred to education over the past eight years. If the Legislature authorizes a lump sum for pay increases that will go to education you know already that most of that money will end up in the pay checks of educational administration. The college I work for has already lowered the minimum wage for starting employees, hired student employees to replace part-time employees and capped the pay of long time employees. All this just so they can ask for an across the board salary increase. I would hope that the legislature would install a claw back provision with the pay raise. Each employee working in education gets the percentage raise as a reoccurring raise. Any money not award for each individual either now or in the future would go back to the state. No one employee can receive a higher percentage raise using state money.  

We now have the ability to start funding green energy growth in this state that can earn revenues for the state and protect our environment. I don’t expect the minimum wage to increase over twelve dollars an hour for starting pay but I hope with training that the voting public will have the opportunity to enter new fields in the green energy industry that will offer higher wages over time. 

 We should find a way to put some of those profits from the green energy industry into the permanent fund.  

Let’s look at building new technology in the communication field as well. This state needs to be connected to the internet so that businesses all over the state can sell goods without moving to a large city. Reliable internet would help in educating students across the state both at the K-12 level and the higher education level. Giving students access to the right tools will help them to find the jobs of the future.

Once we have increased the educational level of our citizens then we can look at requiring that people who work with taxpayer’s dollars be trained so as to prevent the misuse of taxpayers’ dollars.

As far as crime is concerned we need to fund treatment and housing. I don’t mean booth camp for criminals either. For profit prisons are not the answer to rehab. Mental health treatment and substance abuse treatment will go a long way in reducing crime in this state. This also includes the legalization of marijuana. Hemp has already been taken off the federal list of schedule one drugs. It is now being sold in local malls. This product has many benefits for people that will reduce the abuse of level one drugs. It will also help people suffering from ongoing pain.

So with a mixture of hope and fear the legislature will open today at noon.